#the translation is probably not 100 % accurate but i tried my best

[cyanidecravings]

the return of gong jihoon & kang eden

[cirilla-fiona-riannon]

Secret in your Heart

These translations are not intended as a replacement for the game. Please support Cybird by buying their stories.

Expect grammatical errors. Not 100% accurate. Not proofread.

I was in the infirmary, tending to a minor injury, when I heard footsteps coming down the stairs.

Jude: "*coughs* Tch. Hurry."

Roger: "You talk like you're ordering a beer at a pub. Being short-tempered won't do you any good, you know?"

Roger: "Hm? Hey, what's the matter, little lady? Are you hurt?"

Kate: "Yes. Sorry, I borrowed some of your ointment."

Roger took out a syringe and a drug, swiftly injecting it into Jude's arm.

Kate: "W-What's that for?"

I couldn't help but ask, noticing the oddity in the flow of events.

Jude: "An unapproved, dangerous drug that hasn't even been clinically tested."

Kate: ".........."

Roger: "That suspicious look of yours is nice. You're lucky to have someone worry about you, Jude."

Roger: "I've tried everything, and this is the one that worked best for his symptoms."

Kate: "What's wrong with him?"

Jude was so unresponsive that I thought he couldn't hear me.

Roger: "He's almost cured now, but he used to have weak lungs."

Jude: "Hey, you're blabbering patient information carelessly, you quack."

Jude: "Ah, damn it. I still feel dizzy. You probably got the dosage wrong."

Roger: "Even if I make a mistake, I still don't know what the right dosage is because I'm still collecting data."

Kate: "Wouldn't it be fatal to Jude if you injected a lethal dose?"

Roger: "Hahaha! Maybe."

(Maybe, you say?)

I couldn't help but be stunned at the sight of Jude, who looked so unconcerned.

A few days after that exchange, I found Jude smoking in the lounge.

(I think Roger mentioned something about him having respiratory problems.)

Kate: "Should you be smoking?"

Jude: ".........."

He briefly took his gaze from the complicated book he was reading, then completely ignored me.

(Worrying about him seems like a waste of time.)

Kate: "I heard it could be beneficial as a medicine in the past, but now I hear that it can actually be harmful."

Kate: "Maybe you should quit since Roger is taking the trouble to treat you."

Jude: "It's not a treatment but rather an experiment."

(I guess that's true.)

He was reading a book while puffing on a cloud of smoke.

Jude loved money and other people's misfortune and always had sarcastic remarks whenever he opened his mouth.

But for some reason, his usual arrogance was nowhere to be found, and he looked tired, which worried me a little.

Jude: "What's with all the gawking?"

I still felt like his words lacked energy, and he looked out of sorts.

Kate: "Are you that busy with work?"

Victor told me that he was running a trading company and was also dabbling in the financial business.

I also heard that he and Ellis occasionally go out to collect debts in person.

(He also has responsibilities in the Crown, so it's not surprising if he's exhausted.)

Jude: "It's none of yer business."

Kate: "Are you not getting enough sleep?"

Jude: "That's none of yer business, either."

His voice seemed to be slightly hoarse.

Kate: "I still think you should quit smoking."

Jude: "..........."

He pushed his cigarette into the ashtray and lifted my chin.

Jude: "If you're willing to kiss me, then why not?"

Kate: "Ha!?"

I stared at him up close, and he quickly let go as if he had grown tired of playing with a toy.

Jude: "Of course, it's a joke. Why are ya taking it so seriously?"

(And to think that I'm worried about you!)

Jude: "I can't die because of some shitty promise. And I can't do it without smoking cigarettes."

Kate: "Promise?"

Jude: "Tch."

His face contorted as if he had said something unnecessary.

Jude: "It's none of yer fucking business, so forget it."

(Promise to whom?)

(He can't die? Wait, is that what he's living for?)

As I stared at his profile, several questions popped into my head.

These questions lingered in my chest like cigarette smoke, creating a hazy uneasiness.

➟ Collection Event Masterlist

[the-jarvy-party]

VALENTINES WITH THE 141

you and the 141 handing out valentines during a party

i also added könig, and i accidentally made a subtle romance between you and soap i couldn’t help it i love this man

lowercase intended | warnings: cursing, alcohol

wc : 1305 (masterlist)

“look!” soap pulls one out of his shoebox. “it says ‘i’m hoppy you’re mine’ and there’s a little bunny rabbit!” he smiles and i slowly nod.

“wow, johnny, that one is clever.” i went to the pocket in my vest, pulling out a pink card. “there’s glitter so be careful.”

he slowly takes the card before reading it, glitter sprinkles on his navy shirt but he didn’t mind it. i made cards for all of my squad mates, i just made his a little bit more special.

gaz walks in with a walmart shopping bag and freezes in the doorway when he saw people handing out valentines - except ghost because he already handed his out.

“uhh… you guys were serious?” he nervously chuckles and we all look at him. “because i just went with lollies…” he slams the bag on the table, making a big boom.

“how many did you get?” i walk over, johnny following behind me.

“uh, well, my sister bought like 100 for something… gave me extras.” gaz mumbles towards the end and let’s everyone take one.

könig goes up to take one, everyone slowly moves away except ghost and i.

“want me to get you one?” i look up at him and he tilts his head.

“he doesn’t speak english, genius.” ghost grumbles and sits back down in his depression corner.

i still hold one out and he takes it, his eyes smile for me.

“okay, everyone,” price clears his throat. “you may pass out your valentines. but if we have what happened last year we’re stopping.”

last year, rudy didn’t pre-read the valentines he bought. they were all sexual, and alejandro got the worst one, it was hilarious.

i go passing out the cards i made for everyone, each person got the generic card. just different things written inside, since i got to know all of them in different ways.

“ghost.” i hold out a hot pink card that had glitter practically falling off of the card.

“what kind of fucking war crime is this?” he takes it. “it’s nice, though. thank you.” he avoids eye contact.

“of course, also,” i put my hands up to show the glitter that is probably permanently stuck to each crevasse of my hand. “i have to endure this for your entertainment.”

i go to hand a card to könig, since he was in the corner to the left of ghost. i tried my best to translate it into german so he could read it - i wasn’t sure if it was 100% accurate.

“i tried to translate it, i don’t know if it’s right.” i clasp my hands together, anxious for his answer. he and ghost had masks covering their faces, so telling what they were feeling was hard. it was even harder when they didn’t talk, or… when we had a language barrier.

“danke.” he looks down at me as he closes the card. his voice sounded sweet and quiet, i could barely hear him over the (extremely loud, obnoxiously loud) laughter of johnny and gaz.

“you’re welcome.” i smile and go hand out the remainder of the cards.

“johnny boy!” alejandro yells from the kitchen area that was in the break room, “come help me with this.”

“is that alcoh- john is that alcohol it’s 3 in the afternoon.” i grab his arm and he stops in his tracks and reels into my touch.

“yes… but i’m not drinking. don’t worry, sugar.” he smiles and gaz starts to make kissing noises. “shut the fuck up, kyle.”

“sir yes sir.” he salutes and i hold back a laugh.

after everyone handed out their valentines, the real ‘party’ began. i don’t know how you can get absolutely wasted midday, but the boys definitely did just that. except for the two intimidating giants in the corner of the room.

i got a letter from johnny that he gently set in my hands before he went to go help alejandro with the bottles of alcohol in the freezer. i put it in my pocket so i could read it later.

gaz goes to get up on the table, but price grabs him. “wait! n- no!”

“i need to make a standing *hiccup* ovation.” he shakes price off of his leg and stumbles on the table. “we need music.” he screams and they all yell in agreement. “SPARKY!”

i started a fire one time and that’s immediately my name.

“no.” i wasn’t too keen on getting in trouble in this current moment, i was trying to go home by 11.

johnny leans onto me, “i’ll play it! sugar, phone.” he makes grabby hands for my phone and i reluctantly hand it over to him.

alejandro and rudy start cheering on gaz and johnny as they start drunkly dance, flipping over the break room table and scaring the ever-living shit out of könig.

i go to the fridge and grab myself a drink. i close it and see price. “literally everyone here except for emperor palpatine and könig are wasted.” i pop open the beer and throw the cap in the trash.

“i’m actually not wast- w- wa- wasted.” price starts to slur his words.

“you’re pretty damn close.” i sarcastically smile and go over to sit next to ghost on the ground. könig was on the other side of him.

“it reeks of alcohol in here.” he crosses his arms and slouches in the chair.

“you’re like a child.” i take a sip of my beer and offer it to him. “want some?”

“that shit is for amateurs.”

“mhm,” i set my head on the wall behind me. “this sucks dick.”

“those jerks are having a good time, just get borderline blackout drunk.” ghost starts to mess with the ipad in his lap. “what the fuck is a passcode?”

i hear them start arguing on what song to play next, “no! we’re doing get low-“

“it’s probably some gay ass scottish song, we’re playing rihanna.” gaz intervenes.

“it’s not some gay ass scottish song it’s a staple party song.” it played on the speaker anyways and johnny starts to dance with price.

“sugar is a beast with this song! aren’t ya!” johnny calls me out and my eyes go wide, ghost looking down at me and starts to laugh. “cmon!”

“no! i’m not, johnny i will actually kill you.” i yell back and alejandro starts jumping around. rudy cheering him on from where gaz was.

johnny comes up to me and pulls me up, “pleaseeee?”

i click my tongue and look around the room, “fine. one condition.” i put my pointer finger on his nose. “you need to let me drive home.”

i hear live in this club come on, price and gaz start screaming at the top of their lungs. “THIS IS MY SONG, CMON SPARKY YOU GOTTA DANCE!” gaz yells to me, i go and dance with them.

it felt like eternity until they all passed out, except for the three of us that didn’t drink.

“so, uh…” i point my foot towards johnny, who was asleep. “how do i get him into my car?” i wasn’t short, i wasn’t super tall either. carrying (more like dragging) johnny was gonna be work.

“i’ll help.” ghost sets his ipad down on the chair. “still can’t figure out the damn passcode.”

“oh, heyy sugar.” johnny wakes up as i try to pick him up.

“hey, johnny.” i smile. “can you stand up for me?”

“anything for you.” he boops my nose and i help him get up.

“yeah, never do that again.” i whisper to him. ghost and i help him get into my passenger seat, after he threw up in the parking lot.

“remember, break ends next thursday.” ghost buckles in johnny and hands me a piece of paper, walking away back into the building.

͟͟͞͞➳❥ ͟͟͞͞➳❥ ➳❥

[dokujirai]

Charisma - Ito Fumiya “When The Charisma Go Marching In” English Lyrics Translation

This is an English translation of Ito Fumiya’s first solo song “When The Charisma Go Marching In.” Song is here.

Please be advised that this is merely a translation into English and may not be 100% accurate.

You can see the Japanese and Romaji lyrics here as well.

Translator Notes:

Turns out writing rap is hard. Even harder when you’re translating it. I’m hoping I’ll find better ways to rewrite some of these lyrics, but I tried my best to make it flow... Only sometimes. Otherwise, it makes probably no sense whatsoever. This was still tons of fun!

In the second part of the chorus, Fumiya says “mushibamu/蝕む” which one of the meanings translates to “being eaten by worms.” Isn’t that cute? In this song it’s closer to being corrupted/eroded/eaten.

An “eyecatch” is what is called a bumper/commercial bumper internationally. It’s used to segue into a commercial break or back into the show, and most commonly occurs in anime and tokusatsu. Fumiya is a slippery character, he flits about and dodges/parries like a champ, so not paying attention to what is essentially a warning to switch gears means he’s trying to get away with something without any notice.

In the verse that starts with “MUST, MUST BE CRAZY” I chose to use “Kill or be killed” cus it just kinda sounded cooler to be honest. It actually means “to steal or not to steal,” but both beg the question “Good? Or Evil?” which stays in theme with Fumiya’s character. Just a little more hardcore.

“Clearance” in this sense could mean several things, but *almost* all deal with losing value of some kind. There’s a medical term that involves clearance which is something about purifying the kidneys, granting clearance, and then the one I went with is obviously the clearance sale. I thought that made a lot more sense anyways.

In the verse where Fumiya says: “You ought to choose ideas over ideals/’Leave well enough alone’” the last part, ことなかれ(koto nakare) can also be translated to “let sleeping dogs lie.” “Don’t rock the boat.” Basically, just leave things alone.

Any questions, concerns, theories, or feedback is appreciated! Thank you for reading.

CHOOSE WISELY Straying from your thoughts These sweet words will cleanse your palate Discipline is SICK give in and SAY NO This is your only warning before you lose CHOOSE WISELY Drown out these fantasies All these unwanted, noisy auditory fallacies Discipline is SICK, defy them and “SAY NO” This is your warning before they feast on you No formalities There’s no escape from the path of Good and Evil Undesired misfortunes are a bother We are all fellow neighbors, CHOOSE WISELY This toxic world is placated by PAIN Instead of sharing our pain, they repeat it like a refrain Makeshift emotions SET ME FREE I’ll flit about, dip once more, throwback these watered-down mismatched sorrows SO MANY optimists Swept along and complicit Look back and you’ll fall into an unforgiving pit It’s NEVER TOO MUCH to join hands with necessary evils Pay no mind to the eyecatch CHOOSE WISELY Straying from your thoughts These sweet words will cleanse your palate Discipline is SICK give in and SAY NO This is your only warning before you lose CHOOSE WISELY Drown out these fantasies All these unwanted, noisy auditory fallacies Discipline is SICK, defy them and “SAY NO” This is your warning before they feast on you Perfectly clear skies Schemes once more, yesterday and today Stomp your foot down and follow with the right Your heart loses value like a clearance sale Freelance for the rest of your life We are one of a kind Of course, we can’t escape being the VIPs MUST, MUST BE CRAZY It’s kill or be killed Mediocrity or Charisma There are no correct answers A battle between angels and demons What are you hesitating for? High standards bring malice Give it up cus we’re all alone in the end The vast oceans and mountains make you realize how infinitesimal you are CHOOSE WISELY You ought to choose ideas over ideals “Leave well enough alone” Even if there are no correct answers There is still one to be found So quit stumbling on your feet and let's meet on the other side of solitude Infinite empathy Confusion, Suspicion, it’s not impossible Bring on the power CHOOSE WISELY You're the only one who can make that choice out of your own volition, YOU WANNA BE CHOOSE WISELY Straying from your thoughts These sweet words will cleanse your palate Discipline is SICK give in and SAY NO This is your only warning before you lose CHOOSE WISELY Drown out these fantasies All these unwanted, noisy auditory fallacies Discipline is SICK, defy them and “SAY NO” This is your warning before they feast on you CHOOSE WISELY Straying from your thoughts These sweet words will cleanse your palate Discipline is SICK give in and SAY NO This is your only warning before you lose CHOOSE WISELY Drown out these fantasies All these unwanted, noisy auditory fallacies Discipline is SICK, defy them and “SAY NO” This is your warning before they feast on you

[twentyfivemiceinatrenchcoat]

OHMKYGOSH YES i j read ur sashisu ramble… and i love love love hearing ab other people’s hyperfixations so don’t worry :33

mainly the fact that none of them could be open or vulnerable with each other …. to be honest i havent looked at sashisu very closely before but this hit me bc. I FEEL LIKE I RELATE SM :; like. i have a best friend who i’ve known since i was a baby but we’ve never ever had a serious conversation once… maybe this is unrelated but that is so tragic because to me friendships really struggle to be strong and stable against one another if you can’t ever show the side of you that’s struggling … being vulnerable w one another is key to bonding :’3

i have some thoughts about them— mainly shoko…. to me it kinda seems like she kept them at an arms length away this entire time on purpose and she still does…. maybe i’m spitballing idk i’m just basing it off the fact that satoru and suguru called her shoko but she still referred to them by surname even ‘til where we currently r in the manga (which. i will also ignore but i cant lie the memes were so funny…) but my thinking is that she did so because. even though we never really saw her much i think that’s it since she was a reversed ct user n probably didn’t have much experience fighting… maybe. hear me out just MAYBE she knew what might become of satoru and suguru since they were so enveloped in fighting and being the strongest, and both of them were so headstrong and arrogant for lack of a better term that she might’ve just… tried to keep herself from getting attached n being hurt even more than she already might’ve been simultaneously 😞😞

that still just makes me so so sad though….. they always looked so happy when they were together… maybe if they could’ve gotten suguru to talk and really listened to him for once…. alas ;; gege is an evil thing

U GET IT RIKO…

i feel exactly the same, i have two childhood friends who im very close to but none of us have ever been the type to really be vulnerable like that w each other and !! i absolutely think that strong connections need that, u need to be able to show even ur weaker side… n i guess the tragedy of suguru’s character is that he never felt comfortable showing his ”weak self” to shoko and satoru. T_T he will always make me cry like no other ….

BUT YES SHOKO !!! ur so valid riko. i love this woman so much n i think shes so interesting to talk abt !! ive been thinking abt the name thing too, i feel like its very telling of the sashisu dynamic; the fact that satoru and suguru ONLY (and i mean only) ever referred to each other w their given names, even after suguru’s defection… and how shoko refers to them as ”gojo” and ”geto” even though gojo still calls her shoko…,

i think its super interesting !! i rly rly wish i was able to read the og japanese manga, bc i feel like so many little language details like that get lost in translation (esp since the official jjk translation is kinda bad lol)… i wish we knew if shoko called them by their given names in high school, i want to think so but we just dont know </3

(i could be wrong but there was a translation on a recent chapter i read where shoko switched between ”satoru” and ”gojo”…… obv i dunno how accurate it is but i think itd be cool if we saw her start calling him satoru :’3 im delusional i still think my baby’s coming back)

but !! regardless i def think ur onto smth. i 100% see her as the type to get very detached to the ppl around her. thats why she seems so unbothered !! even tho she obv cares very much…. i think she loved both of them but she wasnt able to broach that gap between them, and after suguru’s defection i absolutely think she repressed herself even more…..

but its obvious that she still cares for them. like how she started smoking again after gojo got sealed / she found out abt kenjaku using geto’s body :((….

and yes i rly do think sugu couldve been saved if they had managed to open up like that <///3 thats what fanfic is for ig :’3… sob…..

[weirdthoughtsandideas]

I wanted to try this

Yes, I am isolatedly nearby because I live in fucking Sweden

[the-himawari-otome]

[Piofiore: Episodio 1926] Character Drama CD Vol. 3 Orlok Translation

Track 1:  Aller Anfang ist schwer.

Summary: Orlok and Lili have started their new life in England and encounter something unexpected on their way home one day...

Translated by ear so it might not be 100% accurate. But I tried my best! All for you, Orlok 。゜゜(´□｀。)°゜。

･ﾟ･:,｡★ translation under the cut ★,｡･:･ﾟ

*sfx: bell on door rings, customers chatter about*

Good afternoon. Excuse me, I came to pick her up… where is she…?

Ahh, no, I don’t need any tea today—.

Ah, sorry to bother you. Thank you as always.

*sfx: footsteps run towards Orlok*

Good job with your work. It’s time to go home now, right? That’s great.

Alright then… um… thank you for your work today.

*sfx: bell on door rings, rain falls outside*

I brought an umbrella with me since it’s still raining.

*sfx: opens umbrella*

Ah, come a bit closer. Your shoulder will get wet.

*sfx: rain falls against umbrella*

It was sunny this morning, but the rain kept falling since it hit afternoon.

The rain has mostly thinned out though.

How was today? There weren’t any difficult customers or anything else strange, was there?

I see. I’m relieved nothing happened.

When I first heard you were going to work too, I was honestly a bit worried. But I’m glad you found a nice shop.

I can’t take you along with me to my jobs, and it’s safer than staying home alone after all.

Yeah, I like the atmosphere at the pub too.

It’s lively and something about it makes you feel warm.

Despite the fact it’s actually more crowded at night, they hired you on the condition you would only work during the day.

I’m grateful for that alone. But it looks like they have a bunch of friendly regulars there. And there are quite a few immigrants in that area, so we don’t stick out even if we don’t speak that much English.

Plus, the people at the shop are kind too.

The madam welcomes me with a smile whenever I come pick you up.

The tea they serve as I’m waiting while you’re tied up with work also tastes great every time.

Ah, they told me that the panna cotta recipe you taught them was a huge hit.

The shop workers complimented you when I came to pick you up the other day, and it made me happy too.

They said Italians are good with their hands, so we tend to run pubs and barbershops. I wonder if that’s true.

Also—ahh, hold on.

There’s dust on your eyelashes. Close your eyes.

*Sharp Inhale*.

Eh? Ah, no, it’s nothing. I got it, see?

*Sigh*, that was close.

Err, well… I… was just about to kiss you.

I mean... we can’t do that outside, can we?

Ah, but no one will be able see if we hide using the umbrella.

Can I kiss you just once?

*sfx: kiss*

*Sigh*. It really might’ve been better to hold back after all. Now I want to kiss you more.

—Oh, it looks like the rain will let up soon.

Look. The light’s coming out through the clouds.

The weather in London changes on a whim. It’s a little surprising, isn’t it?

It’s totally different from Italy.

It’s already been half a year since we came here, but I’m still not used to it.

It’s nice that it’s not that cold even if it rains a lot. But to be honest, I think I would like it better if it was sunny every day.

Maybe I actually don’t like rain very much.

I prefer being able to see the stars at night. And not to mention... my chest feels tight on rainy days.

*Deep breath*.

I guess it’s because a lot of memories come flooding back.

“Meow”

Hm? What’s wrong?

Eh? Um, yeah, I heard that too. The cry… was soft and muffled by the rain though.

“Meow, meow”

I think… it came from over here?

*sfx: footsteps walk around*

“Meow”

Ah, a cat. It’s really tiny.

Is a parent cat nearby… hm, it doesn’t look like it.

Maybe they wandered off?

“Meow”

This kitten doesn’t look like it’s in very good shape. It’s probably not good leaving them here like this.

“Meow”

Eh, you want to bring them home with us?

No, I don’t mind. I didn’t want to leave them either.

But… I wonder if it’ll be alright?

-pause-

*sfx: door opens and closes*

U-uh, what should I do?

Ah, we should prepare food for them, right? Something that’ll give them energy… like meat or something?

R-right, you know way more about food than me. I’ll leave it to you then.

Is there anything else I can help with?

*sfx: hands towel to Orlok*

Huh? A towel? Ah, I see. I have to dry them.

*sfx: footsteps walk away*

Um, w-where should I start?

Ah, hold on—don’t run away. I’m trying my best, so—.

Ngh. Um, listen. If you stay wet, then your body temperature will drop.

You’re especially tiny, so I think it could be fatal if your body keeps cooling at this rate.

So… let me wipe you?

Ah… they’re even smaller than I thought.

I have to be careful not to crush them.

So then, gently…

*sfx: towel ruffles*

H-how’s that? Are you all dry now?

“Meow”

Ah, that’s a relief. It didn’t look like it hurt. And it doesn’t look like they’re angry either.

Come to think of it, I think that’s the first time I’ve heard their cry since we got home.

Hm, they’re jet black. Beautiful.

You’re just like colour of the night, you know?

“Meow, meow”

Ah, hold on. No moving all of a sudden!

*sfx: footsteps approach*

Ah, is it ready? Thank you.

*sfx: places dish*

Come on, we’ve prepared food for you. Eat up.

“Meow”

*sfx: kitten laps up food*

Ohh, they’re really digging in. They must’ve been hungry, huh?

Taking in nutrients is the basis of preserving life.

I’m glad they’re able to eat on their own.

I’m relieved you came back. I have no clue what to do on my own.

“Meow”

Eh? W-what is it?

“Meow”

Did I say something weird?

Eh? You… want to jump onto my lap?

“Meow”

You can’t. It’s dangero—

“Meow”

Uh…

“Meow, meow”

What do I do?

N-no, it’s not that I don’t like cats.

“Meow”

Ah… they’re clinging to me.

Could it be they still feel cold?

There won’t be any problems if I hold them? They won’t break?

Are you sure it’ll be alright?

Mm… I got it.

"Meow”

Hah… I did it.

I’ll stay here like this, so you prepare a bed for them.

Use lots of blankets.

*sfx: footsteps walk away*

*Sigh*. They’re so small… and warm.

But they’re soft, helpless... and it seems like they’ll die if you just leave them on their own.

*Sigh*. I hope you get your energy back quickly.

“Meow”

It doesn’t look like you’re hurt… but it’d be better to take you to see a doctor, wouldn’t it?

We also have to find someone to take you in.

We don’t really know anyone here, so I wonder if we’ll be able find somebody.

The pub would be… difficult, huh? Keeping an animal in a place that serves food would be—.

“Meow”

Mm?

*sfx: licks*

Hehe, that tickles.

“Meow”

Relax. I won’t drop you. Don’t worry about a thing.

“Meow”

---

[DO NOT USE OR REPOST MY WORK W/O PERMISSION, THANK YOU]

[canary3d-obsessed]

Restless Rewatch: The Untamed Episode 07 part two

(Masterpost)

Warning: Spoilers for All 50 Episodes!

Lantern Lighting

Now we have the famous lantern scene, where everybody gets to express their character and have dates, ranging from disastrous to delightful, with the objects of their affection. 

Wei Wuxian continues to be ridiculously good at drawing. 

We’ve all seen Lan Wangji’s lovely first smile in the show a million times, so...let’s look at it again!

This scene is important not just because of the smile, but because there’s a distinct shift in the way they talk about their growing relationship. In the pond, it was “come visit me” and “never!” “I want to be your friend” “No need.” Basically Lan Wangji firmly saying no to Wei Wuxian’s offers of friendship.

This time, Wei Wuxian says “let’s do this together” and Lan Wangji says “I’m used to being alone,” which is not actually a No, just an explanation. And WWX says, you can change that. And then Lan Wangji DOES change it, sharing the lantern and the promise with Wei Wuxian.

Whoever painted this flower is even better than Wei Wuxian at plein air painting. 

(more after the cut!)

Everybody’s wishes

Nie Huasang makes a practical wish. Wen Qing prays for her brother and Jiang Cheng notices how she’s like Yanli. Jiang Cheng isn’t very intense about Wen Qing, which could be a sign of his shyness but could also be a sign of his gayness or aceness. After all, later in life he’s an apparently wealthy clan leader who is hot as fuck, and needs an heir, since his nephew is a Jin. But he’s still not married, 16 years after breaking up with and uh, helping to kill and cremate, the girl he liked in summer school.

The Promise We Made Together

Wei Wuxian makes an ultra-idealistic wish/promise while Lan Wangji watches and falls the rest of the way in love with him, and silently makes the same pledge inside his head. Later they will each refer to this as a promise they made together, which is a really super high level of face-reading by Wei Wuxian, to understand that he really is speaking for both of them here.  While making this promise, Lan Wangji brings out his Yin Iron Magic Bag and waves it around in front of everyone, but nobody notices. 

Let’s take a moment to consider *why* this moment is so powerful for Lan Wangji. Lan Wangji is a boy whose emotions are always on the boil. He’s 100% upset all the time, at this age, and he keeps it clamped down all the time. His cultivation level is probably as high as it is partly because of all the work he does in emotion regulation. (note: if you haven’t read all the meta at @howpeacefulislwj​ , go read it; it’s awesome and hilarious)

Wei Wuxian doesn’t GAF about emotion regulation; he just expresses what he feels, all the damn time. 

He is openly bored, lusty, playful, hungry, whiny. He straight up tells Lan Wangji “you’re boring and you have a stick up your ass” as part of saying he wants to be friends; no deference and also no falseness.  

And he can see right through Lan Wangji’s reserve, barging into his loneliness and isolation without any regard for all of his wards. Wards are made to be broken.

(Unrelated note: Young Lan Wangji's rare moments of contentment seem to come from looking at something beautiful--the moon, falling petals, these lanterns, his mirror.)

But Wei Wuxian is also good. Lan Wangji desperately wants to be good. And here’s Wei Wuxian embodying this awful, amazing, tempting alternative path, in which all the interesting things in life get explored thoroughly, all the sweetness and beauty gets consumed unreservedly, all the pain and ugliness gets confronted and endured without hesitation. 

In this moment, Wei Wuxian tells Lan Wangji “you can change,” and then offers up this prayer/promise that is just pure chivarly, speaking straight to Lan Wangji’s heart. Very simply, I want to spend my life doing right. Not 3500 rules; just one.

This infuriating boy, who breaks rules and who flirts indiscriminately and who pushes and pushes and pushes, reveals himself in this moment to be a hero at the beginning of his journey, and Lan Wangji sees it, and his heart goes right over the cliff.

The Girls’ Room

The girl cultivators all rush over to Yanli to get in her business about her betrothal, inspiring Jin Zixuan to act like a jerk to her and get even further onto Wei Wuxian’s bad side. 

Talk Shit, Get Hit

Yanli’s wish was that Wei Wuxian would grow up and be good. He promptly launches his own personal Sunshot campaign, punching her fiancee so hard that the sun falls out of the sky and the previously well-lit scene transitions to full night.

So, in English, “don’t mention it again” is really mild, akin to “I don’t want to talk about it.” Wei Wuxian’s reaction makes it seem like Jin Zixuan said something really shitty, like “don’t you dare mention that woman to me!” So I’m assuming something is being lost in translation. 

Lan Wangji tries to calm him down. He grabs Wei Wuxian’s sexy arm muscle and basically holds it until the Jiangs exit the scene. 

Nie Huaisang has placed himself between the opposing factions, which is unusually direct of him. In the future he’ll stick to being an unindicted co-conspirator when Wei Wuxian starts trouble. 

Ants in my Pants

Lan Wangji thinks kneeling can make Wei Wuxian cry, which is adorable of him. 

He really relishes this opportunity to be a pedantic tool to his new boyfriend that annoying boy he hardly ever touches, and it really doesn’t work out for him, poor lamb.

Jiang Fengmian stops by to show exactly how deep his affection for Wei Wuxian runs, and to give him whiplash from constantly changing parental expectations. In a couple of hours he’ll be laughing over WWX & JC’s hijinks.

Wei Wuxian takes this opportunity to fantasize about bad things happening to the other boy in the fight, which is in no way foreshadowing of anything.

Douche Dads Conference

We now convene this meeting of the douchebag council. Jiang Cheng is also invited even though he’s a prick, not a douche. <--important distinction

This is our first time meeting Clan Leader Jin Guangshan. He's actually the most sensible and best parent in this scene, but his smug self-satisfaction hints at his true nature. This actor, Shen Xiaohai, has been active in cdramas for a long while now. I wonder what he looked like 15 years ago?

...Holy mother of god.

Jiang Fengmian is the worst dad and the worst husband here. His clan believes in letting children do what they want - uhh YOUR child wants to marry Jin Zixuan. “I wrote a letter to her mother, who arranged this marriage.” Uhhh she arranged for her sickly, low-cultivation-level, sweet and vulnerable child to marry the heir of a rich and powerful clan, with a powerful mother-in-law who’s looking forward to loving and protecting her. Basically she’s guaranteed her daughter’s safety and comfort, and even potential happiness, since her husband may learn to appreciate her (and in fact, does, thanks to soup and repeated beatings from WWX).

Mom worked hard and probably spent a fair amount of social capital to achieve this. And you’re going to toss that aside because the boy thinks he’s too good for her? What the everloving fuck, how are you a clan leader in the first place? 

You can see that Jiang Cheng understands all of this and what a terrible choice his father is making here. 

So do the other adults in the room.

Jin Guangshen: our wives are going to kill us

Lan Qiren: I'm looking at a couple of dead men

Jiang Fengmian pointedly won’t listen to Jiang Cheng or let him speak, showing that all his talk about being free is actually bullshit, that only applies to other people’s children.

Jiang Chang vaults off of the deck to tell Wei Wuxian about it. Hottt

Sorry Sis

Wei Wuxian goes to Jiang Yanli to sorta-apologize and sorta ask to be let off the hook for fucking up her engagement, which he absolutely did. He knows it, which is presumably why he bows to her in paperman form while hiding outside.

At no time has Jiang Yanli indicated to anyone that she doesn’t want to marry Jin Zixuan, as far as I can see, or said she wanted to be defended from insults with punching. Look how good SHE is at defending a person from insults, for comparison.

Yin Iron Blah Blah Blah

The senior Lans meet with Jiang Fengmian  to talk about the Yawn Yin Iron. Yawn. 

Jiang Fengmian addresses Lan Xichen as Lan Gongzi, which is adorable, since he is a big boy to everyone else. His family calls him Xichen and other people call him Zewu-Jun.

Farewell and Fuck You

The three Jiang kids come to say goodbye.

Lan Quiren says goodbye with a heap of criticism for Wei Wuxian and the horse he rode in on, and Jiang Fengmian basically says, yep, that’s what he’s like, all right.  

Good thing Wei Ying gets so much verbal abuse at home he doesn’t take it very hard when he finds it in the field. 

Wangji doesn’t say goodbye properly, which will be a recurring theme for the two of them.

I don’t know if this is because he has a problem with goodbyes, or is just being a jerk, or because he’s so bad at lying he doesn’t dare talk to Wei Wuxian lest he reveal his travel plans. 

Indulgent Dad Continues to be the Worst

Jiang Cheng complains at Wei Wuxian for wanting to say goodbye to Lan Wangji, and WWX says he likes him because he is equal to WWX in fighting, whereas JC sucks. JC hits him tries to hit him--gosh, he DOES suck, comparatively. 

Yanli, who has been keeping these boys in line all summer, sighs deeply at her Dad’s tolerance for their hijinks. OP has five brothers and this sibling-hijinks behavior is 100% accurate, except for the part where it is happening at someone else’s house in front of the hosts. 

WWX pretending to be Lan Qiren where Lan Wangji can see him doing it, in front of Lan Qiren’s colleague and supposed friend, and just earning a laugh from the patriarch? Good lord.  Dad Jiang tolerating this is shocking, particularly in the in-show culture where corporal punishment is as common as tea. 

We’ve tried Nothing, and we’re all out of ideas!

Uggghh why are you like this?

Here in the real world, OP uses “positive discipline” with her child, and encourages other parents to consider it, particularly if your child is neuroatypical or asynchronous.  That said, JF should be punishing the crap out of both boys for this behavior every time it happens, or should quit being a clan leader.  He’s relying on Jiang Yanli to keep them in line while he gets to just be amused by them. And he’s letting Lan Qiren discipline Wei Wuxian instead of doing it himself. He suuuuuuucks. 

Lan Wangji watches all of this. Lan Xichen reminds Lan Wangji that without Wei Wuxian, he’s completely fucking miserable. Lan Wangji still doesn’t plan to bring him along on his trip, though.

Time to return to our lives of crushing loneliness

Rabbits

At this same moment when Lan Wangji is staring down the barrel of future loneliness, Wei Wuxian is already deciding to leave the (forbidden) rabbits in Cloud Recesses “In case Lan Zhan gets lonely.”  This small decision by Wei Wuxian - breaking the rules of Cloud Recesses for the millionth time - is kinder than he knows. Because what is the job of these rabbits? Let’s have a desaturated flashback. 

Lan Zhan spent 3 years in the ice cave. The rabbits kept Lan Yi company in the ice cave. So...did the rabbits sneak in to keep Lan Wangji company in the ice cave as well? I’m going to say yes. By ep 43 they are following him to the gate of Cloud Recesses so they are very attached to him.  Well done, Wei Ying.

Where my bitches at? Seriously, our warren needs bitches

(Is Watership Down still a thing people read? If not, just go ahead and assume all of OP’s rabbit jokes are about Watership Down because OP ain’t going to stop making them)

While Wei Wuxian annoys the bunny he has a flashback to the scene that happened 4 minutes earlier. The Untamed editors assume the viewership has the attention span of a goldfish, and I personally appreciate that they understand me so well.

Wei Wuxian figures out that Lan Wangji is going on the road alone, and tells the bunny immediately. The bunny is very concerned.

Writing Prompt: What do next-generation cultivators Lan Sizhui and Lan Jingyi wish for at lantern-lighting time?

[guzhuangheaven]

Which cdramas would you rate as having the best/most accurate costumes you have ever seen? And are also historically accurate in terms of culture and history?

We always dance around answering this question, because it is impossible (for us) to answer. For two reasons.

1) There is no such thing as historical accuracy in dramas

You can never know everything that is needed to know about how people lived, dressed, styled their hair etc. in ye olden times unless you are a time traveller who has actually lived in those times. Historical records, extant garments, paintings, drawings, statues etc. can give you an idea of what people dressed like/lived like at the time, but historical records are fickle. They do not necessarily reflect the lives of everyone in society and often can be imperfectly preserved, leading to gaps in the knowledge we can have today. Because of this, any dramas that claim to be 100% historically accurate in terms of their costume/make up/whatever is lying because that is impossible.

What dramas can do, however, is do extensive research on the cuts and materials of clothes/jewellery/make up people used at the time and try their best to recreate them with the materials available to us now. Even then, dramas, for the sake of aesthetics, will often take creative liberties, for example using chemical dyes that make clothes in colours that was probably very hard/impossible to get, or not available to that person in that social class, at that time.  

All this is to say, I personally don’t usually scrutinise dramas for “historical accuracy” in their costumes, unless the drama is so bad that I can’t concentrate on the story and that’s what I turn to nitpicking to give myself a reason to keep watching. At the same time, I will forgive A LOT of costuming sins if the drama keeps me engaged with its story. Examples of this include Oh My General with its OBNOXIOUS use of colours and The Mischievous Princess with I don’t even know what to call this travesty they call costuming Ming dynasty.

However, this does not mean that dramas can’t try to be historically accurate, of course. To me, dramas that succeed in this area makes it clear that they have done research and consulted extant garments/historical sources to make their costumes look like it could reasonably have existed in the time the story it is set in.

I guess I will talk about Ruyi and Yanxi because I just know someone will ask us about it again eventually, despite the fact that we have sort of tried to avoid answering the question of whether Ruyi or Yanxi is more historically accurate the last time we were asked.

Here’s our very inexpert, very limited opinion, based on extremely limited research, on this question: both Ruyi and Yanxi clearly consulted extant garments/accessories of the Qing dynasty, and tried to recreate them in different ways.

There is evidence that Ruyi based many of their costumes on extant garments. We have a post about it, even though we do strongly suspect these extant garments were from the wrong time, i.e. they are late Qing circa 19th century, purely because they still exist at all, rather than the early Qing period of Qianlong. Yanxi also based its costuming on extant historical artifacts, including the use of the yunjian collar and the velvet flower hair accessories, which can be seen in paintings of women from around that time.

And then there is this headdress which Er Qing wears to her wedding, which has photographic evidence that it existed, but then the time of photography is clearly not the time of Qianlong.

However, the point we’re trying to make is that, because the Qing dynasty stretched 300 years, it is highly likely that both of these dramas did their research, then cherry picked the aspects of clothes and hair from different times of the Qing dynasty that suited their drama’s aesthetics. Does that make them historically inaccurate? Well, that depends on what level of accuracy you are after. But realistically, to expect them all to dress like it was really Qianlong’s time is likely almost impossible, not to mention would require the costumes to change, as both dramas spanned like 30 years.

Also, even when you can tell the drama did consult extant garments and artifacts, they can still fail in the making of the costume. Case in point, Danshu’s pheasant robe is very polyester and has printed “embroidery”, even though it was set in the actual Song dynasty when they would have worn this garment. 

Compare that to Royal Nirvana, which was set in a fictional dynasty (based on Song), but managed to pull a pheasant robe that looked a thousand times better because it was actually embroidered.

Here’s a more important reason why we often don’t want to answer questions about what dramas are historically accurate:

2) We don’t know.  

Can I just stress again that we are not historians of Chinese period clothing, history, anything? We’re not even Chinese and can’t even read Chinese. Any random “knowledge” we put on here is result of years of accumulation from watching dramas (so take everything we say with a fistful of salt) and yes, sometimes research, but in the sense of we google things. We also have to translate things on google translate, which admittedly is a little better these days especially from Chinese to Vietnamese, but still highly inaccurate sometimes. Sometimes we have sources that has been translated into Vietnamese or English, but whether that’s accurate is dependent on whether the source is accurate and whether the translation is accurate. tl;dr: don’t believe everything we say and don’t look to us for…you know, authority.

And on that note, regarding your other asks, unfortunately we don’t think we can answer them, simply because if you haven’t found the answer you want by Googling, it’s very unlikely that we can do better. Our series of post on Qing dynasty costumes exists because the popularity of Legend of Ruyi meant that this information was available in Vietnamese, and we just did a couple of steps to make sure the information was reasonably believable by looking up the Chinese sources and putting them through translation bots. We would not have been able to do all of this research from scratch. 

ALL THAT BEING SAID, here’s some links of relevant posts on @ziseviolets tumblr, which maybe I should just have directed you there from the beginning:

Hanfu in television dramas

Recs for historically/stylistically accurate Chinese drama

- h

[sitabethel]

Fic tag game, and I was tagged by @rochelle-echidna, @isisishtar, and @ninjam117

1 - how many fics do you have on ao3?

Like any good Suikoden protagonist, I have 107 Stars of Destiny in my castle

2 - what’s your total word count?

2,445,507 (Daddy...Imma get that to 2.5 mill by the end of the year. Watch)

3 - what are your top fics by kudos?

The Lemonade Stand

Out From the Cold

King of Thieves

Safe

Talk Dirty to me

wtf, y’all. The puppyshippers are giving out more kudos than the thief stans. Shame. Shame. Talk Dirty To Me isn’t even a fic??? It’s an RP supersteff posted for funsies??? 

4 - do you respond to comments why or why not?

Most of the time (as long as I’m not overwhelmed with life). Responding to comments is how I’ve made most my friends in this fandom, so A++ would recommend. 

5 - what’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Definitely Three Nights. My only fic w/a sad ending (which is why I wrote Three More Nights b/c I couldn’t handle having a sad ending. I had to fix it.)

6 - what’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

I honestly couldn’t say. I’m here to have a good time and to make sure all my favs also have a good time, so I’m always actively trying to give them the happiest possible endings. 

7 - do you write crossovers?

Nope.

8 - have you ever received hate for a fic?

I sure the hell have

9 - do you write smut? What kind.

ROTFLMFAO

10 - have you ever had a fic stolen?

Yes. It was kinda funny b/c out of all the fics, it was “Me” a 5k deathshipping one shot that is one of my least popular works. But like...I don’t really think they were *trying* to steal it so much as homage it? But they were too young and unskilled to know how to rework something properly, so it was almost an exact copy of my fic. I tried to go over it and show them how to rewrite parts in order for it to be more original (Like, you can give YM piercings, just don’t give him the exact same piercings. You can have YM play with his hair/clothes/presentation in order to explore his identity, but pick different things that are more unique and how *you* would imagine YM being as his own person, instead of just copying exactly what I did). 

11 - have you ever had a fic translated?

There’s an Italian version of Storm of White on ao3 (go kudo bomb it!)

12 - have you ever co written a fic before?

Lots! I love colabs <3 The last one I did was Conspire With You, but there was also A Way Home, and I’ve co-written a few things with SuperSteffy. Please support all the other writers who worked hard on these fics with me! (kudo-bomb the hell out of them)

13 - what’s your all time favorite ship?

*Cries in polyamory* 

I can’t...choose one. Thiefshipping and Deathshipping were my first favorites, but like...damn, Kingshipping and Trapshipping have honestly ruined me. And Arrestshipping...Euroshipping...Rustshipping...Boundshipping...LISTEN!!! If it’s any combination of Seto/Atem/Yugi/TKB-YB/Ryou B/YamiMa/Malik it’s my favorite, okay? I’m a dragon who hoards ships. Especially polyships. I will literally froth at the mouth at any combo of those 7. Now let’s move on to the next question before I add more characters to the list........

14 - what’s a wip that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

That demon/angel au I was working on years and years ago. A shame, since I think there was a lemon that spilled into 3 chapters in that and it’s what Bakura deserves, but the plot was just...meh. 

15/16 - writing strengths and weaknesses

Strengths: Dialogue, sometimes imagery, projecting the right trauma/personality traits on the right characters in a way that can make scenes relatable/authentic. 

Weaknesses: I can be lazy with some plot points b/c it’s fanfiction, and I’m only here to have a good time, so eff it. And I will absolutely “sum up” certain chapters in order to finish a story at 80% potential. Anons used to get on my ass about this, and some commenters too, but I refuse to repent of my hasty ways. I write a lot of stories, and sometimes it’s better to get 3 80% stories out instead of one 100% story (for me. absolutely nothing wrong with ppl who want to write their best all the time. Like, mad respect to those peeps). Anyway, the ppl who complain are 100% accurate, right, and valid, but again, If you call me out on this I’ll just shrug at you and remind you of my commission prices b/c I’ll be happy to personally tailor a story for any angry anon-- if they want to put their money where their critique is *blows kiss*

17 - what are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

Depends on the context and how it’s used. 

18 - what was your first fandom you wrote for?

FFVII, but I never posted any of it thank god

19- what’s your favorite fic you’ve ever written?

I honestly love so many of my stories. I honestly re-read my own stuff all the time for comfort/self-care. I especially love a lot of the more intense, emotional pwp one-shots. It’s extremely difficult to pick one, but let’s go with humor and link 

Measuring Up 

Gotta love Bakura’s monster **** And the interaction involved with writing that story made it so much more fun. I really miss the days where you could slap a vote on tumblr and get a lot of responses, and dammit I miss Abby throwing random things into my ask box (like Bakura’s monster ****) 

Not going to tag anyone, since so many ppl are in the same little thiefshipping circle and I’d probably just accidentally tag a lot of ppl who have been tagged by others already. 

[emrystranslates]

[Haikyuu!! Light Novel Vol. 11 Unofficial English Translation]  Michimiya's Lie

Translator's notes: Hello! It's finally here! The first story of volume 11 of Haikyuu's light novel. Just a few reminders I guess? These are unofficial translations and I can't guarantee 100% accuracy. I tried my best to stay as accurate as possible. Feel free to point our any mistakes or comments to help improve my translations <3 Other translation notes at the end of the story. PS. It's nice to read more about Michimiya. I hope you enjoy this story as much as I did.

Where to buy the originals: Here

Masterlist

________________________________________________________ Even if you said it just turned 6 pm, the outside had become darker as night than it is as dusk. Lately, days are short and the wind that touches the face is cold. It was right to wear a coat when you left the house which you thought may be a little too early to wear.

By the rotary in front of the station, Michimiya Yui is finding stars in the open night sky.

“That one is Orion.” Then, where is the North Pole? Was it the one in the middle of the Big Dipper? No, that’s wrong. If she draws a line from a certain constellation, it should be there. But, what constellation was it? Ursa Major? Ursa Minor? She's sure she had memorized it back when she was in elementary.

After returning her raised head and immediately giving up on finding the North Pole, Michimiya Yui hurried back home.

Will she be able to come home before the 7 pm special program? Did she set-up the video recording in advance?

She was carelessly worrying about the television program while hurrying back home.

Then, her feet suddenly stopped.

“Eh, no way.”

Among the people who are similarly hurrying back home, Michimiya’s eyes are staring at the back of that person wearing a black jersey walking around a block ahead of her.

“What do I do? But what if, I’m wrong? No, I’m not wrong. What to do? Impossible, he is also not listening.”

Though for some reason Michimiya was muttering, she bit her lips like she'd made up her mind and looked down at the boots she’s wearing. From her boots, tights, skirt, and coat, she checked her attire from bottom to top.

“It’s okay. I’m not wearing anything weird.” As she nodded encouragingly, she fixed her bangs through the camera of her phone.

Yoshi!

Then, slapping her cheeks with her two hands, Michimiya kicked the pavement and started running on the night road. Like she was rushing towards the court as if there was a match starting.

“Sawamura!”

____________________________

“Ah, what the- So it’s you Michimiya.”

The man who turned back, wearing a black jersey and holding a sports bag was, of course, Karasuno High School’s volleyball team captain, Sawamura Daichi.

Hahaha, she was told, “what the…”

Though slightly hurt by that, Michimiya without being disheartened asked Sawamura, “Why are you around here? What about today’s practice?”

“Ah, since we ended early today, I went to buy some things like my phone charger. Here.”

After showing the plastic bag from the electronics store, Sawamura continued. “I think it’s because it’s worn out but the one I’m currently using is in really bad shape. I thought that since I can also use it in Tokyo, I should probably prepare a replacement in advance. I just don’t want to panic when it happens.”

“Preparation for Spring High, huh?”

“Yeah. How about you? Where are you going, Michimiya?”

Being asked back, Michimiya hesitated just for a moment.

“Eh? Ah, I just went to hang out with Mao for a little bit. Did you know that we really ate a lot? Recently I’ve been wasting so much that my pocket money is not enough, and I certainly gained weight after retiring!” she said and laughed.

Ah-- what is she saying? She didn’t need to specifically say that she gained weight. Michimiya felt disheartened. However, Sawamura replied.

“Heeeh, Ukai-san also said the same thing before. He gained weight after he retired.”

The matter about girls’ talk of gaining and losing weight was completely ignored.

“Haha, is that so!”

Though laughing with all her might, Michimiya is feeling down.

---- Somehow, she feels like she's the only one pointlessly going around.

Sawamura who is standing before her is completely and truly the same as always. He is a person who just blurts out things like “How about we run for a bit right now?” whenever he likes and who makes a face of a typical men’s volleyball team captain. Michimiya is somehow pressed for words. She doesn't know what she should say. Maybe, “Ukai-san and I are similar then?” She can only say trivial things.

Why is that?

During middle school, she wasn’t this nervous when she was speaking to Sawamura. They even usually talked about things like their club activities, family matters, and tv programs. No, sometime in middle school until recently, she feels like there was no feeling of not knowing what she should talk about. Since when has it been like this?

“Michimiya, that’s where your house is, isn’t it? Because mine is straight ahead.”

“Yes.”

When she lifted her face, Sawamura was pointing across the pedestrian crossing. That’s right. They will separate ways from here on. Sawamura goes straight ahead while Michimiya crosses the pedestrian crossing to the other side.  

“Bye,” Sawamura said, and he quickly walked away.

“Ah, yeah bye.”

The moment she said that and waved her hand, a wave of sadness came over her.

Though it was one of the rare times they got to go home together, somehow the time passed indistinctly. At least, if the stoplight was red then he could have waited until it turned green, but it was already green. Rather, she could have called him out. No, isn’t it nice that until here they were able to walk together and talk a little? Like this, after a few months, it’ll be graduation.

That’s right. When this winter ends it’ll be graduation, and chance meetings like this will be gone. Ah-- but even if it’s like that, saying things like “bye,” he just went straight ahead like that as usual.

-----------------------------

Watching the back of Sawamura as he started to walk away, her chest got tighter. It’s difficult. Painful. The pain pushes tightly starting from her chest coming all the way up to her throat. It’s a reproachful green light and yet why does it flicker as if it drives her forward if she won’t cross the street. Ah, she hates it. She really hates it.

What she hates is that she's the only one who isn’t straightforward. She's weak, huh. She hates being weak. She wants to become stronger.  

Then once again, she slapped her cheeks and tried to motivate herself at that moment.

To find the way out, the pain, which had forcefully and continuously come up from her chest all the way up to her throat, had become words that popped out of her mouth.

“Sawamura!”

_______________________

“Yeah, what’s the matter?”

Sawamura who was called stopped just ahead and turned around.

“Eh? Ah, No…..Uhm, It’s…., E--- The, hahahaha…..”

What does she do? She's troubled. She didn’t have a purpose for stopping him.

Since the earlier “Sawamura!” was similar to a hiccup or a sneeze which selfishly came out of her mouth contrary to what she intended to do, she really didn’t have a purpose for calling him out. But, she can’t say that.

What to do? What to do? She should say something. It’s going to be weird if she doesn’t say something. Uhh….

Though Michimiya was in a hurry, when she found the bright street lamp by the road ahead, once again her hand moved before she could think. She pointed at the street lamp and said. “Ah! Uhh, Salt! Right, salt and soy sauce, then olive oil? Yup, that! Somehow it looks like they only have it at the big supermarket here. What’s that? Pickiness? My mom seems to have something like that? It’s troublesome, isn’t it?”

“Eh? Ah, is that so?”

Without noticing Michimiya’s slightly peculiar energy, Sawamura said, “Ukai-san also said something similar to that. Something about beer, I think?” He looked at the direction of the supermarket once again, “Then, we’re going in the same direction.” He ascertained. Michimiya, without knowing why,  thought “Thank you, Ukai-san!” While thanking him from the bottom of her heart, she nodded.

“Yes!”

“Then, let’s go?”

Behind the two who started walking, the stoplight turned red.

__________________

She lied.

The fact that she easily blurted out a lie, perhaps, she is bad. What does she do?

Mom, I’m so sorry. Until now, I planned to live an honest life but from today, I have become a bad liar.

As she was apologizing to her mother, the pain Michimiya felt until a while ago was gone. Her heart, on the contrary, was refreshed, her footsteps light. Even the awkwardness when speaking to Sawamura disappeared.

“Even so, it’s finally Nationals huh? It’s really amazing. Because when you speak of Spring High, it’s just so amazing that you’ve come to not really know what it is,” Michimiya said.

“That thing is not true right? Gestalt Collapse, huh.”

“No. But Spring High is just so unreachable. Ah, I shouldn’t say that. We aimed for that after all. However, rather than 'We’ll go to Nationals' things like ‘We won against Seijou’ or ‘We won against Shiratoriza’ are more familiar. You can actually feel it ‘like woah, it’s amazing!’”

“Aah, if it’s like that, I think I can understand.”

“For me, I can’t go to Tokyo but I’ll definitely watch on tv and give my support!” Michimiya replied.

“Aah, yes please.”

“But you see, both you and Sugawara are not only doing club activities but also studying at the same time, men’s volleyball really is amazing, huh.” While they were talking about things like that, Michimiya noticed something.

If it’s something about volleyball, they could talk normally. Ah, that’s right. It’s probably after she retired from club activities that she had come to not know what to talk about. Maybe it’s because they’re not both volleyball team captains anymore. Maybe it’s wrong? She wonders what it is. No, well, she guess it’s okay since they can freely talk if it’s about volleyball. However, up to the point that she told a lie, how is it that they can only talk about volleyball?

Sawamura without noticing the complicated feelings of Michimiya who was walking beside him, like the way he is, said and laughed. “No, back in first year I did receive failing marks you see. I’m worried about how next year will be.”

Things like who will be fit to be the next captain? Or how Seijou's 2nd years would be? What kind of people will Dateko’s 1st year players be? Even here, stories of nothing but club activities continue. If Sugawara were here, he'd probably say “You’re slow!” then get angry or laugh, but luckily or unluckily, Sugawara is not here. It’s only the two of them.

Then while both of them continued talking about their club activities, the two, at last, arrived in front of the Supermarket.

“Then, I’ll go shopping now!”

After she pointed at the almost blinding bright inside of the store, Michimiya laughed and then waved her hand as if it was nothing. “Bye!”

Truthfully, they were supposed to separate by the crossing but even if it’s just around 5 minutes, it was nice that they were able to walk together a bit longer. Yes, that’s good. She shouldn’t think things like disappointment or sadness, or “It’s ends here huh.” She told herself. However, not knowing about Michimiya’s resignation, Sawamura instead of waving back said, “I’m hungry. I think I’ll also buy something.”

_________________________

The apple is red and colorful while the carrot is bright orange. The radish somehow reminds her of negative things so she’ll ignore it while the cauliflower is fluffy like a puppy which makes it cute. The tofu is tightly lined up and if she looks at the Japanese pickled vegetables, surprisingly it’s beautiful as it is of various colors. How come? Was the supermarket always this sparkling? Michimiya cheerfully walks around the crowded store while holding an empty basket.

Whenever she goes out to the supermarket for errands she does not really think of anything but today whatever she sees looks delicious and fun. “Meat!” “Steaming Hot Pot!” Even the senseless BGM is fun. The various fruits, ice cream, pasta sauce, toothbrush, flour mix. The candies which change colors, even the combinations of sorts of the small steamed buns by grandma’s house. Anyhow, to the extent that she wants to put anything inside her basket, even herself knows that her spirits are way too high.

Calm down, dear self. It’s impossible. I can’t calm down.

“Ah, this one. Someone frequently bought this for me when I was a child. So it was 20 yen.”

Sawamura said who was beside Michimiya who in turn was holding a yogurt-flavored candy.

“This is the same one as Nishinoya ate just recently.”

“Eh, for real? It probably suits him.”

“Does cheap sweets suit him? Or does it not? No, wait. It does suit him.”

“Right?”

Then, they looked at each other and laughed.

Crap. This is fun. Forever and ever doing it like this.

“This. My mom usually buys this but honestly, it’s bitter.”

“No way! I discovered chocomint soy milk,” Michimiya exclaimed.

“Natto snack? What do you mean?”

I wanted to exchange things like that while walking round and round but I can’t do that. The things I have to buy have been decided beforehand. Truthfully, it’s okay even if I don’t buy anything.

“Uhh, salt, where is it again? This is where flour-related products are. Uhh… ah. There it is.”

As she arrived before the shelves where the condiments are, Sawamura who followed her was shocked.

“Wow. There are a lot. Which one are you buying?”

“Eh? Ah.. uuh”

Then, what should I buy?

More than she thought there were a lot of salt, salt, salt in front of her. Michimiya is at a loss. To begin with, she doesn't know what they were using at home. For now, she will just pick the one slightly expensive and put it in the basket. Well, it doesn’t really matter whatever she gets.

Beside her, Sawamura took the same salt and muttered, “Deep-sea water salt, huh. How is the taste different from the usual salt?”

“It’s a little mild, I think? But I’m not sure. I don’t lick only salt anyways.”

“Mildness, huh? I think I understand the differences in salt. I think if it’s Shimada-san, he probably knows.”

Looking at Sawamura’s face who was looking at the package of salt so earnestly, Michimiya, without thinking, laughed.

“What is it?” Sawamura questioned.

“Eh? No, it’s nothing! I just thought that maybe I should buy another one and try to compare them.” While dodging the question, Michimiya put a bag of ordinary table salt.

“Not a master of sake but a master of salt huh.”

“Yeah.”

Then, at the next shelf, she chose the barrel-prepared natural soy sauce because it also has a slightly higher price. Continuing at the opposite shelf, she chose the organic extra virgin olive oil.

“With these, I’m done! Then, what are you buying Sawamura? Bread? Onigiri?”

“Eh? Aah, do they have yakisoba bread?”

“You like that right?”

“It’s not that I particularly like it...wait? Hmm, do I like it?”

Sawamura is thinking while making a serious face again. It’s interesting.

But, to prevent not being asked “What is it?” again, Michimiya controlled herself from laughing and walked to search for bread. Not really. There’s not one thing that is particularly interesting. We’re just shopping as usual. But, she can’t help break into a smile anyway.

Eventually, she saw that there was no yakisoba bread. Worrying about what to get between hamburger bread and chicken sandwich was also fun. Choosing the money inside her wallet which was just barely enough was also fun. Everything was fun. Everything.

She probably understood the feelings of the people in musicals who suddenly sing and dance, Michimiya thought. If she does not pay attention and consciously make a meek face, she would  to an extent carelessly skip inside the store. She can’t help that it’s just a fun, fun shopping experience.

_________________________

After exiting the supermarket, Sawamura immediately started eating the hamburger bread. Based on the reasoning that the poor can’t afford manners, in front of a young high school man’s hunger, things like manners are too much.

“You’re really hungry huh.”

When Michimiya laughed, Sawamura inserted the straw into the packet of his milk coffee and strangely asked back, “Eh, there’s no need to lie right?”

Ah. My ears hurt.

It was when Michimiya looked down.

“Ah, it’s Karasuno’s volleyball team”

Suddenly, after the name of their school was called, Sawamura and Michimiya at the same time raised their heads. In front of their eyes were three men wearing blazers standing.

With a half-eaten hamburger bread in one hand, Sawamura opened his mouth.

“Ah. It’s Datekou’s Moniwa-kun and...”

That’s right. The ones who called out were Date Tech High School Volleyball team’s 3rd year students, Moniwa, Kamasaki and Sasaya.”

“Eh, people from Dateko?”

“Yeah.”

Though the two students from Karasuno were surprised with this sudden chance meeting, the students of Dateko, on the other hand do not at all express their surprise through words and instead are showing inexpressible discomposure.

If one thinks that the ex-captain Moniwa is retreating while unsteadily staggering, the former middle blocker Kamasaki stands dauntingly, with eyes open wide and barely moving. At their back, former wing spiker Sasaya calmly opened his eyes wide. Though for a short while the three were at a loss for words without even saying any greetings. Eventually they looked at each other’s dumbfounded faces and with trembling mouths, talked.

“Ha…. more than the fact that you're going to the Nationals, a man and woman walking side by side? What is this? What’s with that? Reality?”

“Wait, these two…shopping together?”

“Shopping...no way….perhaps, this is that rumored ‘Nabe-pa’?”

“Wait, Nabe-pa is an urban legend, right?”

“What urban legend? Do you understand what we’re saying?”

“Is it bad if I don’t understand?”

“Well, of course it's not good.”

He doesn’t understand what the conversation is about. He doesn’t understand, but looking at the people he knew suddenly start a useless quarrel in front of them, Sawamura cannot stand quietly.

“No, Uhh, Sasaya-kun? Here is the front of a store, so….” As he was trying to stop the scene, the other three, who were now looking teary-eyed, glared back at him. Without thinking, he winced. At that time, the three people from Dateko gave out something like those times when Sawamura, who unifies the 1st and 2nd year problem children of Karasuno, almost lost his nerves or probably some iron wall higher than the one they face during matches.

Watching the three fighting over nabe on the road, Sawamura said, “I think they’re the type best left as is.”

“I think so, too.” Michimiya firmly nodded.

Together, these two, as captains, have come to unify their team members. On one side they are not at all dull nor late bloomers, but they fundamentally excel in assessing the situation. These two decided that this is where they should draw back from the three.

“Let’s go."

“Yeah.”

Then, the two left the three players of Dateko and started walking away from the Supermarket.

“I wonder what that was?”

“Maa, there’s a lot of things.”

“Right.”

After laughing, they looked at each other.

“Well, since I go this way...”

“Aah”

“Bye”

Michimiya laughed. Today, they said several goodbyes. Yet, there was no sadness like the one she felt until a moment ago. If she said any complaints about having a fun time like this, surely she’ll be punished.

“See you tomorrow.”

“Yeah.”

The two waved their hands and then, they walked onto their respective paths.

_____________________

After fixing her hold on the grocery bag, carrying it with two hands instead of one, she muttered to herself.

“So heavy--”

The bag contains 2 bags of 1kg salt, 1 liter of soy sauce, and 50 ml of olive oil packed in a glass bottle. There’s no way it’s light.

After all, these are not needed. It would have been good if she had chosen lighter ones. Something like pepper or wheat or fried tofu. Either way, how will she explain to her mom the salt, soy sauce and olive oil. She can’t say the truth. With that said, she also has to say another lie.

Be that as it may, she was paying for her sins, and her mind was cloudy. At that time, a voice behind her was heard.

“Michimiya!”

When she looks back, she is surprised. The person who was crossing the pedestrian is Sawamura whom she just parted with just now.

“Eh? Eh?!”

As she stood holding tightly the rustling heavy vinyl bag, Sawamura, who caught up, said,

“I forgot to say something.” His face changed to a serious one after he smiled.

When Michimiya straightened her back without thinking, Sawamura talked.

“Thank you for the protective charm you gave before.”

“Eh. Ah, yeah.”

“I’ll bring it to Spring High as well.”

After saying only that, Sawamura said, “Bye.”

Then again, he turned back and started walking.

“Ah, yeah!”

With his back facing her, replying only was the best she could do.

“.......................”

It’s the usual Karasuno Volleyball Team Jersey. The back of a black jersey which is more familiar than their uniform will immediately tell you it’s Sawamura. No matter how dark it is. No matter how far he is. There’s no mistaking it. Indeed, it’s a back that has the dependability of a captain.

------ Indeed a captain?

Michimiya thinks.

Was I able to show my friends and kouhai a back like that? Without being ashamed, was I able to perform and be devoted?

As soon as she thought of that, Michimiya shouted, “Wait!”

Sawamura stopped his feet and turned back. “What is it?”

Michimiya held out the heavy vinyl bag and said. “This! You see, this, today, the truth is we don’t really need it.”

“Eh? Ah, is that so?”

“Yeah, I’m sorry.”

Michimiya put her head down after saying that. Sawamura answered, as if he was slightly troubled.

“No, there’s no need to apologize, right.”

“No. It’s no good. Because….” Michimiya shakes her head.

Sawamura spoke. “It’s okay. Even if you don’t use it today, someday you’ll use it right?”

“Eh? Ah, yeah. That’s right but…”

That is true but the problem is---- As she was thinking that, Sawamura continued.

“Recently, Ukai-san said --”

“Eh? Ukai-san again?”

“Yeah. Somehow, when he went along to do his family’s shopping, he was asked to line up several times to buy this bread called “Only 1 Loaf of Bread” from one of the famous stores. They have to eat it before it goes bad so everyday, every meal he continues to buy the bread and with that, it was really tiring.”

Bread? What is he talking about? Michimiya was doubtful but Sawamura’s face was serious all throughout so in the meantime she’ll keep listening.

“If you compared that to the bread, the salt and the soy sauce isn’t so bad.”

“Ah, yeah. Maybe it’s because it doesn’t get moldy?”

“Right?”

“Yeaaah?”

So, that’s it. That’s what the story was about, huh. Will it get molds? Will it not get molds? Is it good to talk about mold? Salt certainly does not get molds but…

At that time, her head was full of things about mold.

Sawamura spoke again, “Then, tell me how the Deep-sea water salt tastes like.”

“Eh?”

“Hey, salt master. Earlier, you said that it might taste mild but on the contrary, without putting unnecessary things, there is a possibility that it’ll have a sharp taste, right?”

Being lured by Sawamura’s serious face all throughout, Michimiya forgot about molds and pondered.

“You’re right. Yeah, I’ll try it once I get home.”

“Well then, tomorrow, please let me know.”

After saying that and smiling, Sawamura said, “bye,” and once again turned on his heel.

“Yeah! Tomorrow!” She cheerfully called out and waved her hand.

She saw his back walk across the street and watched it grow smaller and smaller as he moved farther away. It was when he finally turned at the corner and disappeared from her sight that Michimiya released her breath.

“Tomorrow, huh.”

As she said that, she held her cheeks with her two hands.

Hot, I’m sure my face has become bright red. Good thing it is dark, she thought. Since I’m absolutely making a weird face.

As she breathed in the perfectly clear winter air with all her might, Michimiya looked up at the night sky.

“So Tomorrow!”

She breathes out all her feelings together with a frosty breath. Then she faced front and started walking. Holding the heavy and precious package, she embraced in heart her small, small promise with Sawamura.

Salt, it’s okay to just taste it as is but maybe she should try making an onigiri and compare? There's also the option of dipping boiled egg to it and eating it.

As she is thinking about things like that, she starts to run before she knows it.

Just by running, it feels like tomorrow will come faster.

-------END------

Some Translation Notes:

Gestalt Collapse: ゲシュタルト崩壊 (Gestalt Collapse) is a term in Japanese which describes the phenomenon of a complex character breaking down into its component parts in one's mind and losing its meaning if one stares at it for a short while. Source: http://www.antimoon.com/forum/t8706.htm (Will try to find a more reliable source)

"Not a master of sake but a master of salt huh.” The original line is 効き酒ならぬ、効き塩 (Kikisake naranu kikishio) An alternative translation is "It's tasting salt instead of tasting sake"

Nabe - Hot Pot

Kouhai - Lower classmen

Nabe-pa - Short-term for Nabe Party

Natto - Fermented Soybeans

Tsukemono - Japanese Pickled Vegetables

一斤限り Ikkinkagiri Is the Japanese name of the bread the Ukai-san bought. There's no official translation for the name yet so I did my best to translate in English. 一斤 ikkin means loaf of bread while 限り means limit/only/degree.

衣食足りて礼節を知る[ishoku tarite reisetsu wo shiru]：the poor can't afford manners can also be translated as only when basic needs for living are met can people spare the effort to be polite

[yeahidontgohere]

Too many thoughts on SPN 15x17, “Unity”

Welp, I don’t usually do this, but this episode was so great and packed with so many good parallels and callbacks I couldn’t help it! Meredith Glynn is such a great writer. So, let’s begin. Lots of spoilers under the cut.

The first scene opens up to Amara living life to the fullest in an Icelandic hot spring (I’ve been to some in Iceland and would 10/10 recommend – don’t bother with the Blue Lagoon, though). My eyes were immediately drawn to the super recognizable cover of Murakami’s “Norwegian Wood”. Now, I haven’t read this book since, like, high school (now realizing that was a DECADE ago), but I do remember the general plot and themes of the story (I should really reread that again, it’s a good book). Basically, the story is recalled by our narrator and protagonist Watanabe at a later point in his life as he is reminded of a time of life when the Beatles’ song “Norwegian Wood” plays. I don’t want to spoil the whole book, but basically it is a coming of age story that is steeped in themes of regret, sex, love, and death (among others, it really is a literary treasure trove!). Skip the next paragraph if you don’t want “Norwegian Wood” spoilers.

In short: Watanabe’s best friend from high school commits suicide which haunts him and his friend’s girlfriend, Naoki, for the rest of their lives. Watanabe and Naoki become close and romantically involved, but she leaves for a sanitorium. Watanabe wants to be with Naoki despite her telling him that she doesn’t think she can love anymore (she described herself and her high school boyfriend as soulmates). Watanabe later meets Naoki’s opposite, Midori, a lively girl who Watanabe grows close to and is also interested in. Watanabe essentially doesn’t move forward as he is waiting on Naoki while having Midori waiting on him. At the end of the story, it is revealed that it has always been Midori and he realizes he wants to be with her.

I thought that this was an EXCELLENT pick for Amara to be reading. It really sums of a lot of surface and not-so-surface level themes in Supernatural. Wondering if there is a parallel between Dean and Watanabe about sort of idealizing a life (with someone) that isn’t meant to be while ignoring love in front of you? Would love to hear all of your thoughts.

Moving on (I’m skipping through parts of the episode to just focus on some key observations)! Amara tries to convince Chuck to fight on behalf of this world and wants to show him some of his creations. So, she brings him to Heaven to see his ‘first children’ (i.e., angels). She also refers to angels as having prefect angelic devotion which immediately made me laugh because our fave angel Cas is really devoted to Dean humanity and not Chuck. Ahh! This whole episode just kept pointing out how special Cas is.

And then, callback after callback began. Amara brings Chuck to the bunker so Chuck says, “Is this a trap?” which made me think of episode 9 (“The Trap” by Berens). This was almost immediately followed by another callback when Chuck says, “You can’t hold me here forever,” to which Amara replies, “I can hold you long enough.” Um, Lily Sunder Has Some Regrets (12x10, Yockey), anyone?

Ishim: “You can’t hold me here forever.” … Lily’s powers are wearing off as Ishim approaches her until Cas stabs Ishim in the back with his angel blade. Cas: “You held him for long enough.”

Like, COME ON! Almost verbatim.

Skipping forward to Dean and Jack’s adventure to visit my favorite hippies, Adam and Serafina (like seriously, they were fantastic characters!). Adam refers to himself as, “…first dude off of the assembly line,” which is similar language that has been used to referring to angels in the past (again, invoking Castiel?)

Then Dean assumes the woman is Eve but they both just shake their heads and chuckle, “I’m Serafina,” I’m definitely not the first one to point this out but… the First Man being in a near-lifelong romantic relationship with an angel named Seraph Serafina?! Uh, yeah, ‘nuff said.

Serafina also mentions that she saw Jack when she and Adam were, “…sipping mushroom tea on the Hanging Gardens of Babylon,” which made me wonder if there was some sort of connection with Glynn’s season 14 episode, “Byzantium” (14x08), which is the episode Cas makes his deal with the Empty. Babylon was a fortress of the Byzantine empire (not going to lie, my historical knowledge about the Byzantine empire is preeeeetty limited).  

I also loved the whole speech by Serafina to Dean: “I mean, just think of everything that has had to happen to get Jack to this place, to this moment. Baby, it was meant to be,” Dean, of course, is upset by this because he is probably thinking that this was all basically predestined, and he has had no free will. However, he just needs to wait a little while longer until Chuck tells him to his face that he has never been able to control Cas since he laid his hand on Dean saving him from Hell.

Serafina also heals Adam’s wound and it is, of course, super reminiscent of Cas healing Dean (although, even Serafina doesn’t directly touch Adam when healing him – it’s, once again, unique to Castiel). Obligatory hand squeal: HANDS!!!! Wow, they are not even trying to be subtle about the whole hands thing. It is so IN YOUR FACE begging for the audience to notice it.

Adam then mentions how much power is in his rib: “But this puppy? Is packing enough punch to create LIFE. Or, in your case, destroy God.” Well, at this point I think we can all be pretty certain that in the end it will NOT be used to destroy God, so will it instead be used for creation? Excited to see how they defuse Jack’s supernova bomb next episode.

Rounding off Dean’s vignette is a heartbreaking scene with him and Jack in the Impala. Dean says, “I don’t know how to explain it. When I learned about Chuck, it was like – it’s like I wasn’t alive. Not really. You know, like, my whole life I’ve never been free. But like, really free. But now, me and Sam, we got a shot at living a life…But now we have a chance. And that’s because of you.” Again, this is before Dean learns that Cas’ actions were made of his own free will, and from the sounds of it, Dean’s connection to Amara as well. I also immediately wondered if Jack bringing Dean some sense of freedom was what Cas saw when Jack showed him “paradise”.

Moving on to Sam’s vignette: Sam remembers that Sergei mentioned the Key of Death was in the bunker (how did he remember this, wasn’t he unconscious at the time? A little disappointed Cas didn’t get to provide that little fact but I’m also glad that Sam actually served a purpose this episode and was a bit more front and center). They find the Key of Death and there is an inscription in Latin on the box:

Viator mortalis, cave, quoniam scias Clavem Mortis pensare graviter. Il tamen desideres ut introeas illum abyssum obscurissimum artis opus est tibi porta.

Okay, fair warning: I took Latin for 4 years but it has been awhile so my translation is super not perfect, but I figured I would take a stab at it because the subtitles were wrong at times and Google translate is not perfect. I translated it as something like this:

Mortal traveler, beware, because you know the Key of Death should be considered seriously. However, if you want to enter the darkest abyss, this work of art is the gate/door.

Honestly, there were a few words that I couldn’t find the right conjugations to and I know this isn’t 100% accurate, but it gives you the gist.

Sam then visits Death’s library and finds the Empty there, killing people (?) to get in touch with Death, whom they hasn’t been trusting as of late. We learn that Death’s plan is to assume the role of New God and restore the world back to order, bring back rules. The Empty is wary because they don’t know if they can trust the promise of being able to go back to sleep. Trust issues, the Empty says, because of “your busted-ass friend in the trench coat,” another subtle-not-so-subtle mention of Cas. But why, exactly, did Cas give the Empty ‘trust issues’? Was it because he woke up in the first place? Because he has ‘traipsed in and out’ of the Empty without dying?

We also learn that only Billie can read Chuck’s Death book, and, this may be a crack idea but… maybe Cas should be able to read the book because he was the one that killed Billie and made her Death in the first place? Seems like Cas might have a connection to Billie. It would be cool if Cas were the one to read Chuck’s book.

Finally, we learn a bit more about the Empty, and how they can’t go to Earth unless summoned. Hmm…

Flash forward to Amara and Chuck in the bunker. Amara tells Chuck, “It’s not too late, brother,” and, if you’re like me, you finished that sentence with “it’s never too late (to start all over again)”. So many great Destiel songs out there, but “Never Too Late” takes the cake for me.

Amara and Chuck decide to become one, become ultimate balance. Chuck extends his hand and Amara grasps it as she is absorbed into Chuck. I don’t even know if I really need to say this, but… HANDS! (Destiel is already canon to me but if the show is going to make it more explicitly canon for the audience, it’s going to be through hands as I know people have been shouting about for several seasons now).  

To finish, let’s talk about that kick-ass scene with TFW 2.0 at the end of the episode. We find out that Chuck’s real ending is to have Dean regress and give in to rage and kill everything he loves, probably ultimately leading to his own death. Woof, what a tragic ending (tragedy ≠ good ending). So, we’ve got to subvert that which Dean does after a heartfelt plea from Sam (“You would trade me?”). I enjoyed how much Dean looked back at Cas during this exchange, especially after Sam tells Dean that Eileen will die again. The parallels, the connection.

Honestly, I’m not sure why Cas and Jack were in that scene other than to have some meaningful glances exchanged between Cas and Dean and because TFW2.0 is together in the next scene. But… whatever, more Cas so I liked it.

And finally, the scene that had me shaking with VINDICATION.

Cas to Chuck: “What, you consumed your sister?” Chuck: “We came to an understanding, so spare me your contempt Castiel, the self-hating angel of Thursday. You know what every other version of you did after ‘gripping him tight and raising him from perdition’? They did what they were told. But not you. Not the ‘one off the line with a crack in his chassis’” (Cas looks back at Dean after a moment)

Okay, so let’s break this exchange down. So much satisfaction with just a few sentences. Bravo, Ms. Glynn.

“We came to an understanding.” Didn’t Michael and Adam say the same thing after they decided to share equally in their bond and vessel? Callback #1.

“…self-hating angel of Thursday.” Ahh, it’s been so long since we got mention that Cas is the angel of Thursday. The last time was, what, when Crowley says it to Cas back in season 6? By the way, it was totally meant to be that Supernatural will finish off the series on a Thursday. Callback #2 (ish).

“You know what every other version of you did after ‘gripping him tight and raising him from perdition’?” This is the second time the show has repeated Cas’ first line to Dean near-verbatim in two seasons. You know, just in case the audience forgot Dean and Cas’ infamous first meeting (which I am like 99% sure we are going to get hella callbacks to next episode). Callback #3.

“They did what they were told. But not you. Not the ‘one off the line with a crack in his chassis.’” Again, Chuck is closely paraphrasing what Naomi said about Cas in season 8:

8x21 “The Great Escapist” – Naomi: “You're the famous spanner in the works. Honestly, I think you came off the line with a crack in your chassis. You have never done what you were told. Not completely. You don't even die right, do you?”

Callback #4. Seriously, Glynn packed four callbacks into such a short time period. Wizard.

My only *criticism* of this final scene is that Dean and Cas didn’t seem to react too much to Chuck’s news about Cas always having free will (although, I think Cas already knew this, but it is news and confirmation to Dean!). I highly suspect that will come next week, though. I’m SO excited (and also terrified) for next week. We are definitely going to be getting a lot of Cas next episode. Misha, in an interview, mentioned that we would get Cas’ ‘chapter’ in 18, and I’m wondering if this will be the true Cas-centric episode? I don’t know, maybe the Cas-centric episode was “Gimme Shelter” but I was expecting more of a “The Man Who Would Be King” kind of Cas-centric episode.  

All in all, 10/10. I keep reading and seeing things that are galaxy braining me, so it has been super fun reading all the meta and reactions to this episode.

Three episodes left. Get your tissues ready for Cas’ death (oops, is this even a spoiler at this point?) next episode. And remember, “Nothing ever really ends,” and “The end has no end,”

[purplesurveys]

1240

Are you better at cooking dinners or making cakes/biscuits/sweets?  I can’t make any dish. I wonder when I’ll get my ass up and start learning...

Have you ever cut someone else’s hair?  I wouldn’t dare; I have no skills in that department at all.

Who was the last guest in your house and what were they staying for?  Angela and Hans came over so we can watch Sowoozoo. 

How many long term relationships have you been in?  One.

Do you sleep with all the lights out, or do you leave a lamp or even the television on?  My default is lights out, but sometimes I’ll fall asleep with my night lamp still on and that’s fine too.

Who is one person you have forgiven, but still have not “forgotten” what they have done?  I don’t really do forgiving.

Are you a fan of Lana Del Rey?  No. I’ve tried listening to her songs but I find them too slow for my liking.

Do you know your blood type?  It’s O but I keep forgetting what specific type.

Do you know your mother’s birthday?  Yes.

Have you got your period at the moment?  It’s on its last few days.

Have you ever been pregnant?  Nopes.

How old were you when you first went on a plane?  I was around 10 or 11, can’t remember exactly. But it was in 2009 and we headed to Boracay.

Have you ever had to take out a loan for anything?  No. OMG, adult activity I don’t quite understand just yet hfdhfkdjfhdf.

Are both of your blood parents still in your life?  Yeah they’re both grumbling right now just outside of my room because the power went out lmfao.

When was the last time you went apple picking?  I’ve never done this. Apples don’t grow here.

Someone asked you what you wanted, what would you say?  My pay for the last two weeks haha, but that’s not coming until Friday.

Have you ever been drunk at school or work?  No, I wouldn’t dare. I’m pretty unpredictable when I get drunk, so I’d rather stay safe haha. I’ve worked while tipsy, but it had been outside of work hours.

How many bedrooms are in your house?  4. One for each kid, then my parents’.

Are you smart about computers?  Nah.

Have you ever played Just Dance for Wii?  We didn’t have the game on our Wii, but I’ve played Just Dance before, just at other peoples’ houses.

Do you own a Xbox 360?  We were a Playstation household.

Would you ever do a sex tape for a million dollars?  Erm, sure, whatever.

So, do you need a nap?  I think I should be taking one for the sake of my health, but I won’t.

What would you rather be doing?  I stumbled upon a Facebook post of this newly-opened store in Greenhills that exclusively sells photocards and I wanna head the fuck over there rn with Angela. That store concept is practically unheard of so it’s a big deal and I wanna go there as I’m 100% sure the BTS ones would sell out pretty fast. But they heightened the stupid COVID protocols yet again and we have to stay at home, so there’s that.

What sport are you the best at?  Table tennis.

Do you have a little sister? What’s her name?  Yeah but she’s turning 21 this year, so little wouldn’t be accurate anymore. We call her Nina at home but everyone else calls her by her full first name, Janina.

Do you complain a lot?  I do complain a lot but I also do the thing that is causing the complaint right after so I can shut myself up lmao.

Would you rather go to an authentic haunted house or an ancient temple?  Both sound fun but I’ll probably take the temple. Yay for learning something new about culture!!

Do you like fruity or minty gum?  I don’t mind flavor when it comes to gum because they fade out anyway.

Are you looking forward to any day of this month?  My company set another mental health break day this upcoming August 27th, so I’ll be thinking about that day throughout the month.

Have you ever gotten detention?  We don’t have detention.

Is there a traumatic event that you’ve experienced that’s changed your life?  Sure.

Do you buy a majority of your clothes from a certain store, or do you just pick out items of clothing you could see yourself wearing, not caring about the store it came from? The latter. < Same. I can be brand-conscious sometimes, but generally if I find something cute, regardless from where I found it, I’d grab it.

Have any of the artists you’re fond of released new albums recently?  Technically yeah. It was a single album. 

Would you ever keep your favorite animal as a pet?  I already have two of them.

Ever cried so much you threw up?  Possibly.

Who is your best guy friend? Hans.

What do you two do when you hang out?  We usually eat out and have a drink or two.

What is a movie that you thought you would hate but you ended up loving?  Spotlight, just because it looked boring at first glance. It turned out to be very riveting and the screenplay was fascinating as well.

Do you even like horror movies?  Yes, but they’re best watched with other people.

Do you live in the country?  Nopes.

What is your favorite accent?  I don’t have one.

Have you ever had a boyfriend your parents didn’t like?  No.

Do you drink Pepsi or Coke?  I had the chance to try out Pepsi when we went to Taco Bell two weeks ago - it was my first time to have it and it was...actually pretty good??? The soda-hater in me was scandalized HAHAHA but it was good!!! I think I prefer Pepsi now.

What do you plan to do on your 21st birthday?  My 21st birthday started out terribly because Gabie’s family didn’t want her to hang out with me on a Sunday (the day my birthday fell on), so we were in an argument the whole day. Angela saved the day when she planned out an impromptu dinner + arcade date for me, and that was the only good part of the day, really. I’d rather forget the rest of it.

Do you have any person in your family with an addiction to beer?  I don’t think so.

Do you take a lot of pictures?  I’m starting to, now.

What kind of face wash do you use?  Good ol’ water.

Does drama always seem to follow you?  Not these days.

Does anybody in your family race?  Nope.

Are you closer to your mom or dad?  Dad, I guess. But I wouldn’t particularly call myself ‘close’ with either.

How much money did you used to get from the ”tooth fairy?”  I never received money from them.

How long do you want to live with your parents?  Maybe up until my mid-20s? Late-20s at the latest. I’m not exactly in the position to move out yet. The money I make at the moment would probably just be enough to cover rent, and just rent. I’d end up starving to death hahaha.

Do you have a laptop or desktop?  Laptop.

Do you like your parents?  Sure.

Do you secretly like someone?  I don’t.

Would you ever date your best male friend?  No. I also wouldn’t do that to Angela.

What are you currently listening to?  Moon by Jin! Such a comfort song.

Do you want to be single?  Yes.

Did you go out or stay in last night?  I stayed in and was knocked out pretty early since I had been up since 1 AM.

Have you pretended to like someone?  No. I don’t see why I would have to that.

How is your heart lately?  Just filled with nothing but Bangtan at this point haha. It’s doing well!

Are you wearing socks?  No. Socks bother me for the most part; they make my feet feel a bit suffocated.

What do people call you?  Robyn.

Do you get stressed out easily?  Yeah, I’m quite the overthinker.

Have you ever been taken to the emergency room in an ambulance?  No, I’ve never actually been inside an ambulance, whether it came for me or for another person.

What is wrong with you right now?  I should probably cut back on the vaping, for one.

Do you own something from Hot Topic?  No.

Would you rather sleep with someone else or alone?  It’s hard for me to sleep with someone else. Even when I had been in a relationship, I usually only got to fall asleep an hour or so after my partner already dozed off.

Do you still talk to the person you last made out with?  No, I cut ties at the start of the year and have been substantially better since then.

Have you ever seen your best friend cry?  I honestly don’t think so. I’m the bigger crybaby between us.

Did you get any compliments today?  My mom thanked me for covering for Cooper’s shots today since they ended up being quite costly.

Have you ever gone to a beach?  Yes, it’s one of my absolute favorite places to be.

What would you say if someone asked you to get high right now?  Pass up on the offer.

Do you believe that everything happens for a reason?  Yes.

Have you ever done volunteer work just because you wanted to?  I’ve never had the ample time to, so no. I’ve always wanted to volunteer at an animal shelter, though.

Do you have long nails?  They’re not dramatically long, but they have started to grow out.

Do you like the gender you are? I don't like or dislike it, honestly. I'm just neutral. < Same.

Do you generally look nice in photos?  I think this is the case these days, yeah. I’ve started feeling more confident and I think it’s able to translate in photos.

Have you ever had a stick insect as a pet?  No.

What colour are your father’s eyes?  Dark brown.

If I handed you a concert ticket right now, who would you want to be the performer?  BTS DUH

Name three facts about your family?  I come from a family of lawyers; many of us are big history buffs; and many are also fantastic cooks so I don’t know where that talent could have possibly gone when it come to my generation hah.

Would you ever get into a long distance relationship?  If I’ve reached a certain level of investment in the relationship, I could probably handle it. 

What’s the most thoughtful present you’ve ever received?  A Punk shirt and Petals For Armor physical CD from Andi this last Christmas.

What’s your favorite hot beverage? Hot chocolate. < Yessssss!

Did you ever play an instrument? If so what?  I don’t.

Would you rather carve pumpkins or wrap presents?  Carving pumpkins sounds fun, especially since I haven’t tried it before.

Do you think you’re important?  Idk. I don’t really like drawing attention to myself though, so that could probably answer your question.

What’s the best compliment you’ve ever received?  Andi wrote a letter for me to accompany the aforementioned Christmas gifts they gave, and it remains to be my favorite letter I’ve received. They essentially reminded and affirmed me that I’m stronger than I think I am, and that I’ve been through a lot and have grown a lot, and that that growth is seen by people around me.

Have you been diagnosed with any mental disorders?  No.

Have you ever moved to another state or country? If so, how did it feel to be new?  Just to different cities, but considering how tiny my country is, the move is quite insignificant lol.

Do you know how to properly eat food with chopsticks?  I’m 100% sure I don’t know how to properly hold chopsticks, but I have my own way and it works lol. Fake it til you make it.

Are you more of a leader or a follower? Definitely a follower, but I can step up in certain situations. < Same. I don’t mind leading, especially considering the control freak I can be lolol.

What was the first thing you ate today?  I haven’t eaten anything today. I skipped breakfast since I brought Cooper to the vet, and by the time I got back the dining table had already been cleared. It’s fine though, I don’t feel too hungry.

If you could spend the day, doing absolutely anything, with anyone, anywhere, what would it be like?  I’d be with Angela, Reena, and Hans at that insane new photocard store I talked about earlier. IDEALLY, we’d probably pick up a photocard or two if the ones we want aren’t sold out yet (lol a rarity), then we’d have some nachos and stuff right after and just talk about all things Bangtan lol with Hans cracking us up the whole time since he is just naturally hilarious.

If I were to ask you how you are doing, and you were only able to answer completely honestly, what would come out?  Content. Happy. I feel warm and loved and surrounded by the best people.

What is the one thing that you have been avoiding that you should do?  Learning how to cook is one.

Is there anything that you wish you could take back?  Not really.

What, in your mind, could make you truly happy?  Being in the purple ocean with my best friends.

If you could change one conversation in your life, what would you say differently? Would it have REALLY made any difference?  A part of me wishes my final face-to-face conversation with Gabie had been a more solid closure, just so we could finally put a hard stop to that chapter. But at that time I thought we would continue talking, so there had still been some stuff lingering in the air when we called it a day and parted ways. So in a sense we never really got closure when I finally cut ties, which the ESTJ in me remains to be nagged by, but I try not to be bothered by it anymore considering how much better I am doing right now. We didn’t know the future at the time, so it’s okay the way things turned out, ultimately.

When is the next time you’ll change your hairstyle? Will you color it?  I have no clue. It’s not really a priority.

Do people normally say you’re a fast typist, or are you rather slow?  I’m fast.

Have you ever been considered the ‘smartest person in school?’  Nah.

How many drugs are in your system?  Just caffeine.

What’s on your schedule for tomorrow? Werkwerkwerkwerk.

Do you currently have any bite marks/hickeys on your body?  Nopes.

Do you call anyone baby?  I don’t.

What’s your current mood?  I’m prety neutral. I wish I could be out right now, but stupid Covid and stupid quarantine. But I don’t really mind staying at home, either, so. I’m just so-so.

Do you think you are a good person?  I hope so.

What were you doing before filling out this survey?  I watched Sunday mass with my family.

How late did you stay up last night?  Around midnight.

When was the last time you cried really hard?  I cried just a few days ago because period hormones, but the last time I cried hard? I’m not sure. April maybe?

Is your hair longer than your shoulders?  LOL yes it’s soooooooo long already.

[noonymoon]

JUSTICE FOR JESUS — Misconceptions & Prejudices about the Faith in the Biblical Jesus Christ.

PART ONE: Christianity is not a Religion, it is God‘s plan to redeem mankind and have a relationship with us forever

I‘ve used to think that Jesus is about Religion, Church, Pastors, Dogma. When you look around in the world it makes sense: Everyone believes something different, all faiths are entirely valid for the people who practice them. Of course you throw Christianity in the same pot as Islam and Judaism, they‘re called „the Abrahamic Religions“ (because Abraham was the father of Isaac, who was the father of Jacob, and Jacob is „Israel“, but also Abraham was the father of Ishmael who was only born because Abraham and Sara didn‘t put their faith in God to have a child like God promised, they were impatient and didn‘t have faith, because Sara was already old and could actually not get pregnant anymore, so Sara suggested that Abraham should have a child with Hagar, the handmaiden of Sara; and from Ishmael‘s lineage basically the Arabs and Islam came along, since God had promised to make a great nation out of Abraham, this blessing went worth to both sons of Abraham) - so basically YES, Jews and Christians worship the same God. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, as it is written all over the Old and New Testament. The only difference is that Christianity has been infiltrated by Satan a loooong time ago, and Judaism (for the most part) rejects Jesus as their Messiah, even though Jesus was prophesied from the FIRST LETTER of the FIRST WORD of the FIRST BOOK of the Bible/Torah FOR the Jews! When he finally arrived FOR the Jews, the Gospel (the message of Salvation) was preached to ONLY Jews for 7 years (3 and a half years of Jesus‘ ministry, 3 and a half years after His death preached by His Apostles) and only THEN (after the Jews for the most part rejected the Gospel and persecuted everyone who believed in Jesus; our best example for this is the Apostle Paul who was actually Sha‘ul; he was formerly an extremely Jewish Pharisee who relentlessly persecuted Christians but then Jesus Himself appeared in a vision to Him and asked Him „Why are you persecuting me?“ and by seeing Jesus‘ glory and majesty, He was born-again and wrote ~70% of the New Testament) God decided to spread the message of Salvation to Greeks/Gentiles as well, because He wants to save all humans, and His chosen people would not do the work that He hoped they would. God‘s priority was always Israel until they have entirely rejected the Salvation that is ONLY found in God‘s Son, the Messiah, the Anointed One: Jesus Christ. Gladly there are a lot of messianic Jews nowadays who do their best to bring Israel‘s saviour to the Jewish people, just like it was supposed to be.

Every single Religion or Faith that there is that does not teach that you can find Salvation in Jesus Christ, the literal Son of God, will not give you peace, love and the Truth, will not give you Eternal Life (and if „Heaven“ and „Eternal Life“ sounds too ethereal for you try „different non-linear dimension“ and „consciousness transferred into a spiritual body“ - because THAT‘S how it was supposed to be before our Earth fell into a linear timeline, away from God‘s presence) and that‘s just how it is. There are tons of Religions, Faiths, even pretty much ALL Christian denominations and all the Christian cults, each one of them has a different way of denying the only thing that leads to Salvation: Jesus is the LITERAL only-begotten Son of the one true God & He died for our sins & was raised to life again by God the Father. Satan literally tries in ANY way possible to deny the LITERAL Sonship of Christ whose Father is God Almighty, YHWH. [...by the way, if you believe in that Zecharia Sitchin nonsense, please visit http://sitchiniswrong.com/ - by an ACTUAL scholar of Biblical Hebrew and of Ancient Semitic Languages]. And for the people who don‘t even bother with Jesus at all, he developed a plethora of options, to believe in something else, his first and only goal is to keep people away from Jesus, and he literally does not care how he accomplishes it. Every single Faith that does not lead to Jesus and into the Kingdom of God, has its roots in Ancient Babylon and leads into the Kingdom of Darkness. There are literally only two options, and that’s the absolute Truth, no matter if “truth” today is a “subjective matter for everyone”; that’s exactly what Satan wanted to achieve, and he sure did it. People are always extremely offended when Christians claim to have the only true God, the One who brought all things into existence despite the circumstance that they don‘t even believe in the FACT that we were brought into existence by this one God through Jesus Christ (who is the „Word of God“, and as you all know „God said: Let there be light, and there was Light“ - basically God spoke things into existence BY his Word, and his word IS Jesus Christ, the Son of God).

People rather believe in an extremely ridiculous and propagated concept of a „Big Bang“ that caused things to just „happen over time“, that our Earth is millions or billions of years old, that it is sheer „luck“ that we can survive because if we were just a tiny bit closer or less close to the Sun we would either burn up or freeze, that we evolved from ape-like men who were not very intelligible, that our extreme complex languages also probably evolved from ape-like sounds (you have no idea how ridiculous all of this sounds, when you are awake, I can‘t even type it without putting it in „quotation marks“, and you literally can NOT UNSEE the Devil’s work once your eyes have been opened) when there is literally an abundance of undeniable evidence that the Creation by an intelligent and brilliant God is a LOT more plausible; or let‘s say: there is a LOT of evidence that the public narrative is simply a deception (for example, tons of GIANT human bones have been found since at least the 1800s but of course not a single person informs us about stuff like this, and of course we don‘t make an effort to research it, because we‘re all brainwashed until we realize the Truth; people who study their Bible know EXACTLY who these giants were and they also know exactly who all those other spiritual entities are which we see in Mythology from ancient cultures) - and when the public narrative is a deception, the only logical conclusion is that something different must be true. And which book contains the entire story from the very Beginning to the very End of humankind, which fulfilled a massive amount of prophecy throughout human history 100% accurate, and is by „sheer conincidence“ the most translated and printed book of ALL time? Exactly! The Bible!

„In the beginning (TIME) God created the heavens (SPACE) and the earth (MATTER)“ — Genesis 1:1 

(parantheses added)

Isn‘t it AMAZING how the inspired Word of God through the Prophets conveys complex scientific concepts in only a little sentence? THAT‘S how incredible God is! He is a Mastermind and good beyond ANYTHING. Sadly Satan has accomplished that the world sees our Creator like a hateful, narrow-minded, strict and arrogant Ruler who just wants to dominate us and put His Religion on us, but that could not be further away from the Truth. God, in fact, HATES Religion, all He ever wanted is to be loved by His people, acknowledged by His people and praised by His people (and honestly, He DESERVES praise for Everything He has done for us and for Everything that He is!) .. And then of course, you can look all around in nature! I swear, being born-again is like being a child again, before this world and our „education“ brainwashes you. When I walk outside, I just MARVEL at God‘s handiwork, it‘s literally AMAZING. When I look at flowers, veggies, fruits, animals, insects of all kinds (I even lost my fear of spiders and wasps and even hornets, it‘s just amazing to look at them), when I taste different kind of nuts, herbs and spices (by the way, isn‘t it amazing how there‘s a herb or plant for every health issue a human can have, just like the Bible says? if we really evolved from a Big Bang to THIS, how do we explain the miraculous powers of all of these things? Have they just „happened“...?) look at the funny shapes of everything; everything just blows my mind, it‘s incredible. Someday I really want to ask God what He thought when He created Romanesco Broccoli because each time I see that thing, I just marvel at its weirdness and beauty. The world is just so ridiculously beautiful and NO ONE can see it except born-again Christians (I‘m really excited for eternal Life because this Creation is in a fallen state and the Bible says that the actual glory of the actual Creation is even more magnificent, WHOA...!!!) and I sometimes literally cry because it‘s SO SAD what Satan has made us believe about our planet, about ourselves, about literally everything. And why? Just because he hates Jesus, he hates God and he most certainly hates EVERYONE else, you, me, everyone. He loves only himself and he doesn‘t care if he‘s robbing us from the most astonishing experience ever: Life! He enslaves us through spiritual warfare to desires that we would naturally not have (social status, money, power, career, material objects of all sorts, fame, success, other people no matter how toxic they are for our health, drugs, likings and addictions of all kinds, literally ANYTHING can be the work of spiritual warfare) and makes us believe on top of that that we‘re just a bunch of random Apes in a random world, that our purpose is to make money and survive in a society that grows more and more into cold robots each year, only so that at the end, we die, never knew Jesus, and perish in Hell with him. It‘s literally the saddest thing EVER.

So yes, „Religious Freedom“ is a thing; everyone CAN believe whatever they want and feel drawn to, but ONLY born-again believers in Jesus Christ will live with God forever and ever in a different dimension that is not bound to time. Just like God wanted to live with us from the very beginning! We are His masterpiece of creation! Did you know that we are more cherished than angels? He sent his LITERAL SON to die for us, ALL of us, just so that we can live with God! Isn‘t that incredible??? I’m just absolutely in Love with God and Jesus and I’ve never thought that I’d EVER say this, growing up as an Atheist and then, over 2 years deceived in a spiritual bubble that is not even real.

My prayer is that the people who are written in the book of Life and belong to God’s kingdom find Jesus Christ, and experience His Love, because once you have, there is not a single day that is sad or empty, not a single day that seems pointless, you will have peace and a blessed hope for eternity to come. Amen.

TESTIMONIES

From Buddha to Christ. Powerful Testimony.

Chinese Triad Gangster Finds Jesus In Death Encounters

SATANISM, WITCHCRAFT, DRUGZ, DEPRESSION this is my testimony

"New Age" Occult Practices Nearly Ruined My Life | Warning & Testimony

Raves, drugs, vanity, new age to Jesus Christ | My Testimony

[multifandomhaven]

Tip VII

Pairing: Nacho Varga x OC

A/N: Okay, the Spanish in this chapter has been translated by Google Translate, so it may not be 100% accurate, but it's the best I could do! Also, this one is nothing but fluff - something light in all this craziness going on in the world. I hope you and your loved ones are safe!

Enjoy!

Sarah woke to the feeling of a fingertip running lightly from the base of her neck, down to her lower back, and then back up again. She lay there for longer than she probably should have, and she knew Nacho knew that she was awake, but she couldn't bring herself to care. The gentleness of his finger on her bare skin caused her to go boneless, goosebumps erupting along it's trail.

"You going to fake sleep all day?" His voice, still groggy with sleep, came in almost a whisper.

Sarah hummed, the sound resonating deep in her chest, her eyes still closed. "Maybe, especially if you keep that up.

She opened her eyes, blinking the sleep away. She rubbed one of her eyes with the heel of her palm and then gave a tiny, sleepy grin to the man beside her. "Hi."

Nacho mirrored her expression, his eyes crinkling slightly. "Hi."

Sarah yawned again and looked over at the clock. Twelve o'clock - the latest she's slept in a while. "How long have you been awake?"

"Not long," Nacho shrugged, "ten, maybe fifteen minutes before you."

Sarah turned to face him, bringing the sheet up to her chest, shivering in the cool air of morning. "Do you have to go into work today?"

"Not today, but... there is something," he trailed off.

She waited for him to continue, watching as he rolled his words around his head before he brought his thumb up to scratch at his eyebrow. It was a habit she'd noticed a few weeks ago - whatever it was he wanted to speak with her about, it had him really thinking.

Sarah brought a hand up to grip at his wrist, pulling it away gently. She laced her fingers with his and brought their entwined hands to her chest. "As sexy as you are when you're brooding you're really starting to freak me out a little," she admitted lightly. "Is something wrong?"

Nacho shook his head lightly, his eyes soft. "No."

"Okay then, so what is it?" Sarah urged.

Nacho sighed. "You know how you're starting work on Monday, right?"

"Yeah," Sarah glanced over to the calendar on her wall, her starting date circled in red. "Is everything still okay? Did your dad change his mind?"

"No, nothing like that. He's already gotten everything prepared," he assured her. "It's just... he invited us over to dinner."

"That's nice of him," Sarah smiled slightly. "When are we going?"

"Today," Nacho told her, watching her face intently as he continued, "at two."

Sarah's eyes widened and she jumped out of the bed, taking the sheet with her as she did. She ran her hand through her mussed hair nervously. "Two as in two hours from now?!"

Nacho nodded. "Is that a problem?"

"No, no problem," Sarah mumbled. "I just, I just have to get ready. I have to get something to bring to dinner."

Nacho sat up, watching as she paced around the room, the excess of the sheet trailing behind her. "Sarah, it's not a big deal."

"It is a big deal, Nacho," Sarah stressed. "I'm meeting your father for the first time... in two hours... empty handed."

"Technically, it isn't the first time you've met him." Nacho furrowed his brows. "He came to the diner all the time."

"Dear God, Nacho, that doesn't count." Sarah blanched. "I'm meeting him as your..."

"My?" Nacho repeated when she grew quiet. He waited for her to continue, but when she didn't he supplied, "My girl?"

Sarah's cheeks reddened and her grip tightened on the sheet. "Yes. Exactly."

"He's a nice guy," Nacho told her gently. "He's not going to care if you don't show up with -"

Sarah shook her head wildly and grabbed a change of clothes from her dresser, rushing into the bathroom to take a shower without another word.

Once she was out, Nacho found himself pushed to do the same. They hurried into his van and drove to the closest supermarket, just a few minutes from the apartment. Inside, Sarah made a mad dash through the aisles, her eyes wide and searching. She scanned package after package, running over the pros and cons of each before she grabbed two and held them out to the amused man behind her.

"Okay, which do you think," she debated the options before she tuned them to face him, shaking them slightly, "chocolate chip or peanut butter?"

Nacho's eyes were raised high onto his forehead, but he chuckled all the same. "He'll be fine with either."

Sarah groaned, dropping her arms down by her sides dramatically. It was all she could do to keep from stamping her foot in frustration. "Nacho, c'mon, this is your dad we're talking about. I want to make a good impression."

"With cookies?" He smirked.

"Yes," she answered quickly. "With cookies. Now, please help me."

Nacho shook his head lightly, but answered anyway. "Chocolate chip."

Sarah brightened a bit, bringing the packages back up to eye them." Chocolate chip... you sure?"

"Yeah," he shrugged. "They're classic."

Sarah nodded and smiled. "Right. Classic," she said, under her breath. "Why didn't I think of that?"

A little while later, with a tin full of fresh cookies, they pulled into the driveway of the small house. Sarah's fingers drummed on the container, the beat matching the one her heart played in her chest. She bounced her leg, the motion shaking the parked van slightly, and her bottom lip was pulled between her teeth.

"Hey," Nacho said, reaching out to cover one of her hands with his. "Relax, it's just dinner."

Sarah looked up, her eyes locking onto his, and nodded. "I know, I'm just - I'm really nervous."

"Don't be," he told her. "He's going to love you."

Looking down at his hand on hers, she mumbled out, "and what if he doesn't?"

"He will," Nacho affirmed. "Trust me."

Sarah shook her head. "How do you know?"

"How do I know he'll love you?" Sarah nodded, so he continued. "He'll love you because I do."

Sarah's jaw fell slack and her eyes watered a bit. "Nacho," she whispered, pulling her hand from under his and fanning away the tears that threatened to escape. "You're going to ruin my makeup."

"Sorry," he chuckled before getting out of the van. He walked around the front and to the passenger door to open it. He plucked the tin out of her lap quickly and helped her out onto the pavement. Her legs were a bit shaky as she tried to gain her bearings, and Nacho noticed right away. "You okay?"

"Yeah," she said quietly. "I'm... more than okay, actually. You know I feel the same don't you?"

Nacho winked at her, his eyes bright. "I do now."

Sarah returned his smile and put her hand on his face, her thumb running along his cheekbone. He leaned down and gave her a quick kiss.

"Come on," he urged, taking her hand.

Nacho knocked on the door and in just a few seconds the mustached man she'd seen in the diner so many times opened the door, grinning brightly at the two of them. He looked between them and the opened his arms wide, pulling Nacho to him and hugging him tightly.

"Mijo," he greeted happily. "Estoy tan contento de que hayas venido!"

Sarah stood behind him, watching their exchange with a silently. When his father released him, Nacho turned back toward her, motioning her forward. Sarah stepped up beside him, grateful for the warmth of his hand on her back.

"Papa, this is Sarah," he introduced. "Sarah, this is my father, Manuel."

Sarah smiled and extended her hand to him. He took it warmly, shaking it. "It's nice to properly meet you, Mr. Varga."

"Ignacio has told me a lot about you!" The older man smiled at her, his eyes shining. "Please, come in, come in!"

Manuel ushered them into the kitchen where he had a pot of chili already sitting in the middle of the table. Beside it on a plate was a heaping circle of cornbread. It was mouthwatering and Sarah couldn't help but feel a little more at home. Her eyes wandered around the walls, stopping on pictures of a younger Nacho, bright eyed and smiling.

"Sarah made some cookies for desert," Nacho's voice sounded, breaking Sarah from her trance. She glanced over to him and caught his grin before he added. "Chocolate chip."

Manuel gave her another big smile. "That was very kind, Sarah. Thank you."

"It was nothing," she said, fighting a smile at the eyebrow Nacho raised at her. "Everything smells amazing, Mr. Varga."

The older man tutted at her. "Please, call me Manuel."

Sarah nodded and Nacho came to pull her chair out for her. She sat down while Nacho got their drinks before he sank into the seat beside her. They ate between questions, Nacho interperting when the barrier between them became too great.

Sarah's nerves had settled and she found herself leaning slightly into Nacho's side as he spoke with his father.

Manuel's eyes flitted between them before a knowing smile came over his face. "Cuánto tiempo ha estado sucediendo esto?"

Sarah felt Nacho tense beneath her and she furrowed her brows. Nacho shook his head at her lightly and answered his father quietly. "Solo un ratito."

"Ella es muy agradable," Manuel said, "Ella me gusta."

Nacho nodded. "Sí, yo también."

At the end of the night, Manuel ushered them out, giving Nacho another hug and kiss to the side of the head, and shaking Sarah's hand again.

Nacho helped her back into the van, waved to his father, and then drove off.

"Your father's really sweet," Sarah said once they got onto the road. "You were right. I shouldn't have been so nervous."

Nacho glanced at her. "I told you he'd love you."

"And I told you cookies would impress him," Sarah teased, winking at him.

Again, I'm so sorry if the translations in this are butchered. I used Google translate and it's notorious for being horribly off, but I speak zero Spanish!

Mijo - son

Estoy tan contento de que hayas venido - I'm so glad that you came

Cuánto tiempo ha estado sucediendo esto - how long has this been going on

Solo un ratito - only a little while

Ella es muy agradable - she's very nice

Ella me gusta - I like her

Sí, yo también - yeah, me too

[gra-sonas]

Hello! Can you recommend me some good songs in German and some tv shows? I started to learn it and i think it will help Danke? I am not sure if that's the right way Please stay safe! Also i came for TW and i think i'll stay for RNM

Hallo German-learning nonnie! :D

Mhmm, good songs in German. 🤔 Let me think.

I would definitely recommend listening to songs from “Neue Deutsche Welle” (New German Wave”). That’s not a band btw, it’s a (West) German rock music genre from the late 70s/early 80s. Sooo many great songs, and great lyrics (which is kind of the point for you, right?)

Maybe you’ve even listened to one? “99 Luftballons” (99 Red Balloons) by Nena is probably the internationally most well known NDW song.

If you have Spotify or Deezer, just search for Neue Deutsche Welle, that should provide you with some excellent playlists. I’m sure YT also has NDW playlists.

I’m not overly familiar with the current German music scene tbh. I don’t listen to the radio and don’t pay attention to German charts. 

There are several rock or pop artists and bands singing in German tho. In no particular order and not necessarily music I listen to myself, but at the top of my head I can think of the following artists (mixed genres across the board): Adel Tawil, Wincent Weiss, Annett Louisan, Glasperlenspiel, Silbermond, Herbert Grönemeyer, Die Ärzte, Fettes Brot, Die Fantastischen Vier, Sarah Connor, Mark Forster, Gil Ofarim, Tim Bendzko, Ich + Ich, Die Toten Hosen, Unheilig, and a million others.

Maybe just listen to some of them and see wether you like their music and then let the algorithm suggest you similar artists? Also check the lyrics and see whether that’s what you’ve been looking for and if it can help you to learn German.

Something I think could also be very beneficial: reading books. It doesn’t have to be Goethe (to Germany what Shakespeare is to Great Britain). It can be children’s books, or young adult books, also comics. (FUCK JKTERFROWLING TO HELL AND BACK, but if you liked Harry Potter, the books have been translated into German, pls just don’t buy them and make that transphobic asshole richer, the HP books in German are available as ebooks “for free”). 

Reading a familiar story in a foreign language will be easier than trying to read something completely new. Pretty much any YA book series will also be available in German, same goes for comics, romance novels, the Lord of the Rings trilogy, crime stories and so on. My English VASTLY improved by reading books (and fanfic 😌) in case you like to read, that’s something I‘d definitely suggest you also check out.

As for German TV shows. LOL, I watch so little German TV, kinda difficult for me to come up with recs. One show I highly recommend is DARK tho, it’s 3 seasons, all done and wrapped, and it’s on Netflix. It’s a bit like Stranger Things, only in 3-D (it’s super complex with various timelines, but it’s glorious and so, so good!). 

If you have Netflix, you could also see whether there are any other German shows available. IDK, Netflix differs from country to country/region to region, there are probably differences.

Oh, and I think on YT you can find several queer storylines from recent and older German soaps with English subtitles. We’ve had queer storylines on most soaps since the 90s, and international fans have been really great at curating playlists. Maybe that’s something you might enjoy.

Something that rather pains me to suggest: just watch your favorite TV show or movie in German. 🤦‍♀️ In Germany EVERYTHING (on TV and in movie theaters) is dubbed. Game of Thrones? Available in German. Wonder Woman? Sure, she speaks German fluently. This won’t help you with 1:1 translations (German dubbing tries its best to lip-sync, meaning that the spoken German is in sync with the lip movements of the original speaker, so dialogue translations are not always 100% accurate, certain jokes or word games will also be changed to make them work in German). A bit like reading a book you like in German, watching a familiar film or show in German can give you a better idea of the “flow” of the language. 

Also pronunciation. Shows and movies are usually dubbed in “high German”, so no tricky German accents you’ll struggle to understand. And if possible, download GERMAN subtitles for whatever you watch. You might not understand everything they say, but reading what they say will help you to recognize words much better than watching sth in German with subtitles in your own language and than you’re just busy constantly “translating” instead of paying attention to the German. 

Another genre we have in Germany, and German kids (and adults) LOVE: Hörspiele (audio dramas)! Whether you listened to Benjamin Blümchen (a talking elephant who lives at the local zoo), Bibi Blocksberg (a kid witch) as a kid or Die Drei ??? (The Three Investigators, most successful audio drama series world wide, the series recently celebrated its 40th birthday - the speakers started when they were kids in the late 1970s, they are all over 50yrs old now and still record 4-6 dramas/year and their live tours with more than 10K audience/show are legendary) as a young adult, most kids in Germany grow up listening to audio dramas. 

Even adults continue to listen to them (I’m a HUGE Drei ??? fan myself, I don’t listen to the dramas to fall asleep tho, unlike most other people, but I went to see them live last year and it was The Absolute Best Thing In All Of 2019). There are so many different genres, and stories, there are audio dramas for almost any age group (and thus language skill level), and it’s really cool.

Okay, this got long. Not sure if any of this will be helpful for you, but I hope you’ll find something you’ll enjoy, that will also help you tackling the German language. Good luck and “viel Spaß”!

You stay safe, too, nonnie!

And yay for staying for RNM, chances are you won’t regret it! ❤️

ETA: German movie rec from @manesalex : Lola Rennt (Thanks, Molly!)