#there was a plot point about local embroidery????

[professorsparklepants]

Had an extremely long, plotty dream that took place in Tajikstan. It was very detailed and very Muslim women centric with interesting aspects of local culture at the front of the plot.

Then I woke up and remembered that I don't know anything about Tajikistan.

[allisonreader]

I have a few random thoughts and such. Some of such are just little things that I've found myself thinking about due to one thing or another. Others are more about writing, because just today I have rekindled the warmth I have about my one fic AU. I'll start with the random thoughts that have been hanging around my mind.

One of those things being that the movie Grown Ups 2 was mentioned in something that I was watching (some YouTube video of some kind). I had almost forgotten about the movie and at the point couldn't tell you much about the plot, except at some point the characters go to a waterpark with big slides and everything and there's just this rather quick gag that they use. There's this really big buff guy who has a really high almost squeaky voice when he talks, but that's not the part of the gag that sticks with me. No what sticks with me is the line this guy says... "I'm from Saskatchatoon." Which as you well know isn't a real place, since it's just mashing up Saskatchewan and Saskatoon. So bit of an eye roll there, as much as it IS funny. But that's forever what Grown Ups 2 is to me. It all boils down to that one singular line, which is just a one off gag.

Another thing that has been on my mind due to news articles is that the 5 zebras the were confiscated here in Saskatchewan are doing well, even the two that ended up being sent to Moncton because the pair of them (Koffee and Leeloo) are now a bonded pair and of the two males who were at my local zoo had become territorial and unsafe around each other. So my zoo now has 3 zebras (1 male, 2 female who I don't remember the names of), while Moncton has the two who were causing the turf war.

Another local zoo story is from quite a few years ago now. But we had this one snake which I think was a boa constrictor, but I can't quite remember because I'm sure that this was over 5 years ago now, but anyways, this was a really big snake who's name was Tickles and was probably 17 years old or something like that. Anyways he was kind of a staple at the zoo. When classes came to the zoo Tickles was a snake that you got the chance to pet. I had pet him when I was in grade 1, I believe both my brothers had the chance to pet him. So many kids (and adults knew of this snake) if they hadn't pet Tickles themselves. So to hear one day on the news that this snake was stolen was heartbreaking, and a little confusing because how do you steal a large snake? Thankfully, if I'm remembering correctly, the snake was eventually returned healthy. Much to many people's happiness.

I had another non fic thought at one point... Oh yes! I remember now! It was sewing related! I finally finished my aunt's dress that I was working on. It's finished and I no longer have to stress about it. Which I'm extremely happy able. Both my mock up and the dress for the wedding my aunt's going to turned out extremely well and fit her rather good, if I do say so myself. Of course, in the end I never took pictures of how they turned out. But my aunt likes them, so that's what counts. It means that I can finally alter my two new dresses, though I'll probably stick with just the one currently. (The one that's currently unwearable.)

In that same kind of note, I do enjoy seeing people get excited about the sewing machines that I show them at work. Particularly the embroidery machines, because they really are fun machines. Especially for creative people. I thought I might have more for this one, but I don't currently. I think I tapped myself out on that earlier in the day.

Now onto the fic thoughts, but I'll add those under the cut. I have a feeling that once I start writing it's either going to end up much shorter than I originally thought, or it will be as long as I thought it was going to be or longer, because I'll add some of the necessary background info. (You've hung around my blog long enough that you can probably guess which fandom this fic is for. )

(If you guessed Pixar's Cars, you'd be right.)

So just today I have found myself thinking about and enjoying the concept of the one arc in my Extended Connections Cars fic. (Named such for connecting characters closer together than they are in canon.) The reason why I like this one arc so much is because it's sort of taking the fandom favourite thing of making Lightning McQueen Doc Hudson's son and turning that on it's head slightly. Instead of being unrelated or being Doc's biological son, he's Doc's (by marriage) nephew and later essentially adopted son. This is also a fun AU because it actually starts out as a "What if Doc was found to be alive in Radiator Springs long before Lightning wound up there." It does make heavy use of the original characters that my friend made up and uses in her own stories, which she gracefully lets me borrow and play with. (As she's interested in seeing some of the AUs that we've created together shared.)

Part of this story is inspired by a dream that I had, that took it in a much different direction than I was originally going to go. As originally Lightning's part would have fit more with canon than what it's become. It would have been less dramatic in many ways, with there being this niggling that there's something familiar about this rookie. Only to later find out after Lightning wrecks the road and learns his lesson that the niggling is right and he is the son of Doc's brother-in-law.

Whereas the version it is now is Doc's brother-in-law trying to arrest Lightning, knowing full well that Lightning is his son, and it's that fact that he's trying to cover up from this 16-17 year old kid who was just at a hotel with a friend so that they could go watch a race for Lightning's birthday.

Does anyone want to do a little mini-infodumping about something they’re fascinated with/is joy-giving to them/just want to spill about? It can be short, it can be long. I need things to think about so my mind doesn’t go in unhelpful directions, and hearing from people who are passionate about something is so wonderful.

[mythicalartisttm]

I would very much like to hear about whatever you want to tell us about your Links

-Sky Floor

I have been enabled

AIGHT FELLAS LET'S GET DOWN TO BUSINESS The name of the au is Courage^21 (courage to the twenty first power) based on the amount of Links I had counted out at the time of naming, but it's more like a redesign project I do for fun. The actual "get all the Links together" aspect of it is more akin to the startup of L\\\U with exploration of the hypothetical over an actual plot. I don't have the spare time or creative energy for that when I'm working on several original projects. Also there's Zeldas and whatever characters I feel like redesigning. This isn't a secret so I'll put it here, but also I'm one of the losttolegend mods and those Links + their stories fit in here, but not the other way around. Lore on them will be revealed over there. And I did get your ask from that blog I'm just trying to make more than one portrait to answer it, marker work is just taxing 😩 So, concisely put, LoZ redesign project I do when I'm not not working on Other Things. There's a timeline theory that I hold that's crucial to the au's structure but I'm not interested in explaining it atm But anyways, here's some info on some of the l a d s (in timeline order uwu) Stratos (Hero of the Sky / Hylia's Chosen Knight; Skyward Sword)

- The ever-sleepy hero is in his mid-twenties, but the guys he travels with call him Grandpa for the reasons of being ever-sleepy and slow. Stratos finds it endearing from the younger ones but is just a smidge annoyed when the older ones decide to pull that card

- His fatigue is bc he suffers from multiple sclerosis (a disease where the immune system eats away at nerve protection) and the lack of nerve protection REALLY messed him up during Lanayru. Between that and Demise, he's been shocked to the point of numbness. --

-Can often be found sipping a red potion to restore his nerve endings temporarily, but only in safe spaces

- His Zelda - I call her Zenith - sewed him little grips for his potion bottles. He loves them and his wife

- Local man with health problems and fatigue is, somehow, an adrenaline junky

- For some reason I think there's a point in SS in which you can bring materials for potions to the potion lady? Idk if that checks out but he does at least know how to make red potions and is trying to expand his knowledge

- Crow brain for any items that catch his interest

- Still wood-carves, still plays harp/lyre whatever

- I like the idea of SS Link not wanting to use a sword other than the Master Sword after his adventure so I'm gonna say he's putting those 30/20 eyes to good use and is his team's sniper

Ven (Hero of the Minish; The Minish Cap)

- No older than 14, Ven is a spriteley young hero who also happens to have a glaring resting face. He's worlds nicer than he looks

- Unlike the majority of the other heroes Ven is a morning person. And it gets on everyone's nerves when he front flips out of bed

- Somehow went through his whole adventure without finding a purple kinstone but hasn't given up home on finding one just yet

- Doesn't understand the concept of social classes. Zelda would run through the streets as she pleased and talked to everyone like it's the most natural thing in the world, and no one batted an eye at it. The people of that Hyrule treat their king a little more formally than his daughter when he comes out of the castle, but for the most part, the people of this time period are all too connected to the royal family for Ven to understand why many of the other Links see his normal as shocking. It also trips him up when they arrive in basically Every Other Castle Town

- Does not give a rats tail about money. A spender if left unsupervised. Not allowed to handle his team's rupees

- Has a snazzy new black hat with embroidery and matching gloves as gifts from the royal family (they're made of real sturdy stuff too)

- Still helps his grandpa in the forge and will continue to do so when he returns from this adventure

- A pretty quiet dude for the most part but has a tendency to comment on whatever conversations he overhears and is interested in Tock (Hero of Time; Ocarina of Time / Majora's Mask)

- Looks about 18, but is slightly older. Spent 7 months in Termina. The irony of the number is not lost on him

- Has had some time to become a little less bitter about… well, everything, but is still quite aloof. Malon and Talon have been a big help to him. MaLink is canon here btw

- Never stopped looking for Navi but has a sliver of peace knowing that Tatl is still around and in good company

- Doesn’t hang around the team(s) very often when they settle down for the evening and/or go into a town, and even then he stays to the back edge when they travel. If he’s not behind the treeline, that is. Kishin (LtL Fierce Deity) is the only one allowed relatively close for a good while

- Trying his darn best to not get attached but friendship is inevitable

- Invoking the popular "HoT can keep time down to the second" headcanon

- He uses this trick all the time and knows a lot about fairy magic

- Between his tendency to stay physically away from his team and his ability to talk with fairies, Tock actually makes a really good watchman There's obviously a lot more of them but it's getting late, so I'll say more about the others at a later date. And Stratos and Ven have appeared in my art tag before, if you want a peek at their designs

[anxiouslyfred]

Virgil’s Book Signing

Summary: Virgil’s soulmate had left dark or disturbing thoughts appearing on his wrist so often he started writing story responses to them. Now releasing his third compliation of short stories is he meeting his most grateful fan, or his soulmate?

/\/\

Virgil's Soulmate had been the one to first start him writing, and his family the ones who had, behind his back, started sending those stories to writing competitions. Specifically his brother Logan had done so, using the excuse that it could be a profitable skill if Virgil only went the right way about releasing it to the world.

He didn't really believe that and remained more than happy with his job being steady work in the marketing department of a large local company. Virgil didn't see any trouble in letting his brother occasionally send his stories off though, so long as he didn't get forced into writing anything formal and only had limited occasions of doing publicity.

It seemed easier than arguing with Logan on the subjects, or pointing out how elevated his anxiety was about anyone outside of his family reading the stories, let alone complete strangers judging them. Besides, the fact Logan somehow got collections of his short stories published, giving him an extra source of income as well as another excuse to make his brother help or just plain do his taxes for him. Virgil wasn't the maths whiz between them and definitely needed all the reasons he could to make Logan help with taxes.

Besides, it did give him structure when Virgil wanted to travel. He could see more of the country on book signing events and actually use up those holiday days he earned. It didn't make sense to save them constantly over the years, especially when it would help the books sales.

The funniest thing was when media tried to dismiss the times he openly referred to his soulmates thoughts as an inspiration for his writing. People felt that being open over what your soulmate was thinking about was an invasion of privacy, especially when you hadn't met them yet, but Virgil had had to write or panic about who they were.

He'd spent a lot of his schooling panicking over the thoughts before a school counsellor suggested writing responses to the thoughts down, or making some kind of story about them. To be honest, Virgil had agreed that there must be some kind of story behind 'what if you jumped out of a moving car?' being followed the next day by 'could humans learn to speak dog by sniffing their butts?' and had been curious over how he could answer that.

Over the years the thoughts that would appear on his wrist in the evening got gradually darker, more sinister, but Virgil had grown to enjoy the horror genre anyway, so attempting to write short stories for it had been a challenge he willingly rose to.

If only his first 2 collections of short stories hadn't done so well his book signings now had to be booked ahead of time if there was a Q&A section.

/To his avid reader\

The thoughts that appeared on Remus's wrist so often concerned him sometimes. They were filled with so much doubt constantly, doubt over his soulmate's skills and their ability to deal with things, and occasionally just plain fears over something that's been in the news.

He tried to focus at least some time every day to just focus on sending positive thoughts to his Soulmate, hoping beyond hope that just maybe they would be the thoughts that got sent over that day. It didn't seem like Remus had managed to make that happen yet, and he dreaded to imagine that perhaps some of his intrusive thoughts appeared to them instead.

When something horrible or twisted wrapped itself around his brain, scaring Remus with just how dark the images he came up with could become, it could take all his focus up for hours or days. Reading different types of horror sometimes helped get the thoughts out of his head though, so he tried, kept an eye out for stories that seemed to match similar plots or themes to the ones his thoughts would repeat.

Being gifted a collection of short stories by V. Cowell had been a godsend a few years back, and even now, Remus would return to that original volume. With the other collection finally received as well as slowly accumulating the mixed collections that had one or two of V. Cowell's stories in them, it began to felt like his thoughts weren't terrifying so much as unfinished tales.

He wasn't alone in having these thoughts, just needed some guidance to find the conclusion of them and that was what he found in V. Cowell's stories. When he heard about the signing event being held by his local bookshop for a third collection by V. Cowell, Remus was already calling them to book his place at the event. He just had to meet the person who had helped him so much.

/Night of the Book Signing Event\

Remus was bouncing in his seat, clinging to the book and torn between immediately reading it and getting every memory he could of seeing V. Cowell. He'd never wanted to know about the writer but at the same time now he had been handed to chance to actually ask a question, or maybe even talk when he started signing books, there was just so much about Cowell he wished he knew.

“Good Evening Everyone. Welcome to our event this evening.” One of the managers of the shop had moved onto the podium they'd set up, waving to the audience while getting their attention.

A smattering of people clapped, while Remus just rolled his eyes, scanning the edges of the podium for a glimpse of his favourite writer. He was only half listening to the spiel the manager was saying, even less once he spotted someone hunching into a hoodie. They looked completely out of place, but also as though they'd argued with someone about what to wear because there was definitely a dress shirt and tie under the hoodie.

“So I introduce to the stage, Virgil Cowell, the author of the collection 'Every Soul in the Forest'.” Remus beamed, bouncing enough to get dirty looks from the people sat near to him as his hoodie clad man stepped up. His favourite author was breaking the unspoken dress codes and oh, Remus just liked him more for it.

The rest of the evening span by in a blur for Remus. He hung off of every word said, and actually got to ask what Virgil meant when he said the inspiration for his stories came from his soulmate. It almost made him dream that he was the one sending thoughts to V. Cowell when he described the stories as responses to thoughts that had unsettled him when they originally appeared. That felt like far too wonderful a thing to occur.

When he'd gone to get his book signed, he'd been giddy, only able to repeat a million times just how much the stories Virgil had already published had helped him. The writer had seemed a little stunned, but very grateful for the words, and the embroidered recreation of a scene from one of his stories Remus had brought with him. He hadn't intended to give it away, only just it as a grounding texture if needed, but when faced with meeting Virgil just saying thank you with words hadn't felt like enough.

He could do another embroidery anyway. The pin pricks even helped remind him of the real world sometimes.

Remus didn't even think to look at his wrist until he'd been trying to sleep, and finding himself too excited, for an hour. The words did anything except help him sleep.

'Nice Embroidery but this gratefulness for some stories I wrote really seems extreme. You okay, Bouncy?'

Either fate was incredibly cruel, or his soulmate actually, really, properly was V. Cowell.

/Back to the Writer\

Doing book signings was always exhausting for Virgil. It took a lot of energy to keep on socialising for people for as long as they lasted. By the time he'd had dinner and got back to his hotel all he wanted was to curl up in bed and sleep for the next day.

He still had to check his wrist first, know that his soulmate was alive, even if their thoughts rarely said if they were okay or not.

'It's truly V. Cowell. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! Guess I can't just scream that at him. Have to find a better way to say... I have my embroidery with me!! That can say thank you, can't it?'

Virgil blinked at the words on his wrist, taking a moment to double, triple and quadruple check it wasn't his imagination that his wrist specifically mentioned meeting him.

Sometime through the entire Q&A, and the book signing afterwards, he had met his soulmate and apparently all they had wanted to do was thank him. That... That was the most wonderful, terrifying thing he'd ever heard. His soulmate would have some image of him in their minds when he probably wouldn't even...

Wait, the thought mentioned that embroidery he was given. He could remember the face and a man bouncing and hopping in front of the signing desk. The man who had actually asked how, rather than dismissing the idea that he got inspiration from his soulmate's thoughts.

The issue now would just be meeting the man again, when he only had the next day in town before travelling to the next event. He'd have to try going back to the bookshop at least.

He mentally  promised to do that while drifting off to sleep. Hopefully by the end of tomorrow he'd have his soulmate with him.

/Outside the Bookshop\

Virgil could see someone bouncing around the front of the store from the end of the street. Either his soulmate had come back hoping to see him again or just get contact information to write to him, or there were far too many bouncy people in his town.

“It's you!!! You did come back this morning! What thought did you get last night? Please tell me? Please, please please?” As soon as Virgil was close enough to be recognised the man was bounding over to him, seeming like the human embodiment of an over excited Labrador with the zoomies.

He had to snicker at the response, just pushing his sleeve up and holding his arm out. “So I'm guessing there was something in the thought you got which gave away it was me?” He muttered, wishing the quiet voice would stop them from getting attention, but knowing the exuberance of his soulmate that wouldn't work.

“Yep! You sent me a thought actually about me! Is my name Bouncy now? Do I need to introduce myself again? Can I run away and join your book tour and move in with you now? Or should I just become your biggest fan and follow you around without announcing that we're soulmates?” Bouncy definitely suited the man as he spoke a mile a minute, but Virgil shook his head.

“Let's go with an introduction and Bouncy can be a nickname for you.” He offered, before thinking the rest of the ramble through. “I can probably get you included on this book tour, but really don't want you immediately moving in. How about you finish the tour with me, then come back to sort out whatever things need doing for you to move to town? That'd give us time to at least get to know each other for a while, and give you a separate place for when we need space from each other.”

His Soulmate nodded, jumping forward to hug him for a second. “Fantastic! I'm Remus, and did you really write those stories to respond with my thoughts? I kept trying to send you comforting ones, but I guess I had no luck with that!”

“Great to meet you properly Remus, and well, I had to respond in some way to calm the anxiety some of those thoughts caused.” Virgil shrugged, but turned to lead them towards a cafe he'd spotted down the street.

Remus took his hand, watching him for a moment as though checking it was okay as he followed along. “They really helped me so much. I still just want to thank you for them more.”

“Given you literally got me a side job as a writer, I think we're even.” Virgil countered, smirking when that fact stunned Remus. He knew it would take a while to break the gratitude loop Remus seemed to be stuck in for him, but given it was his thoughts that were the inspiration, Virgil had the key to get through eventually.

[eloarei]

Sleeping Beauty vs. Spindle’s End

Lately my husband and I have been watching through all the classic Disney animated movies in chronological order. We were also recently re/reading my favorite book, “Spindle’s End” and finally finished it the other day. Conveniently, the next Disney movie in line was Sleeping Beauty, so of course we watched it.  Spindle’s End is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty, but it differs drastically from any version I’m familiar with, while still keeping the basic premise: The baby princess is cursed by an evil witch/fairy and goes to be raised by several kindly fairies in a cottage. Also there’s a prince involved, and some horses and other animals.  But for all her fairy godmothers’ gifts (lips like roses, golden curling hair, eyelashes that go on for days), Rosie is not beautiful, not graceful, not ladylike, and does not want to be a princess. She does want to be the local blacksmith’s apprentice, and chat with all the village animals. Do not come near her with embroidery.  (And I’ll put the rest under the cut, for length and, hmm, slight spoilers?) Under the cut: comparisons between the 1959 Disney Sleeping Beauty, and the 2000 Robin McKinley book Spindle’s End. (1k words)  tl;dr:  The book has a lot more detail, including Rosie’s childhood, and Rosie actually gets to be a character with her own thoughts and decisions, instead of having one musical scene and then taking a nap. 

1. The biggest difference? Length. The Disney movie is a petite 1 hour and 12 minutes long; less if you remove the credits, while the book is over 400 pages. A lot of this is due to Robin McKinley’s detailed writing style (boy, you should read her Beauty and the Beast retelling if you like descriptions of roses), and partly due to the fact that she covers something that the movie conveniently skips: Rosie’s entire childhood. Much of the charm of the story comes from seeing Rosie go through various adolescent phases and mishaps, like cutting her own hair when she’s a toddler, moving to a new house when she’s a teenager, and experiencing all the turmoil of growing up. Meanwhile, Disney’s Rose/Aurora is just immediately a very adult-looking 16 years old.  2. A small difference: Disney’s princess is cursed to prick her finger upon the spindle at 16, while Rosie gets to at least become an adult first, and wait until 21. A bit more reasonable, I think.  3. Another small but important difference: in the Disney version, the king declares all spinning wheels must be destroyed. Honestly, how did they make cloth for 16 years??? In the book, only the spindle ends must be snapped off (and are then replaced by fancy smooth carved ones, which is a plot point).  4. Both similar and different are the fairies. In the movie, they’re... well, fairies. Magical beings with wings, immortal and probably very rare. In the book, they’re basically just witches. They’re born with magical powers, and they’re not very rare. The whole country runs on fairies and their control of the wild magic that entwines with everyday life. And they certainly aren’t all-powerful.  5. In the movie, Rose lives with 3 fairies, who are all kindly older ladies (and apparently rather bumbling without their magic). In the book, Rosie lives with 2 fairies: old “Aunt”, and “cousin” Katriona. They raise her as family, and everyone in town is sure she’s going to end up being a fairy too-- mostly because Rosie can somehow talk to animals (which was a fairy godmother gift, but only Aunt and Kat know that).  6. While in the movie, the fairies caution Rose not to talk to anyone, in the book she’s raised near a lively village, and chatters energetically at everyone, even making friends with the stoic blacksmith. Aunt and Kat want to keep her hidden, after all, and what’s the best way to hide? To be perfectly normal. Keeping her locked up would be kind of a red flag.  7. In the book, Rosie does eventually meet a prince that she’s unknowingly engaged to, though only one person in the town actually knows the whole truth (and it’s neither the prince, nor Rosie). And the prince does fall in love instantly with a charming peasant girl, who falls right back in love with him.  8. A major element in the book is the grand house Woodwold, which was built 1000 years ago by a seer who knew it would be instrumental in saving the country (although, again, only one person knows this). Woodwold is ancient and has its own deep magic and strong bonds with its people and the princess. There’s nothing like it in the movie. In the book, Woodwold is responsible for the walls of thorns (they’re rose bushes). Instead of being cast by the evil witch, the house cast them to protect its people from the witch. It’s a good house. I’d live there.  9. A fun similarity I noticed when I watched the movie was the final confrontation essentially being solved by a magical thrown weapon. In the movie, it’s the prince’s sword, which he throws into the dragon’s heart. Which was awesome, by the way. But in the book, it’s a little more complicated. It ends up being a magic spear, and it only enables a different character to take down the witch-- which is also pretty cool.  10. Speaking of the final confrontation? Spoilers, but Rosie basically decides to choke the witch the death. Man, I love that girl. Which points to essentially the biggest difference between the book and movie: Rosie actually gets to do things. Rose/Aurora in the film is barely a character, for all that the movie is about her. She has one important scene: the “once upon a dream” sequence. Other than that, it’s mostly the fairies and the prince. In the book, about the first 1/3 of the story does follow the fairies (because Rosie is a baby), but most of the rest of the story is from Rosie’s perspective, except for occasional switches back to Kat, or to the love interest, when it’s relevant. Rosie is still being strung along with this curse and all the princess nonsense, but she has infinitely more agency. (And also, like, opinions and feelings. Yes, she has a lot of those.)  Anyway, mostly without spoilers (and not a single named mention of Narl or Peony somehow), that’s a few of my thoughts on the movie vs. book. Obviously it’s not even a relevant comparison, given the great time difference between their writings and the different authors, but I think it’s fun to see where some of the books specific inspiration might have come from.  Oh, one more thought.  11. “Once upon a dream”. I actually love how this manifests in the book, because it happens in several ways. First is the way the fairy Katriona uses dreams to tell the queen that her daughter is alright. Second, is the “dream” of the seers who established Woodwold. And then the lyric, “and I know it’s true, that visions are seldom what they seem”, about seers’ notorious unreliability.  (Oh, oops, I’m having fanfic thoughts.)  Aaand, just one more:  12. The princess is woken by true love’s first kiss! When I was reading the book, I never thought of this! It literally happens TWICE in the book and I never thought of it as “true love’s first kiss”, because neither time is framed as normal romantic kisses. One is like... CPR, and the other is like... magical energy-transfer nonsense. (Well, maybe they’re both magical energy transfer nonsense, but the first one is definitely framed as CPR.) And what I love about this is that they’re different kinds of love, but they’re both undeniably true love.  I dunno. Just makes me happy. =] 

[afni-fics]

Elder Scrolls DC - A Reluctant Dragonborn - Chapter 8: The Bandit Tower

Elder Scrolls DC - A Reluctant Dragonborn - Chapter 8: The Bandit Tower by C_R_Scott Chapters: 8/? Fandom: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Red Robin (Comics), DCU (Comics) Rating: Mature Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Characters: Tim Drake, Lucien Flavius Additional Tags: Crossover, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Skyrim/DCU crossover, Reluctant Dovahkiin | Dragonborn, Not Beta Read Summary:

In the pre-dawn hours, Tim and Lucien begin their journey to Bleak Falls Barrows. Along the way, they come upon an old abandoned watchtower...

Previous Chapter | Masterlist | Next Chapter

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About an hour before sunrise. Tim left Gerdur's home without waking its occupants and went to wait for Lucien on the bridge that lead out of town towards the mountains. He nibbled on some bread and cheese as he listened to the sound of the water rushing over the rocks underneath him. It was a calming sound that soothed his jangled nerves somewhat, and also helped distract him just a little from the fact that he had no access to coffee.

Now that several days had passed since first waking up on that road to Helgen, his body had acclimated enough to remind him, at that god-awful pre-dawn hour, oh by-the-way aren't we addicted to caffeine and why haven't you gotten your fix yet?! Unfortunately, far as he could find from both the inns in Riverwood and in Whiterun, coffee just didn't exist in Skyrim. Apparently Nords just woke up and powered through mornings like Kryptonians.

On top of the growing headache behind his eyes that always signaled the first miserable sign of caffiene withdrawl, Tim was also coping with the lingering pain from his burns. Though he'd used the balm and re-wrapped his torso, upper left arm, and shoulder in linen bandages, the ache of the burn had made it nearly impossible to sleep, especially since he couldn't reach the entire burn area on his back. There were areas he just couldn't get to on his own, and he hadn't wanted to ask for help from anyone else.

So he was sore, tired, and feeling irritable at hell. If it weren't for the weight of the three hundred gold coins resting in pouch at his waist, he would've seriously considered leaving Lucien behind to spare him the pain of dealing with his foul mood. The poor museum man just didn't deserve that.

"I'm going to step out on a limb and guess you are not typically a morning person."

Tim glanced toward the voice and scanned Lucien carefully. While the man had professed not to be much of a fighter, at least he had the sense to know how to dress for the climate they were about to travel into. He appeared to be wearing multiple, sensible layers of clothing meant to keep him warm underneath a long robe that was trimmed with intricate embroidery and had a hood that was already drawn over his head. Above that he wore long fur cloak that settled upon his shoulders and down his back. The man also had a backpack that was probably filled with his research gear, a small oil lantern that was clipped to one side of his belt, and a sheathed sword strapped to the other side.

Tim smiled wryly. "I've always been more of a night owl," he said, hoping belatedly that owls were actually a bird that existed in this place.

Apparently they were as Lucien gave him a sympathetic look. "I understand completely. Used to be the same way when I entered university a few years back. Here." The scholar reached into his bag and pulled out what looked like a leather waterskin. 

Tim took the waterskin and noticed it felt warm. He gave Lucien a quizzical look.

"It's a blend of tea I concocted to help with these kinds of mornings. Brewed some up and made enough for both of us. I figured it was the least I could do for surprising you last night with 'extra baggage' for your trip to the Barrows." Lucien urged Tim to try it.

Curiously, Tim did take sip. It definitely wasn't coffee, but as far as teas went it wasn't that bad. There was definitely a strong herbal quality to it, though Tim couldn't even begin to identify what it could be from. There was also a slight smokiness to the flavor as well, as if there was some sort of roasted grain mixed in. But most important of all, whatever was in it was taking the edge off his caffeine withdrawl symptoms. 

"Thanks Lucien. I really needed that," he said after a moment. 

"Wonderful! Shall we be off then?"

***

When the pair of them left Riverwood, though the sun hadn't risen yet the sky was clear. Unfortunately, the further up the mountain they went towards the Barrows, the worse the weather got. First there was fog. Then there was snow. Tim had shrugged his own fur cloak into a better position to cover more of his body. A glance backward confirmed Lucien had done the same. It was clear neither of them were acclimated to this kind of weather, not like the local Nords.

"How long do you think it will take to reach the Barrow?" Lucien asked as he paused to warm his hands over his small oil lantern. 

Tim made a mental note to purchase a lantern the next time he saw one at a general store. "Gerdur said that once we reach the abandoned tower, we should be about halfway there." 

They continued their trek up the barely there path for about an hour. The snow and the fog made it hard to see more than a few yards far in front of them. For awhile there, Tim wondered if perhaps they had missed seeing the abandoned tower at all.

As their path began to level off where the mountain began to naturally plateau Tim could finally see it. There was an old stone watchtower set right at the edge of a steep cliff overlooking the valley below.

"Finally," Lucien said as he caught sight of the tower as well. "Let's stop there for a bit of a rest before going up the rest of the way."

Tim almost agreed with him, but then he noticed movement around the base of the tower. "Wait!" he said as he reached out to snag Lucien by the cloak and dragged him behind a large pile of rocks.

"What's wron--" Lucien started to ask, but was startled by the expression on his companion's face. Tim's face was a mask of deadly serious focus as he stared at the tower from behind the cover of the rocks.

"There are people at the tower. At least two."

Lucien peeked over the top of the rocks, eyes squinting as he tried to see through the fog and snow. "They must be the bandits that have taken root in this area. But are you sure about the number? I can barely see the outline of the tower through all this mist, let alone any people." When he didn't get an answer, Lucien glanced to his side. "Timothy?"

Much to his surprise, he was all alone except for Tim's footprints winding around the rocks in the snow.

***

Tim stealthily moved closer to the tower by slinking from cover to cover. He hoped Lucien would take the unspoken hint and stay behind until he was done. 

This... felt good. Hiding in shadows. Keeping a civilian safe. Creeping up on goons/bandits while he plotted their inevitable takedown. Finally, for the first time since arriving in Skyrim, Tim felt like himself.

From where he sat, he could see that there was just a change in the guard. One who had been standing at a post a few yards from the tower entrance was swapped by another who'd walked out from it. Tim counted his lucky stars. It was this movement that had caught his attention earlier. Due to the weather, if it had just been the guard standing there, he might not have caught sight of him until it was too late.

Once the other guard disappeared into the tower, leaving his partner alone, Tim made his move.

The solid THUNK of the steel dagger embedding itself in the trunk of the tree he'd been leaning on immediately caught the attention of the bandit guard, startling him from his attempt to stay warm at his post.  

"What the--?!" he exclaimed as he whipped his head to the left and saw the dagger vibrating mere inches from his nose. Then the sound of rustling in a nearby set of bushes, and the sight of the snow-laden branches jostling around immediately caught his eye. It looked as if there was a shadow hunched behind it. With a growl, the guard immediately drew his sword and rushed the bushes, prepared to slice open whoever had thrown the dagger. However, he ended up choking on his warcry as he saw that there was nothing but a backpack sitting in the snow. "Huh?"

Tim smirked as he crept out from behind a large boulder, his quarterstaff a comfortable weight in his hands as he prepared to swing it at his unsuspecting target.

***

The sound of a body falling to the ground with a muffled groan after a series of suspicious thudding noises caught the attention of the original guard as she poked her head out of the tower's entrance. This one drew her bow and nocked an arrow immediately upon seeing that their compatriot was not where he was supposed to be. Cautiously, she walked across the bridge that led to the mountainside. Then she saw the body of the other guard. 

"Skialg!" she called out with alarm. Caution thrown to the wind, she rushed forward to check on him, though, she never saw the staff that jutted out in front of her feet, tripping her into the snow. 

The moment the bow was out of her hands, Tim stepped out and kicked it well out of reach. The female Nord bandit looked up to find a wooden staff pointed ominously at her face. Her eyes widened in horror. 

"You've got two choices," Tim said with a dark smirk and a low tone. "You can either jog down the mountain and never come back, or you can end up like your friend there, taking a nap in the snow. Which would you prefer?"

Tim was ready for a counterattack, and was mildly surprised when it never came. He was expecting anger and retaliation. Instead, there appeared to be genuine terror on the woman's face as she nervously scrambled to her feet and booked it down the mountain path, racing past Lucien without a second though even though she could clearly see him. 

As soon as she was out of sight, Tim relaxed and rested his staff on his shoulder. "Well that was disappointing," he said as Lucien walked up to him. Though the sky was still overcast, somewhere beyond the clouds the sun had risen and had lightened up their surroundings considerably. "Are bandits around here always so skittish?"

"Well how would you feel if you had a mage's staff aimed at your face?" Lucien said with a disapproving frown. "Honestly, Timothy! A Fire Blast or Sparks or Frostbite at point-blank range like that would have been completely excessive and resulted in backlash on you as well as your target. Who taught you how to use a staff with such bad form anyways?"

"Mage's staff?" Tim looked at Lucien with confusion.

Lucien noticed the odd look Tim gave him, then motioned for TIm to give him the staff. Without protest, Tim handed it over. After a moment, it was the scholar's turn to look confused. "Wait... Is this... Just a stick?"

"Actually, it's a quarterstaff."

"But... Wait, so you don't use magic at all?" 

"No."

"But you carry staff."

"Yes."

"That has no magic whatsoever."

"I guess not? Wasn't expecting it to when I bought it."

"But... What do you do with this, if not to cast spells?"

Tim blinked at him, then rubbed the back of his neck. "I just... well... hit people with it?"

Lucien gaped at him. "And, that works?"

Tim pointed at the other bandit that was still unconscious.

"Mara's mercy! Did you actually kill that bandit with a stick?!" Lucien went over and poked the bandit with Tim's quarterstaff experimentally

Tim sighed. "No, he's not dead. Just unconscious. He'll be out for hours, and we'll be long gone by then."

Lucien straightened up with a contemplative expression on his face. "So... your entire plan to get us past the bandits on our way to the Barrow was to sneak up on your own, with just a stick, to bludgeon a pair of bandits into Oblivion, but not really because you had no intention of actually killing them?"

"Yeah. Pretty much," Tim remarked as he went back to the original guard's tree. He tugged the dagger out of its bark and then went to retrieve his backpack from where he'd thrown it earlier. "Maybe it doesn't make sense to you, but even if they're bandits and on the wrong side of the law, they're still people with lives and possibly even families. To end their lives so casually, as if they were worth nothing at all..." He sighed as he closed up his pack. "It's just... not the way I was raised. Ending another human life should never be an option if there are other solutions available."

When Tim looked at Lucien again, he found the scholar studying him in a way that made him feel a little uncomfortable, like he was a puzzle needing to be solved. "That's a very noble sentiment. Truly in the spirit of Stendarr himself," Lucien finally said as he handed the quarterstaff back to Tim. "Hopefully it won't get you killed one day. Tamriel could use more people who thought like you do, though I doubt the bandits on the road will show us the same mercy."

Tim gave Lucien a weak smile. "Hopefully," he echoed. Then he motioned for Lucien to wait as he took a few minutes to drag the still unconscious bandit back into the tower. When Tim came back out to continue his journey with Lucien to the Barrows, he shrugged his shoulders at the odd look the scholar gave him. "What? It wouldn't be much better if I left him out in the open to die of exposure or to be eaten by a wolf."

Lucien laughed as he walked alongside Tim once more up the mountainside. "Somewhere up in the shrubbery there's a starving wolf that's sure to be cursing your name right now."

"Well lucky for me, I've got a big stick."

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

Author Note: This is being pantsed more than plotted, and this is not beta read. We'll see where this journey takes us. Mostly I'm just doing this for my own amusement.

Note: If you have any questions about the playthrough and Tim's feelings/experiences that aren't described in the chapters, please ask me in the comments. I'll do my best to answer your questions as best I can.

[jeanjauthor]

Hello, hope you’re having a good day. I was wondering for you lovely expertise. I’d like to write more of ladies in my little book, since it’s highly undervalued in books, and want each regions to have their own distinctive style. Also all the gossip happens whilst they’re embroidering. It’s historical based and but it’s quite a mesh of different cultures at different times yet the foods pretty European mediveal and south Asian based it’s not nearly sexist. Have you got any style ideas or types?

I’ll presume you mean it’s a non-Earth setting that’s pre-industrial medieval in its tech level, with influences from South Asia and Europe.

If it’s pre-industrial, then they won’t have instantaneous communication with far-flung places...but you can still have them living within, say, walking distance of each other.  How?  Well, if it involves a whole bunch of different styles and regions and foods, etc, you will want some sort of crossroads city for your characters to live in. Examples of highly multicultural cities include Rome, Constantinople, Mumbai, Hangzhou, places like that. 

Port cities are great for this because sailing can be faster than land-based travel (boats with sails don’t get tired so long as the wind keeps blowing more or less steadily), but land-locked crossroads are doable, too--cities along the Silk Road, for instance, would see a flux of travelers seasonally, and some would bring their families, or fall in love, settle down, and stay.  You definitely will want to consider a couple of things though, and trade with other regions is merely the first of them.

European medieval...well, everything...was influenced by its climate.  The foods that could be grown, the architecture needed to survive the hotter Mediterranean areas or the very cold taiga (subarctic forests) of Scandinavia, and everything in between.  They developed many methods of preserving foods to keep it from going rotten, but a lot of it relied on smoking, drying, salting, and even freezing  (icehouses were a thing in some regions even before it became industrialized).  Clothing styles are definitely designed more for surviving the cold and staying warm than in keeping cool, and to keep their clothing warm even when wet (yay wool).

South India (except in the more mountainous areas) tend to be very hot and vacillates between hot and dry and very very wet (yay monsoon season).  Food preservation did include salting, dehydrating, smoking, but very little freezing, and the flavoring profiles were completely different, as (unlike herbs) a lot of spice plants actually require a hot climate to grow.  (People trying to grow peppers in Alaska are still having a hard time despite decades of careful cultivation, breeding, and selecting for cold-weather hardiness.)  South Asian clothing styles are designed to keep the wearer cool and comfortable, and to dry quickly when it rains (yay sari fashion, the one garment that has been in continuous use / popularity for over 5,000 years).

So you’re going to have to decide what kind of region this city is located in, and what kind of weather and/or seasons it experiences.  From there, you can figure out what kinds of architecture they’ll have, the size of the windows, whether they’re covered all year round (glass, oiled parchment, sheets of horn, etc), or only partial, or narrow pierced openings to keep the air flowing while keeping out hot sunlight, etc.

From that, you can also interpret what kinds of clothing people will be wearing.  If cultural identity is strong, some groups will cling more to their saris and chamsas, while others will wear their hose and their houppelandes, or their Norse apron dresses, their great kilts, whatever.  (Archer hoodies, aka mantles, will be popular across a wide range of eras; they’re great for keeping head, shoulders, and a bit of the chest dry in the rain, and you can turn them into those fancy cockscomb hats if you know how--ask me if interested!)

Once you have climate, architecture, clothing established, figure out which foods will be locally available, which will be imported, from how far away, and whether or not any special equipment is needed for growing said food--if glass is a locally produced commodity, with sand reserves and limestone for flux (lowering the temperature) and plenty of wood or coal for burning in the furnaces, it is possible that a colder climate has glazed greenhouses in which to grow the plants that need hot conditions to produce spices, for example.  Or it’s just that all the colder climate foods are grown on the north-facing slopes of nearby hills, and there are irrigation canals everywhere to keep everything watered.

(If it’s a world with magic, do consider the ecology of how the magic is generated, used, spent, where it goes when it’s used up, how difficult it is to use, what system is required to access it (inner energies of a mage, special runes or material components, the blessing of a deity or patron entity, etc).)

If it’s not going to be nearly as sexist (thank youuuu!!  *gives you a basket of hugs, prepackaged in biodegradable shrinkwrapped, magically enchanted in stasis so they’re a fresh-from-the-dryer snuggly warm blanket kind of hug*), then you’ll want to decide what legal protections females (and/or any nonbinary folks) have.  What positions they can hold, how much of their personal belongings and/or income they can retain or control, what they’re legally allowed to inherit, and what say they have in who they marry or what job they take up, what apprenticeships they can hold, etc.

You don’t have to shove it in people’s faces, but you can definitely weave it throughout the story--Guildmistresses of various craft positions, noblewomen in leadership roles, royalty inherits based either on the firstborn, period, or on whoever is deemed the most competent--this can be an interesting plot point for a disaffected male “heir” who was set aside in favor of his more competent sister, etc--and in other ways.  You can also have women warriors being taken seriously, whether they’re town guards or kingdom soldiers, and women sailors being treated as equal to the men, without the superstition of “a woman on a ship will curse it!!!1!”  which was the medieval version of “ewww, girl cooties!” I guess... (idek *eyerolls at medieval/age of exploration men*)

Your plot will also have a lot to tell you about the world these people live in.  If they’re embroiderers who gossip a lot, are they living in a town where their embroidery is sought out by merchants from near and far?  How valued by their society is it?  Are they plotting while embroidering to change certain laws, social situations, etc, because “nobody would suspect embroiderers of favoring the disposed Crown Prince over his sister, since surely the sister will buy all their wares? (except she doesn’t; the crown princess expects them to provide it for free, how dare!!)”

I have no idea what your plot might be, but it can give you directions and ideas if you think about it.  The most important thing to remember in all of this is that all these things interweave together.  Sometimes this will cause problems (side plots!--zomg we’re all out of purple thread and the crown princess will kill us for not having any purple dye!!) and sometimes this will create solutions (sending secret messages to the prince’s supporters via embroidery!!), etc, etc.

Hope that helps at least somewhat!

#RewritingForFeminism

#MultipleCulturesInOnePlace

#answers

[xansmenagerie]

Teagan

Bit of context for this one - I do LARP, and this is the backstory for one of my LARP characters. A grumpy, "I will break your legs if you make my life difficult", non-binary warrior with an ability to hear wrong pronouns being used over a remarkable distance mid-battle. Our local system is quite flexible in how backstories can work and I'd been reading the Tales of the 500 Kingdoms books at the point where I was plotting Teagan, so this happened...

Ze watched the border post from the safety of the brush, considering zyr options. It wasn't about whether ze was going to make the crossing - that was a given - but a question of style. On one hand ze was in desperate need of food, a bath and a bed, order optional; on the other, there was no way ze was going to have zyr first memory of a new kingdom being begging cap in hand to some tin soldiers.

That pride's going to get you in trouble one day, Tee. Great. Even with the miles between them, even in the safety of zyr own head, Johann was still an annoying little brother. Ze hoped he was doing okay, him and Papa and Marguerite and Tessa but especially Johann because if it hadn't been for him ze wouldn't be here right now.

This was the problem of the Kingdom of Eltaria. It was small, surrounded by mountains and forests, but possessed of good farming lands and enough mines to be largely independently wealthy. The weather was generally just right - although storms had a tendency to blow up when appropriate for the occasion. There wasn't much in the way of trade in and out, but not because of any difficulties at the borders, no. It was because at some point in the kingdom's history some bloody fool had told the local fae about fairy tales, and it was just everyone's luck that the bloody things had been interested.

The result was...interesting. Oh, it generally wasn't too bad for the population at large, as long as you were careful enough. Always be kind to animals, always give the beggar woman some of your lunch, avoid any streams that whisper; nothing difficult, although you had to keep on your toes. No. The problems came if you were...interesting. If, for example, you were the only child of a fairly wealthy merchant who had recently remarried due to his wife's untimely death and said wife had brought two children of her own with her.

It didn't matter that Teagan was only covered in grease and dirt and ashes because ze found household maintenance far more satisfying than embroidery. It didn't matter that Marguerite - not mother but neither of them had expected her to be called that - was at worst absent-minded and a little set in her thinking about gender roles but otherwise was a perfectly acceptable step-parent. It didn't even matter that the closest Tessa could be accused of being abusive was if someone didn't know that neither she nor Teagan pulled their 'love taps' in rough housing as much as they should, and calling Johann vain would be a missed opportunity to call him fabulous - he looked so much better in Teagan's dresses than ze had ever done and was more than welcome to them.

No.

What mattered was that the Duke was holding a series of 'coming out' balls for his son, that Teagan was close enough to the right age, and that all of the elements of the story were there. Ze had known it wasn't going to end well the day ze had come down for breakfast and the fairy was just there, at the table, in full sparkly panoply. Waiting for zyr.

It had taken less than a day for Johann, Tessa and Teagan to come up with a plan. The hardest part for Teagan had been playing the role; subservience was not part of zyr nature, but it was somehow bearable when Tessa had turned from cajoling to commanding, and had knocked zyr arse over tit to back it up. So ze had put on skirts and taken down zyr hair and had moved zyr mattress down to the old pantry that no one ever used any more, and the fairy had been pleased enough to be less than observant.

Papa and Marguerite had been horrified for zyr. Papa in particular wasn't happy once he knew the plan, but both of them understood.

The fairy had been so pleased by the progress at the first two of the balls that they hadn't noticed anything out of place. It probably helped that as Johann had been almost aggressively masculine every time it was in the house it hadn't apparently considered that the masked, begowned, husky stranger making moves on the Duke's son could be anyone but Teagan. Ze could only hope that this had held true for the third night as well, as as soon as ze had shed the stupid ballgown and stupid impractical dancing shoes and all the rest halfway to the castle for Johann to change into ze had headed away into the woods at speed, pausing only to knot zyr hated hair up under a hat to keep it from catching on branches in the dusk.

Ze suspected that the fairy had got wind of zyr escape about three days later though, which would tally with the time required to do an inspection of all of the feet in the local area. Up until that point ze'd only had to dodge talking wolves, trees made of gold, all the normal nuisance of the woods. Day three had involved hiding from the house with chicken feet three times - but everything had been clear since then, a thought that filled Teagan with a certain malicious satisfaction. Even the fae could be inconvenienced by other powers, and the third time was always the charm.

On the plus side, if the rumours ze'd heard from some of the castle staff at market were anything to go by, there might still be a fairytale wedding for the Duke's son in the offing. Teagan silently wished Johann and the noble the best of joy of each other, if that was the case.

And now ze was here, at the border of the Kingdom of Exiles, and it was starting to rain. A place where reputedly they treated the fae with the exact amount of tolerance and respect they had earned, and had 'seriously inconvenienced' no few who had deserved it. A place where, maybe, the only story ze would be part of would be the one ze wrote, not one that other people would try to write for zyr.

Teagan straightened, brushed off the worst of the leaves from zyr coat, and strode forwards to the future.

[peckhampeculiar]

The new radicals

DIY Space for London is a cooperatively run social centre located in a warehouse just off the Old Kent Road. We find out more about the democratic and diverse space, which today has upwards of 7,000 members

Words Andrew Finch

DIY Space for London is the kind of place you first hear about through word of mouth – the most exciting places usually are.

Tucked away on the back roads of an industrial estate on Ormside Street, just off the Old Kent Road, the social centre has fast become south London’s staple counter-culture venue for alternative music, creative workshops and political activism.

Increasingly, the local community has been in need of a long-term space that exists independently of external funding, or isn’t one that is simply going to get evicted, as has been the case with many squatted venues across the city over the past decade.

With its radio show on Resonance FM having made a much-anticipated return last month, DIY Space for London is determinedly moving into the future against the pitfalls of this expensive city.

Conceived out of a need to provide an inclusive and not-for-profit music centre for London back in 2012, a small group of individuals initially got together and planned the beginnings of the space.

Taking inspiration from collectively owned cooperatives from across the world, the group cemented their ethos in mutual aid and providing a space of inclusivity regardless of age, race, gender or sexual orientation.

One of the founding members of DIY Space, Bryony Beynon, says: “We realised we could do something ourselves, and make it better. We could redirect all that money being put into the pockets of mainstream venue owners back into the communities who needed venues that were safe, accessible and radical. We wanted to pull the threads of do-it-yourself music culture and activist community organising together, while remaining fully independent.”

The venue’s open-minded approach and its determination to provide a platform for marginalised communities is the very bedrock of its existence.

Relying on various grassroots methods of fundraising, including cake sales and sponsored runs, as well as a successful crowdfunding campaign that raised more than £20,000, the group secured a 3,300 square foot warehouse in 2014.

After hundreds of hours of old-fashioned hard graft, the space successfully opened its doors in the spring of 2015.

The demographic of DIY Space for London has since become vast. The space now boasts more than 7,000 members of different backgrounds, cultures, colours and creeds, and prides itself on its diversity.

With strong links to feminist and LGBT communities, members including pirate radioheads, lecturers, punks, artists, the unemployed, students, ravers and office workers all contribute to the colourful community, engaging in a shared experience that each can call their own.

One of its members, Chris, says: “The two principles behind DIY Space for London are that we operate on a non-hierarchical basis – nobody is in charge, we make decisions by consensus – and that we operate in the spirit of mutual aid. We work together and help one another to achieve shared goals.”

Functioning through its numerous collectives, the members of each group share a vital responsibility for maintaining the space at all levels of its existence. Bryony says: “By organising ourselves as a series of collectives that are interdependent, the space has a huge amount of flexibility to respond to the needs of the community.

“Different collectives spring up to take care of the fundamental aspects of running the space, from accessibility needs and stocking the bar to working the sound desk and ensuring the practice room is available.”

This allows the space itself to progress and adapt into the future. New members are encouraged to put on their own nights, or suggest areas where the space might expand.

Recently, the centre’s in-house record store, Tom Records, run by Kevin Hendrick, announced plans to relocate to east London. Discussions of what to replace it with have been ongoing, but there have been mentions of an embroidery workshop, as well as a recording room, all of which will no doubt have a corresponding collective to ensure its maintenance and development.

Anyone is welcome to walk in and sign up to become a member of DIY Space. Membership costs just £2 a year and gives you an equal vote in future developments, as well as the option of joining a collective.

Members can also gain new skills where the space might need some extra help putting on events, such as working on the bar or sound engineering. Everyone is encouraged to try something new, but there is no pressure if you just want to come along and enjoy the live music and workshops.

When arriving at the social centre, you really experience the wealth of what’s on offer here. The walls are collaged with flyers promoting upcoming zine fairs, advice on citizens’ rights and adverts seeking fellow musicians wanting to start bands.

A licensed in-house bar serves affordable beer and craft ales, non-alcoholic beverages, hot drinks and vegan snacks during the evenings. A community book and zine library in which you can trade literature is shelved by the membership desk, and a donation box for clothes and contributions towards refugees sits beside the entrance.

Meanwhile the in-house print collective offers people affordable workshops in the face of an increasingly competitive (and expensive) screen-printing boom in south London. Having recently finished building the first phase of its studio space, the collective runs classes in screen printing, book-binding and darkroom photography equipment. The workshops are run as openly as possible, charging a small fee for the materials used alongside a £4 monthly subscription for open access.

The radio collective has recently staged a comeback on Resonance FM, another not-for-profit community organisation that broadcasts to London around the clock on 104.4 FM. The pilot aired at the end of March and featured a live session from a number of bands formed at the space, local soundscapes and interviews, as well as a discussion of other subcultures and DIY groups around the world, in a celebration of all things counter-cultural.

Weekly yoga classes run each Monday on a pay-what-you-can basis, and film screenings are shown regularly. Rhythms of Resistance, an artistic and anti-capitalist transnational network that uses samba as a form of political action practices bi-weekly. The group is a vibrant force at protests in and around London, and all are welcome to come to the workshops and join in.

Committed to promoting live music and inclusivity, the space runs a festival called First Timers: a series of practical and creative workshop and social sessions where musicians who have no prior experience of being in a band or playing live can get together and play live at a weekend-long event at the space. A practice space is also available for bands to hire at an inexpensive flat rate.

While intrinsically linked to punk music through its grassroots beginnings, the space hosts a huge range of live underground music including acid house, drone, electronic, experimental, spoken word, psych-rock, afrobeat and metal music. There is truly something here for everyone, and you are guaranteed to hear something new each time.

Clearly, this is a space for the many not the few. As well as artistic, cultural, political and radical communities who organise regular events, the space is also available to the wider community.

Chris says: “We are far from perfect here and as part of recognising ourselves as a radical space, we always need to be growing and engaging in self-criticism on our relationship with the wider community.

“We are really thinking about what barriers might still exist in terms of accessing and making use of the space. This is work that is never done, and I’d encourage anyone interested in getting involved to get in touch.”

Committed to working together and improving its visibility in the community, the volunteer liaison collective recently held a meeting on how the space could make its location clearer to prospective newcomers.

Suggestions included signposted boards in the streets that could be plotted from the Old Kent Road, stickers put up in the streets of Peckham, and even approaching Southwark Council to discuss erecting an official landmark sign often reserved for points of cultural interest.

The sense of autonomy that drives DIY Space with its sustainable plans for the future is often at odds with the city of London at large, but it’s also an integral part of its existence. The threat of developers and being out-priced by large-scale venues and properties is an immediate concern to everyone in the local community, and it is through times of struggle that individuals are able to come together, voice their concerns and create positive change.

It is this level of commitment to independence and community interest that spurs DIY Space for London into the future, against all odds. As a long-term project where everyone can work together to provide a sustainable, fairer and alternative space to the world we live in at a local level, there is a hope that others will be inspired to do the same globally.

As Bryony says: “This is a project not just for the future but for today – tonight.”

[citythevillage]

Kutch - A Fun Tourist Destination Part of India

Kutch is an interesting destination to visit on holidays . It's a large district, falling under the province of Gujarat State, India. It's substantially a salty marshland with most greenery, and the rustic geographies spotted with several villages and many townships. The name Kutch, also pronounced and written as Kachchh, is based on the geography of the place. Also, the name also signifies something that becomes wet and dry at alternative time intervals, and similar to it, a large part of the district is submerged in water because of the rainfall during the rainy season and also becomes dry in other seasons. This large part of the district is called the Ran of Kutch, which is also a wildlife sanctuary that's largely significant to the government of India and forest department. old temples, rugged forts, unique local handcrafts, rich wildlife, migrant birds and flamingos, elegant garments spotted with embroidery and mirror work, and salty apartments that turn snow-white in post monsoon season are the attractions charming one towards the place. It's an ideal destination to spend the holiday as holidaying in the place is an experience of a lifetime. Given below are some popular places in the location that are worth visiting.

City the Village Hotel & Resort-

City The Village Beach Resort is located at Mandvi one of the Best hotel & resort in Kutch Gujarat. The Resort has Royal and exotic style architecture and landscaped which includes 56 rooms and suites, Gujarat’s biggest party plot of 4000 peoples, Swimming Pool, Outdoor games, multi cuisine restaurant and other amenities for a perfect holiday in Kutch Gujarat. Our Live kitchen restaurant concept is one of the best restaurant in Mandvi, Kutch. Intricate architectural carvings adorn the structure in the iconic style of the 18th-century. Indian red sandstone unites the old and the new with the exotic designs adding an exciting and fresh dimension to the region’s ancient carving industry. Book your stay with one of the best 5 star hotels & resorts in Mandvi, Kutch, Gujarat. Experience and enjoy our 5 star services in the lap of nature.

Aaina Mahal-

It's an amazing palace situated in Bhuj near the beautiful Hamirsar Lake. It's an old 18th century structure that exhibits the advanced infrastructure of the place that existed in medieval times. Aaina Mahal, which translates to the Hall of mirrors, is literally a palace that's constructed of multiple mirrors and golden adornments in addition to the other elements. It's a two storied building housing fountains, mirrors, small puppets, doors that are inlaid with ivory and gold, etc. The palace now has been transfigured into a gallery that provides a detailed insight on the place's history. 

Koteshwar Temple-

It's a largely adored spiritual place and a well-known place in Kutch. It isn't exactly in Kutch but located about 215k.m. from Bhuj, the capital of Kutch. You have to pass the vast distance of desert to reach the temple. Amongst Hindus the place holds tremendous significance, which explains the continuous inflow of visitors. Located near the western coast of India it's maybe the latest bastard- formed village on western most end of India placed on a high platform overlooking the vast Arabian Sea. 

Dholavira-

Dholavira is Located about 250k.m. from Bhuj, it's a point of immense archaeological significance. The location was discovered in 1967 and belongs to the Harappan era. It's a large ruined area covering about 100 hectares of land and consists of multiple remains and ruined structures, including the world's oldest water conservation system. 

Vijay Vilas palace- 

The architectural heritage is a classic of history associated precisely with the culture of Gujarat. The massive palace was built as a mid-year retreat in red sandstone which reeks of royalty in its every niche and split. One of the best visiting places to visit near Mandvi, fall in love with the amazing majesty of this palace. 

[orbemnews]

As China Targets H&M and Nike, Local Brands See Their Chance Tim Min once drove BMWs. He considered buying a Tesla. Instead Mr. Min, the 33-year-old owner of a Beijing cosmetics start-up, bought an electric car made by a Chinese Tesla rival, Nio. He likes Nio’s interiors and voice control features better. He also considers himself a patriot. “I have a very strong inclination toward Chinese brands and very strong patriotic emotions,” he said. “I used to love Nike, too. Now I don’t see any reason for that. If there’s a good Chinese brand to replace Nike, I’ll be very happy to.” Western brands like H&M, Nike and Adidas have come under pressure in China for refusing to use cotton produced in the Xinjiang region, where the Chinese government has waged a broad campaign of repression against ethnic minorities. Shoppers vowed to boycott the brands. Celebrities dropped their endorsement deals. But foreign brands also face increasing pressure from a new breed of Chinese competitors making high-quality products and selling them through savvy marketing to an increasingly patriotic group of young people. There’s a term for it: “guochao,” or Chinese fad. HeyTea, a $2 billion milk tea start-up with 700 stores, wants to replace Starbucks. Yuanqisenlin, a four-year-old low-sugar drink company valued at $6 billion, wants to become China’s Coca-Cola. Ubras, a five-year-old company, wants to supplant Victoria’s Secret with the most non-Victoria’s Secret of products: unwired, sporty bras that emphasize comfort. The anger over Xinjiang cotton has given these Chinese brands another chance to win over consumers. As celebrities cut their ties to foreign brands, Li-Ning, a Chinese sportswear giant, announced that Xiao Zhan, a boy band member, would become its new global ambassador. Within 20 minutes, almost everything that Mr. Xiao wore on a Li-Ning advertisement had sold out online. A hashtag about the campaign was viewed more than one billion times. China is undergoing a consumer brand revolution. Its young generation is more nationalistic and actively looking for brands that can align with that confidently Chinese identity. Entrepreneurs are rushing to build up names and products that resonate. Investors are turning their attention to these start-ups amid dropping returns from technology and media ventures. When patriotism becomes a selling point, Western brands are put at a competitive disadvantage, especially in a country that increasingly requires global companies to toe the same political lines that Chinese firms must. China’s consumer protests are “a historic turning point and will have lasting impact on the Chinese consumers in the long run,” Mr. Min said. “The Chinese consumers don’t want to eat the same crap foreign brands have been feeding them. It’s essential that foreign brands respect Chinese consumers as much as the Chinese brands do.” Foreign brands are far from done in China. Its drivers helped power a jump in Tesla deliveries. IPhones remain immensely popular. Campaigns against foreign names have come and gone, and local brands that emphasize politics too much risk unwanted attention if the political winds shift quickly. Still, interest in local brands marks a significant shift. Post-Mao, the country made few consumer products. The first televisions that most families owned in the 1980s were from Japan. Pierre Cardin, the French designer, reintroduced fashion with his first show in Beijing in 1979, bringing color and flair to a nation that during the Cultural Revolution wore blue and gray. Chinese people born in the 1970s or earlier remember their first sip of Coco-Cola and their first bite of a Big Mac. We watched films from Hollywood, Japan and Hong Kong as much for the wardrobes and makeup as the plot. We rushed to buy Head & Shoulders shampoo because its Chinese name, Haifeisi, means “sea flying hair.” Today in Business Updated  April 6, 2021, 9:08 a.m. ET “We’ve gone through the European and American fad, the Japanese and Korean fad, the American streetwear fad, even the Hong Kong and Taiwan fad,” said Xun Shaohua, who founded a Shanghai sportswear company that competes with Vans and Converse. Now could be the time for the China fad. Chinese companies are making better products. China’s Generation Z, born between 1995 and 2009, doesn’t have the same attachment to foreign names. Even People’s Daily, the traditionally staid Communist Party official newspaper, is getting into branding. It started a streetwear collection with Li-Ning in 2019. That same year, it issued a report with Baidu, the Chinese search company, called “Guochao Pride Big Data.” They found that when people in China searched for brands, more than two-thirds were looking for domestic names, up from only about one-third 10 years earlier. As with so much in China, it can be hard to tell how much of the guochao movement involves politics. Building up homemade brands fits snugly with the Communist Party’s desire to make the country more self-reliant. Officials also want Chinese people to shop more: Household consumption makes up only about 40 percent of China’s economic output, much less than it does in the United States and Europe. Patriotism aside, entrepreneurs argue that their ventures rest on a solid business foundation. Similar trends happened in Japan and South Korea, both now home to strong brands. Local players better know the abilities of the country’s supply chains and how to use social media. Mr. Xun’s sports brand has half a million followers on Alibaba’s Taobao marketplace and sells at the same prices as Vans and Converse, or even slightly higher. He said his brand competed by making shoes that fit Chinese feet better and offering colors favored locally, such as mint green and fuchsia. He sells exclusively online and teams up with Chinese and foreign brands and personalities, including Pokemon and Hello Kitty. At 37, he’s the only person in his company who was born before 1990. The guochao fad has also reinvigorated older Chinese brands, like Li-Ning. For many years, sophisticated urbanites considered the brand, created by a former world champion gymnast of the same name, ugly and cheap. Its signature red-and-yellow color combination, after the Chinese flag, was mockingly called “eggs fried with tomato,” an everyday Chinese dish. Li-Ning was losing money. Its shares were on a losing streak. Then the company introduced a collection at New York Fashion Week in early 2018. Its edgy look, combined with bold Chinese characters and embroidery, created buzz back home. Its shares have risen nearly ninefold since then. Now Li-Ning’s high-end collections sell at $100 to $150 on average, on a par with those of Adidas. As ambitious as these businesspeople are, almost everyone I spoke to admitted that the Chinese brands still couldn’t compete with megabrands such as Coca-Cola and Nike. Alex Xie, a marketing consultant who works with companies in China, used the sportswear industry as an example. Nike holds a yearslong lead over Chinese brands in research and development. It enjoys a deep network of relationships in the sports world. It works closely with athletes to develop better shoes, sponsors many events and teams, including China’s national soccer, basketball, and track and field teams. “It simply has a much stickier relationship with its customers than any Chinese brand,” he said. But for these Western megabrands, the Xinjiang cotton dispute is a big challenge that could help their Chinese competitors. While previous outrage against Western brands such as the National Basketball Association and Dolce & Gabbana passed pretty quickly, this bout could linger, many people said. “In the past, some Western brands didn’t understand or failed to respect the Chinese culture mostly because of lack of understanding,” Mr. Xun said. “This time it’s a political issue. They have violated our political sensitivities.” Then, like any savvy Chinese entrepreneur who knows which topics are sensitive, he asked, “Could we not talk about politics?” Source link Orbem News #brands #Chance #China #local #Nike #targets

[bomberqueen17]

So, I own a bunch of sewing machines. I gave two away, but I think I’ll take one back. The machines I own, I’d started off naming them after the women they used to belong to-- Matilda was in this house, a straight-stitch Singer knockoff from probably the 50s with forward, backward, and a little lever to adjust stitch lengths; it had a tiny external motor and runs off a belt that you can still buy replacements for just about anywhere. (I bought mine at a home decor store that’s since closed.) The wiring was cracked but my dad replaced it. Betty was my grandmother’s, a grasshopper-green Elna that uses Bakelite cams to do decorative stitches like zig-zag and feather; it has no pedal, but rather a knee lever. Grandma gave it to Middle-Little sister, but M-L never learned to use it, and left it with me when she moved. I had Betty reconditioned by the technician at the local quilt shop, who passed along to the store clerk that it was such a pleasure to work on a machine he remembered working on when they were new.

(That’s a plot point.)

My sisters got together at my request about five years ago, and bought me a modern Singer, a machine designed for quilting, with 99 electronic stitches and 10 automatic buttonholes and all kinds of neato features. I never named that machine, it’s just The Singer. It broke immediately, twice, and I had it serviced under warranty by the Singer dealership, which was eaten alive by JoAnn Fabrics in the middle, and is basically useless now. It works, now, and is out of warranty, but it skips stitches when zig-zagging, so the decorative stitches aren’t genuinely all that usable unless you don’t care how they look, which. Decorative... anyway. The buttonholer thing is amazing and I love the automatic needle threader but the machine is fundamentally untrustworthy.

A few years later, my mother and sisters got together and bought me a serger. I used it pretty heavily for a few projects, had a blast learning how to use it, and did a lot with it. (It’s another Singer, for the record. Never say I learn from things. TBH there’s little difference anymore, I researched it extensively. They bought it online, not from the dealership, because there’s essential no longer a local dealership.)  

And then my boss moved to South Carolina, and asked if I wanted his grandmother’s sewing machine. So I wound up with Bertha, a cabinet-mounted Singer 15J. But... I never got a power cord or foot pedal, so she’s not usable. I need to have her reconditioned and restored but need to find the budget; meanwhile, she’s got the same features as Matilda, who has settled into a semi-permanent home at the farm. I could just take Matilda back and use Bertha’s table to hold her. (I do use Bertha’s table to hold the serger.)

And now my sisters and my BFF got together and bought me an embroidery machine, a Brother SE400, which is a dual-purpose sewing and embroidery machine, duplicating the features of the Singer Quilting Thingie that’s unreliable, but adding the ability to do a 4x4″ hoop’s worth of C&C embroidery [meaning, the needle is fixed and the hoop moves by computer control]. This is how it works, I think, if you become a Sewing Lady; you acquire sewing machines. 

#1 I need names for the modern machines, #2 I need to get the electronic Singer and Bertha fixed up, and #3 I need to figure out where they all live-- how many live at the farm, and how many stay in my house. I have been making myself a studio at the farm, largely for dried arrangements, but there’s room for sewing in there, and a big table, so. 

But anyway, the point of all this:

The serger broke. A little while back, I was trying to serge the edge of a scrap of denim to make something, and I was trying to go around a corner and I pulled on the material as it was going through the needles. Bad idea. I must have bent something, but there was nothing obvious; however, from that moment on, the interlocking stitches didn’t interlock, the thing didn’t make loops, and so the thread came out of the machine in four strands and not one chain. This is the fundamental thing a serger does: makes three or four strands into a chain. It was Not Doing That. It was clearly broken. 

In despair, I confided this in my mother-not-in-law, who is far more a Sewing Lady than me. (She was a professional tailor for years. She owns seven sewing machines, and a serger.) 

She said “Let me get Wally’s number for you!”

Wally? Oh yes, Wally. He had been the tech at the local quilt shop who’d done such a lovely job reconditioning Betty for me. He’s in his 80s and used to work at a big department store downtown, legendary in the local consciousness. He still does sewing machine repairs. Mother-not-in-law’s sister is an avid quilter and had followed Wally from local quilt shop to local quilt shop (they keep losing leases or going under etc) and he’d finally said, you know, we can cut out the middle-man here, here’s my number. 

I called the number, and I got a woman. She said, “Oh, Wally’s at the Bills game.” I said, “Does he repair sergers?” and she said “oh, does he! Sure does!” “Well I’ll call him back tomorrow, then. I have one that needs some work.”

The next morning at 9:02 I got a phone call from a number I didn’t recognize, but I picked up because I had a suspicion. Sure enough, it was Wally. In the thickest local accent I’ve ever heard (maybe local-Polish, you tend to hear that kind of inflection among that community here), he offered to come get my machine. Fortunately, I had it in my car, as I work close to where his shop is. His shop being, it turns out, his house. I said Dude’s aunt’s name and he said oh yes, she’s the best. So he came and got my machine.

“It’s $80 for me to take a look at it,” he said, “that’s my flat fee. If I can’t fix it, I don’t charge you at all, but if I can, that’s the fee. If I have to replace parts, they run this much for that one, that much for this one, other stuff I’ll call you if I need to buy it so you can make your decision. But apart from that, it’s eighty bucks, cash only please.”

Well, sure enough. He calls me three days later. “Your needle guards was all bent up,” he said, “way outta whack, the front needle guard was in t’ back, and your left looper just wasn’t loopin’! So I straightened alla that out, and it’s workin’ just fine now. Your blades were fine, I didn’t need to replace ‘em, so there’s no extra charges there. Eighty bucks and I can drop it off Thursday, okay?”

“Okay,” I said, slightly astonished. The Singer warranty repairs had taken six weeks and had involved the machine journeying far, far away, and had come back with zero information as to what had been done. (In the first instance, apparently nothing; the problem was that if I dropped the feed dogs they never came back up again, and to fix it they’d just raised the feed dogs back up, so the very next time I dropped the feed dogs, they never came back up, again, necessitating an instant return to the store. Sigh. I’ve just... never dropped them again. There’s no free motion embroidering on that machine, because you’d have to drop the feed dogs, and I know they’d never come back up again.)

So, I’ll get the thing back Thursday, and I guess I’ll be bringing every sewing machine I can get my hands on to Wally in the future, because that’s amazing. 

Yes, I know a new serger is like, $180 nowadays, but then you have to #1 throw the old one away, and #2 learn how to thread the new one. Fuck that! I would rather pay the machine’s worth for a repair, if the thing is mostly sound.

The problem is, nowadays, with repairs, you never get the item back like new. So it’s now the done thing to throw away a moderately broken item and replace it. Which I can’t blame anyone for. But it’s so obnoxious and wasteful. I’d rather get a more expensive thing in the first place and have it be repairable... but, as I’ve discovered to my sorrow, more expensive things don’t mean they’re more repairable. 

I guess that’s why the higher-end sewing machines are so steeply more-expensive, though. Maybe someday I can get myself a Husqvarna serger or something. But in the meantime, I’ll break this one again first. 

And my BFF just had her cheap machine repaired and it came back with the same problem she sent it out with, so I’ll be bringing it to Wally as soon as I can coordinate the logistics.

[secret-engima]

@a-world-in-grey​

Okay so I don’t have too much time to be on Tumblr rn but I couldn’t resist coming straight over to yell about this post be YEEEEEE

*is buried in plot bunnies, fights my way out with a bat* I WILL NOT BE ADOPTING THIS HC (yet) BUT I WILL ABSOLUTELY THROW SOME MORE HCS AT YOU FOR IT.

- Look, LOOK YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND the full scope of just how amazing and AU this idea is. Because- Amicitia grow up with their king, they help rear the princes and princesses alongside their own children, they live and breathe and die by the side of their monarch. That means for TWO THOUSAND YEARS there has been a constant interaction of Galahdian culture with Lucian Mainland culture before Galahd was even PART OF LUCIS and cultures in contact with each other either erode the smaller one away or mingle with it and OH BOY YOU BETTER BELIEVE THE GALAHDIAN AMICITIA AREN’T LETTING THEIR CULTURE GET ERODED AWAY BY THE LOCAL IDIOTS. Which means it’s Lucian culture that bends and adapts, but not on a huge scale. Just on the scale of who the Amicitia interact with the most, care about enough to teach when they have questions and the end result I’m pointing out here is

-GALAHDIAN. LUCIS. CAELUMS.

-Lucis Caelums that grow up hearing their Shields sing the Songs and join in with all the joy of a child playing with a best friend. Lucis Caelums who grow up learning which colors are Good and which ones are Bad. Lucis Caelums who grow up learning Family is Everything and oh does that appeal to their dragon instincts. And at first Lucis Caelums have no braid, because they are not Amicitia (Bestia) and cannot be, but then one generation their Amicitia says “screw it” and puts in a Clan Friend braid and after that it’s tradition. That becomes the braid of the Lucis Caelums, carefully hidden away behind the ear so that the mainland nobility will not see it and adopt it and make it a meaningless fad.

-And the Galahdian culture doesn’t spread far, just to the Lucis Caelums and then to the rest of each generation’s Retinue, but even that has wide-ranging ramifications on big things like policy (the isles are not conquered, they are welcomed, for they are all distant kin to the Shields) to little things like FASHION (every noble knows that there are certain colors and color combinations that are TABOO before the kings and have for hundreds of years. They do not know WHY because they are not Galahdian and not welcomed as Friends to learn, but they just know that you Do Not Wear Certain Colors when in the royal court unless you want to be cast out on your ear or treated like a threat, and OH the way the entire noble court CRINGES whenever a Niflheim envoy arrives for anything because SO MUCH WHITE AND OH NO IS THAT RED TOO? THAT’S ALMOST AS BAD AS PINK-).

-And anyway you go far enough down the line and of course the Amicitia-Galahdian culture has adapted somewhat to understand the concept of kings and noble lines, but overall, and at it’s core, it’s still Galahdian. And so when the Wall is pulled back and a few years later Galahd burns, Regis and Clarus both wail and in their hearts will never forgive Mors, because that is Homeland, even though they have never once set foot upon it. And Regis will never understand why his father chose to abandon them like that, only that Regis himself cannot expand the Wall out again, because he does not know how and does not have the strength to risk a failed attempt.

-So instead, when the refugees come, they are not welcomed by uncaring border guards and token efforts. No, they are greeted by the king himself and his Shield, who wears a Bestia braid in his hair and their colors on his shoulders (just with a lot more blue- Protection- added in) and their king-.

-Their king stands before him in a suit of Black and rich Blue, with embroideries of purple curling along the hems and sleeves, and on his shoulder and knee and hands are Gold accessories, and hanging down next to his ear, for once in plain view rather than hidden away, is a BRAID. And it is not a Clan Braid, but one that means Clan Friend, and the survivors of Galahd cry a second time because their king is a Friend.

-He will help them.

-And he does. With everything he is and can be, and while the average citizenry still look down their noses and are confused over their king’s support of the refugees, the nobles glance over the strangers with their Braids and look to the Amicitia, they look at the refugee’s clothes and see not the dirt but the Colors. And they grit their teeth and bow their heads, because they know there will be no swaying their king from this course.

-(and picture the ramifications of that on the rest of the plot, on a Noctis and Gladiolus and by extension Ignis who are welcome and frequent visitors to Little Galahd, who train with the glaive and laugh at their jokes and shout in Old Galahdian like natives because they are kin, even separated by two thousand years of mainland history. Picture how many more glaives bare their teeth and refuse to turn, and in turn how much worse the betrayal hurts when some DO still turn on the king and Clan-Friend they insist as betrayed them first.)

-And Gladio-

-GLADIO. Oh I LOVE the idea that part of his self-doubt comes from not yet having his animal companion when he should already have one. I LOVE the idea that when he leaves to prove himself he doesn’t just leave to fight Gilgamesh, but to find a companion at long last. And the Amicitia’s have not had a flying companion in centuries, for all the eagle and its feathers are tattooed on their skin, and that’s alright. Gladio will take any appropriate companion. Heck at this point he’d take a suitably impressive looking Chocobo if he had to.

-But he doesn’t have to settle, because either on his way there or on his way back he finds the youngling of something with wings- either a Griffin or one of those feathered DRAGONS that we usually only see in dungeons (like that one you fight in Steyliffe Grove or whatever), and Gladio either cannot find the mother or discovers the mother is dead and so he takes the young one back with him to the Chocobros. And he has not raised her from an egg like traditional Bestia do, but she is still young (if fast growing) and Gladio is nothing if not stubborn and determined and so the young one grows up to be as Fierce and Dedicated a companion as any Bestia (any AMICITIA) could hope for.

Galahdian!Amicitia AU

@secret-engima I won’t toss this au your way only because I know you’ve got almost a hundred of them already, but I’m still tagging you so feel free to join in on the fun.

(Also this spawned from my brain wondering if Bestia have animal partners - magical animal partners in TttW-verse - like how Sola and Noctis do, and then I remembered that Gilgamesh had Enkidu, and then I remembered that one of the fanon Amicitia traits is amber eyes and the Primary color of the Bestia is Yellow, and everything snowballed from there. So in a way this is partially your fault XD)

Aka ‘what if Gilgamesh was a Bestia that somehow wound up on the mainland and chose to follow this dumbass but caring king?’ (But don’t imagine the tragedy of Gilgamesh seeing Ardyn corrupted by the Scourge and seeing threat instead of Kin, because there’s no cure and those infected must be stopped before they can spread it to others-)

What if the Amicitias retained their Galahdian culture all the way down to Gladio? (Maybe Gilgamesh took his braids out, because he couldn’t leave his King but he couldn’t follow Somnus and still call himself Galahdian, but he still raised his children in the culture and with the braids and every Amicitia since has been told to protect their Kings from themselves as much as from external dangers-)

What if the Shields of the King were known for getting an animal companion, and that was one of their coming of age rites? The eagle tattoo to honor the First, but a second tattoo once they get their own companion. (And perhaps part of Gladio’s self doubt is that at 22 he still doesn’t have a companion. Perhaps he finds his companion on the Roadtrip. Perhaps he’s one of the few Shields who finds himself a flying companion, one of the few since Gilgamesh himself.)

Imagine the ‘wtf’ from all the other Galahdians after the Burning, when they arrive in Insomnia and learn that the Shields are fellow Galahdians.

(Dunno if this’ll be a SoHL-au or a standalone yet, need to let it simmer a bit.)

[gigiree]

The Signs As Quotes From ML Fics

[garden-ghoul]

I can’t believe it’s not the Shibboleth of Fëanor

“starting early out of fear that another farcical thing will prevent me from reading the shibboleth”

Chris’ notes on the shibboleth begin by saying that he has left out a huge number of phonology notes, which I sort of resent although I wouldn’t have read them anyway. Look Chris, if someone has made it here they’re probably enough of a linguistics nerd that they could get SOMETHING out of those. Don’t be a wimp.

Wait, did the exiled Noldor all speak Sindarin while they were in Beleriand? Like all of them? Maybe this shibboleth essay will clarify what the difference actually is between Quenya and Sindarin--I was under the impression that the latter was a language specifically invented and spoken by the green elves in Ossiriand, although I don’t know whether I ever had a reason for thinking that. “In any case, it is impossible to believe that any of the Noldor ever became unfamiliar with the sound þ,” Tolkien assures us. He then goes on to imply that this is ONLY because the Vanyar and Teleri still remembered what þ was. 

Anyway, let’s look at how it went down. Feanor was one of the chief linguistic loremasters (!) at the time. This guy is such an obnoxious polymath. He really does have a tiny hammer for the metaphors. Tolkien mentions that his mom Miriel has Very Good Enunciation and is also ridiculously good at embroidery. I’m not sure whether that second one will be relevant, but she is very adamant on continuing to use þ rather than s because that’s how it was when she was a kid. And she makes her whole family use þ too, at the very least when pronouncing her name (Þerinde, or needlewoman)

Feanor loved his mother dearly, though except in obstinacy their characters were widely different.

Ugh. I’m 100% sold on Feanor and Miriel now. This is the cutest shit. I also want to register how glad I am that elves have milk names. I’m wondering what culture Tolkien got that from, because he only really seemed to be into Germanic and Celtic cultures and I haven’t heard anything about that there? omg here’s an even better quote about them:

While she lived she did much with gentle counsel to soften and restrain Feanor. Her death was a lasting grief to him, and both directly and by its further consequences a main cause of his later disastrous influence on the history of the Noldor.

Word of the author says if Miriel had been around Feanor wouldn’t have done so much stupid shit. Should have! thought about what his mom would say! instead of killing hundreds of people at Alqualonde huh!!

Miriel cites the birth of Feanor as the cause of the weariness that made her want to be dead. She assures him that it’s because he’s just too great, but that’s still got to hurt. Having your mom publicly acknowledge that she invented death because she was so tired of you she wanted to die. Holy fuck!

The Valar are ultra dismayed by this, because they keep asking her when she’ll come back to her body and she keeps going “leave me alone!!” and Not Actually Wanting To Be Alive is the one and only disease they can’t heal! Also Finwe is depressed now. The Valar panic. While Finwe is just walking all over Aman because he’s too depressed to stay in one place he walks into Indis, a local(ish) Vanya, and realizes she has had a crush on him for centuries. The process of deciding that they want to get married is handwaved in 5 words, and they go ask the Valar if it’s actually okay. The Valar think leaving Finwe to mourn forever is cruel and letting him get married again is illegal. Y’all. who made the laws. Who made them? Was it you, Manwe?

Since this has nothing whatsoever to do with linguistics anyway I’m going to interject my own thing about the Athrabeth. Andreth made the point that if the fea and hroa aren’t united by love, the body is like a chain. Obviously Miriel’s fea and hroa are not united, and she perceives her son as a chain of duty keeping her on Arda! She has the depression, just like every human, but everyone is super confused by this because depression was supposed to be invented for humans a long time from now. That is--the Eldar were not supposed to be able to “get tired of things.” This is addressed by Andreth’s “grown-up children” comment; elf psychology is fundamentally different from human psychology. What this means is that Miriel invented being mentally ill, I guess. “Just try yoga!” everyone told her, but she insisted on staying dead. Truly a hero of our time.

While I was sidetracked, the Valar made a ruling that Miriel can never ever return to her body now, even if she gets un-depressed. This is another one of those bewildering Catholic things, I guess, where it seems more just to condemn someone to death than to allow a divorce. Or like, their godly DNA was just written too Catholic for them to be able to understand the concept. Anyway Feanor blames Indis for taking his mother away Forever, even though he should really be blaming Manwe, and instantiates a Grudge against her and her children.

Into the strife and confusion of loyalties in that time this seemingly trivial matter, the change of þ to s, was caught up to its embitterment, and to lasting detriment to the Quenya tongue. Had peace been maintained there can be no doubt that the advice of Feanor, with which all the other loremasters privately or openly agreed, would have prevailed. But an opinion in which he was certainly right was rejected because of the follies and evil deeds into which he was later led. He made it a personal matter: he and his sons adhered to þ, and they demanded that all those who were sincere in their support should do the same. Therefore those who resented his arrogance, and still more those whose support later turned to hatred, rejected his shibboleth.

This is really funny to me? Like he was such an asshole that everyone started using s just to spite him. Even Indis of the Vanyar (a þ people if there ever was one) started using s!! It’s like she was trying to aggravate him! No, actually, literally all the Noldor were using s at this point, and Indis just wanted Finwe to like her. When in Rome, et c. Feanor not only thought this was a personal slight toward his mother, he also thought it was a PLOT of the Valar, inspired by ‘fear of his powers’ to ‘oust him from leadership of the Noldor.’ Holy fuck, man, I don’t even know what to do with you. Nobody would care if you didn’t make such a big deal out of it. This is some curse of the Uchiha bullshit right here, he’s just making up reaþons to be mad bc of Loþt Love.

So Feanor tells all his kids that they are better than everyone elþe because they use þ. Now I have to wonder about Nerdanel and how that courtship went. Preþumably he told her she had to þtart uþing hiþ shibboleth or elþe they couldn’t get married.

Oh, look! A bit about Galadriel! She is considered the greatest of the Noldor, which is pretty great, and also understandable considering she is the only one who didn’t get herself killed for a stupid reason. She is the tallest person, like, ever and “a match for both the loremasters and the athletes of the Eldar.” Also her hair was so messy that the light of Telperion and Laurelin got caught in it, unfortunate. Feanor was so astonished by the idea of being able to catch the light of the Trees that he kept bothering her for “a tress” (isn’t that like, a lot of hair?). No sorry he must have asked for a treþþ.

From her earliest years she had a marvellous gift of insight into the minds of others, but judged them with mercy and understanding, and she withheld her goodwill from none save only Feanor.

She ended up following Feanor to Beleriand primarily so she could thwart him at every turn, I love her. She is also too proud to ever renounce her exile and return to Valinor... for like seven thousand years. By the end of the Third Age she was wise enough, finally, to go back. We jump back to when she was just a baby to note that even though her father Finarfin used þ since he hung out with the Teleri all the time and she was therefore raised in a þ household, Galadriel hated Feanor so much that she used s anyway.

After this there are some notes on  names! Answers a question that always made me roll my eyes, “why does everyone’s names sound the same??” Elda kids were given a father name at birth that sounded like their dad’s name, and later were given a mother name that described their character because all moms are prophets. What the fuck. They might also get an after name that describes some characteristic or accomplishment, as well as potentially a self name if they just want something cooler (stares at Turin).

The 'true names' remained the first two, but in later song and history any of the four might become the name generally used and recognized. The true names were not however forgotten by the scribes and loremasters or the poets, and they might often be introduced without comment. To this difficulty - as it proved to those who in later days tried to use and adapt Elvish traditions of the First Age as a background to the legends of their own heroes of that time and their descendants - was added the alteration of the Quenya names of the Noldor, after their settlement in Beleriand and adoption of the Sindarin tongue.

I know this difficulty well, as a guy who has read some fanfiction. Introduced  without comment indeed.

We ALSO get an answer to the Finwe/Olwe/Ingwe/Elwe question! That suffix derives from ewe, meaning person. So they were Hair Person, ??? Person, Top/Chief Person, and Star person. Except no those are just speculations, and probably the Eldar didn’t all have to have “meaningful” names, which I like. aaahahahaha also the reason they came up with Sindarin names for everyone is because they were Sensitive To Aesthetics and felt really weird saying a Quenya name when speaking Sindarin. Elves!!

It turns out we’ve been using Feanor’s Sindarin name this whole time! Partially Sindarinized. Whatever. Now I understand about Feanaro I guess. On to his half-siblings: Findis was just a portmanteau baby, UNFORTUNATE. It also turns out the Finwe just straight up named EVERY SINGLE ONE OF HIS SONS FINWE. And later added something when it became clear what they were good at; Feanor got kuru- (craft?), Fingolfin got nolo- (wisdom), and Finarfin got ara- (nobility, bc he was nice). The reason Feanor’s name sounds different from his half-siblings is that he Sindarinized his mother name and they their father names. Like of course he only wanted to be known by his mother name. THAT GUY.

No sorry I got this wrong, this is awful; Finwe (father name) Nolofinwe (mother name) --> Fin Golfin --> Fingolfin in Sindarin.

Fingolfin had prefixed the name Finwe to Nolofinwe before the Exiles reached Middle-earth. This was in pursuance of his claim to be the chieftain of all the Noldor after the death of Finwe, and so enraged Feanor that it was no doubt one of the reasons for his treachery in abandoning Fingolfin and stealing away with all the ships.

SCREAMS. THIS IS SO DUMB. FEANOR NEVER STOPS GETTING MAD ABOUT HOW PEOPLE PRONOUNCE WORDS. Finarfin only prefixed his name after his brother’s death meant that he was supposed to be the next king, so I guess there was a long period where you had Fingolfin and Arfin. All Fingolfin’s sons got -kano suffixes, meaning ‘minor commander,’ transliterated into Sindarin as -gon. And HERE we find the information that Fingon “wore his long dark hair in great plaits braided with gold.” And I feel Triumph, because I have discovered a valid origin for another fandom Thing I kind of thought was totally arbitrary. SO much is made by this fandom of one-sentence throwaways, but I guess that’s what you have to do when nine out of ten sentences are about linguistics.

There’s some stuff about Arafinwean names I don’t care about too much, except for Aegnor--this was his mother name, Aikanaro, meaning ‘fell fire.’ Partially because he had Fire In His Eyes (indicating he loved to fight) and also his hair was stiff and stood up on his head like fire. Holy shit I love this he has gone up the to-draw list by like 5 places.

Ooh and it says Turgon reestablished Quenya as Gondolin’s lingua franca, that’s just so Turgon. 

Lastly (I hope) let’s take a look at some Curufinwean names. Recorded largely for my own future reference because I’m assuming the two people reading this already know. [Maedhros] Nelyafinwe (’the third Finwe’ since his father and grandfather were also named Finwe) Maitimo (’hottie’) Russandol (’copper-top’ for his red hair; grandpa Mahtan had the nickname ‘fox’). also notes that he wore a copper circlet. [Maglor] Kanafinwe (’strong-voiced Finwe’) Makalaure (’a metaphor about harps’) [Celegorm] Turkafinwe (’no one’s neck’s as incredibly thick as Finwe’) Tyelkormo/Tyelko (’hasty’) Curufin is just Kurufinwe, his dad’s own name bc he’s the favorite child and also pretty good at crafting I guess. Mother name is Atarinke (’little father,’ because his only characteristic is how much he is just like Feanor) [Caranthir] Morifinwe (’dark Finwe’ because he has black hair) Carnistir (’aww he’s blushing’) (don’t you mean Carniþtir?) [Amras] Pityafinwe (’little Finwe’ awww) Ambarussa (indicating that he and his twin also have red hair, which I am enormously smug about predicting, still) [Amrod] Telufinwe (’last Finwe’; when Feanor said NO MORE KIDS)  Ambarto

So basically they all used their mother names except Curufin. Veeeery interesting.

The story is that Nerdanel named the twins BOTH the name Ambarussa and when Feanor begged her to at least give them different names (’look! I made minimum effort! you do it too!’) she said “I will change one of their names to Ambarto, by lottery.” Later she prophecies that one of them will not set foot on Middle Earth and he... names the dead twin with her extra name when he gets burned alive with the ships. Also of significance here, I think, is that Curufin is the one he recruited to help him burn the ships, because he only trusts himself. Fucked up.

[purplesurveys]

1203

survey by vyvyan86

Section 1 – Who were you?

Think back as far as you can. What is the first memory you have? This gets asked a loooooot in surveys and I’ve answered this many times, but my earliest memory is of me waking up in a Winnie the Pooh tent with my sister when I was 3 and she was 1. Our parents took us ‘camping’ which was really nothing more than a tent set up in their room.

What is something you remember enjoying very much as a small child? Reading took up pretty much my entire personality. I was always found with one no matter where I was and it was all I received as presents since my relatives and my parents’ friends knew how much I liked to read at a young age. Shame that hobby’s gone now.

How old were you, when you made your very first friend? I was in kindergarten and I was 4.

Are you still friends with this person today? No, she transferred schools in the first grade and I’ve never kept contact with her since.

Was there a story somebody read or told you that has stuck with you? I loved the book Tikki Tikki Tembo and reread it so many times. The main character’s long name is definitely filed in my head under, ‘things I unnecessarily memorize by heart.’

What is something you get an immense feeling of nostalgia from? Shows or movies from my childhood, like Lizzie McGuire and High School Musical.

As a child, were you a sore loser or a sore winner? I was a sore loser and have still retained elements of it to this day.

Did you go through the "naked phase"? No, I was really shy to be seen naked and even when I was still at that age where someone else had to give me a bath, I already felt conscious and would cover myself up.

Which television shows do you watch the most as a child? When I was a KID kid, I liked watching Hi-5, LazyTown, Art Attack, and Spongebob. As I got older (but still a kid), I took a liking to watching shows meant for older audiences even though I couldn’t always understand the jokes or plots, like Drake and Josh, Zoey 101, Suite Life, etc.

Did you play with siblings, neighbourhood kids or by yourself? I was able to experience all of these.

Is there something you really miss from your childhood today? It’s really just the smaller list of things to worry about. And smaller problems, overall.

Section 2 – Likes and interests

Would you ever like to try competitive pinball playing? No. I don’t even enjoy playing pinball casually, so I don’t see myself taking it up on a competitive level.

Do you knit, crochet or cross stitch? I’ve dabbled in embroidery, if that counts. It’s nice that there are kits available online that already have templates that I’ll just have to trace, since I’m not very creative myself and am not capable of making any artwork from scratch.

Have you ever, or would you like to attend a gaming or comic convention? Yessssss. I’m not a big fan of either, but those conventions have always looked like a ton of fun and I would most likely go so I can view exhibits and look at everyone’s cool cosplays.

What's your opinion on online multiplayer games? I don’t have an opinion on them; I don’t play them, but I don’t have a reason to actively dislike them, either.

Do you like to go cycling? If so, where? I am interested in cycling but I don’t even know how to ride a bike. I know of some friends who’ve been able to bike all the way to Tagaytay and it makes me sooooooooo envious.

Have you ever tried woodturning? If not, would you like to? Maybe not that particular method but I do find wood carving relaxing and would like to try it out sometime.

Do you enjoy drawing? If so, what do you usually draw? I can’t draw at all.

Have you ever attended a painting class? If so, what did you create? I haven’t attended a class but I’ve dabbled in painting, in general – again, mostly through painting kits that already have templates and that already supply me with the colors I need. I’ve never finished any of the images though.

How about a creative writing course? If so, did you get any feedback? I hate creative writing.

What is your favourite form of exercise? The rare times I do work out, I go for HIIT or Tabata exercises.

Section 3 – People

Who is the most important person in your life (besides yourself)? There isn’t one at the moment; I’m really just focusing on myself.

Do people generally approach you easily? I would say it’s 50/50. I’ve heard some people say they find me aloof, while others have no problem coming to me.

Do you get along with people well? If not, what's the problem? Yeah, I would say so. I don’t have bad blood with anyone and if I do it’s always because they’ve already something I didn’t like and I’ve made it a point to ignore them on purpose.

Do you enjoy being in crowds or do you prefer your own company? I can do with both. I treasure my alone time, but I also like being with people and would start to feel sad if I feel like I’ve been isolated for too long.

Which one of your friends have you known the longest? Angela.

Do you find it easy to make friends now? If not, what makes it difficult? I mean I’m in a very active fandom again, for one lol. I think that’s the biggest factor. It’s been SO much easier to find people who are into the same group and strike up conversations with them.

What is something about people that annoys you? I know too many people who always go the extra mile to bash on things that people are into, even though those interests never hurt anyone. It sucks. If you don’t like it just don’t talk about it? Don’t rain on people’s parade.

What is something about people that you really like? When they come together during crises.

If you live alone, what would be your criteria for a roommate? I’d appreciate someone who wasn’t too talkative. Obviously it’s ok to talk, but they don’t have to have a conversation with me every time we’re together. I feel as if I’d quickly grow annoyed with someone who was clingy or too extroverted. Some nice bonuses: If we have the same interests and/or if they know how to cook – I can balance the latter out by doing all the other needed chores.

How about criteria for a spouse, if you're single? I feel like I’m scraping the bottom of the barrel here due to my horrible previous experience...but I’d really just appreciate someone who I know is committed to the relationship and will be willing to go through the ups and downs with me.

In general, what's your attitude towards people? I like to believe everyone is kind unless they give me a reason they aren’t.

Section 4 – Habits

What is something you do every day without fail? Vape.

What is your typical breakfast? Coffee or water, whichever I have time to prepare.

Which article of clothing do you like to wear the most? I stay at home these days because of the c-word, but I mostly wear tank tops these days because the weather is unbelievable.

Is there a TV show you watch habitually? It used to be Friends but I haven’t gone back to it in a while – I haven’t even watched the reunion special yet :/  It also used to be 2 Days 1 Night but I’ve since placed that at the backseat when I started getting into BTS last month. 

Where do you usually spend most of your day? In my room since that’s where I work.

Is there a product that you do not want to run out of? Vape pods and 3-in-1 coffee sachets.

What is your preferred mode of transport? My own car.

Do you usually have something playing in the background when you're home? These days I put on a work-themed playlist to keep me company during my shift but if I have to do something that’s thinking-intensive, like writing a press release, I have to switch it off.

Where do you usually get your groceries? I don’t really purchase groceries just yet. My parents switch up the stores they buy from every time.

How often do you go to your local park? We don’t have one.

Which of your hobbies do you indulge in most often? BTS...hahahahaha

Section 5 – Favourites and dislikes

What is your favourite fruit? I don’t like fruits.

How about your favourite berry? I also don’t like berries.

Which food do you highly dislike? Fruits.

What is your favourite song, and why? I don’t have an all-time favorite song but at the moment I would say it’s Butterfly by BTS.

What is a movie you cannot stand? Me Before You was money well-wasted.

Which trait in a person do you find most appealing? Not really a trait but I’m always fascinated to know about people’s hobbies, since I believe it’s able to tell me a lot about them.

Which trait puts you instantly off? How they think about certain socio-political issues.

Who is an actor/actress who you dislike so much you can't watch them? Amber Heard.

What colour are your favourite shoes? All my favorite shoes are white.

What is a smell that disgusts you to no end? Sinigang or rotten eggs and rice.

Which door handle/door knob do you like the most in your home? ??? This is random haha? Door knobs are pretty nasty to begin with, so I’ll just take a pass for this one.

Section 6 – Culture

What is something very typical to the culture of your home country? We’re very hospitable and would do anything to make you feel at home, whether it’s feeding you until feel like throwing up or giving you Tupperware upon Tupperware of leftovers that you can take home so that you won’t have to cook for a few days.

Do you enjoy art? If so, which form of art is the most enjoyable? Yes, I like looking at art and going to museums and exhibits is one of my favorite things to do. As for forms of art, I like paintings the most.

What is something about another country's culture you don't understand? I guess the one where tipping is viewed as an insult. 

Do you ever attend the theater? If so, which play did you see last? No, not really my type of art.

How about the opera or the ballet? I love watching ballet shows, but I would quickly grow bored with an opera.

Which dance troupe do you enjoy, if any? None.

Do you attend concerts or gigs? If so, which band did you see last? Only if I really really REALLY like the artist/group. I last saw Paramore.

Are you interested in foreign food? I love them and would be open to trying absolutely anything.

If so, which country's cuisine do you enjoy the most? It’s always a three-way tie among Indian, Thai, and Malaysian.

Do you enjoy stand-up comedy? If so, who is your favourite comic? No.

Do you contribute to culture in some way? If so, how? Not as much as I would want to. I do share some culture-related things on social media to raise awareness for them, especially if I find them fascinating; but I don’t exactly craft anything myself.

Section 7 – Charity

Do you volunteer your time to anything charitable? If so, what? There’s a local organization for stray/injured dogs and cats that I donate to. I’d love to put in some volunteer hours as well but I just don’t have the time. :(

Do you donate money to any charities? If so, which ones? ^ Oh, I guess I should’ve answered that here haha.

If you have pets, are any of them rescues from shelters? Arlee was.

Do you donate your old clothes, linen etc. to charitable organizations? I think my mom sometimes does that with our old clothes but she usually gives them away as hand-me-downs to other relatives.

If someone you know is in need, is it in your nature to offer help? Yes.

Have you ever donated Christmas presents to children of poor families? Not on my own volition but we did this in school before.

Have you ever had to rely on other people's charity? Not that I remember.

How do you feel about donating to charities endorsed by celebrities? I don’t mind it but I think it ultimately depends on the charity that they endorse. For instance I’ve read a lot of problematic sentiments about Susan G. Komen so I always disapprove whenever WWE does their yearly breast cancer awareness thing with them.

Is there a charity you absolutely never ever will not trust? PETA as an annoying one, for one.

Have you ever donated to a cause that had a person going door to door? I don’t think so.

In general, what is your opinion on charity? I support it wholeheartedly if the cause is genuine and not just a money-making scheme or if they are hyper-reactive about certain things.

Section 8 – Entertainment

Which was the very first video game you remember playing? That’s a good question that I don’t actually remember the answer to. Maybe Duck Hunt? I have very vague memories of waking up at my grandma’s place in Tondo and using the Nintendo gun thingy.

Which was the very first film you remember watching? Stuart Little 2.

What is your go-to form of entertainment? These days, BTS content.

Do you have a large collection of DVDs/Blu-Rays? Hahahaha I haven’t bought a DVD in nearly a decade. We haven’t thrown any of our DVDs out so I guess in a sense we still have a collection, but we never pop them on anymore as my family and I usually consume our entertainment online now.

How about music albums? I also haven’t bought an album in the same period of time but I’m starting again because of BTS. I've placed orders for their first five albums/mini-albums and they’re supposed to arrive in the country by July or August, so I can’t wait for that.

Do you prefer to have your music on vinyls, tapes, CDs or digital? CDs or digital would do.

When and where do you like to entertain yourself usually? Either in my room or in the living room, where the big TV is.

Do you ever binge watch shows? If so, what are you binging now? I’ve started on Hwarang but it’s not super bingewatch-worthy, mostly because of how slow I find the pacing to be. Good show, though.

What kinds of books do you like to read, if any? Autobiographies/memoirs.

Is there a book series you're currently collecting? Nope.

Is entertainment something you prefer to enjoy alone or with someone else? It’s always better with somebody else, to be honest.

Section 9 – Internet

Do you always have access to the Internet, wherever you go? If not, why? If I have data on my phone, then yeah.

Which website do you frequent the most? Google Suite, if it counts.

Which search engine do you prefer and trust the most? Google.

What do you use the Internet the most for? Working, lol.

Do you judge people who have their phones out all the time? If so, why? No, I’m indifferent about it. I’m pretty attached to my phone too so I get it.

If your connection goes down, what do you do? Turn on my data and continue on with my surfing, albeit feel slightly agitated.

Is there something you wish you could do online that isn't possible yet? I actually feel like there’s always already a website or service for anything I need to do on the internet, which is super convenient. Just last week Kata shared with me a website that’s instantly able to turn any photo into a transparent PNG file, which was awesome to discover.

Do you remember the first time you used the Internet? When was it? Yeah, the first website I ever went to was Friendster in like 2007, at a neighbor’s house that doubled as a small internet cafe.

What was a website you used to frequent that doesn't exist anymore? Multiply.

Do/Did you ever have your own website? No.

Isn't it great how much knowledge and info we have at our fingertips? Sure, but honestly I’m more scared than amazed at how much info is out there, and how much we don’t know is actually out there.

Section 10 – And finally...

What is something you consider to be highly controversial? Bad takes on socio-political issues, like refusing to acknowledge someone’s preferred pronouns or continuing to use someone’s deadname.

What kinds of jokes do you like the best? Idk, it doesn’t take a lot to make me laugh.

Is there a person who makes you laugh effortlessly? These days it’s Jimin lol.

Which part of your body do you like the least? My teeth.

What's something random, out of context you remember from your past? I don’t really feel like racking through my head rn hahaha sorry.

Do you wear shoes indoors? Not in Asia you won’t.

What's the silliest thing you've worn on your body in public? A princess dress I had to wear around for like 10 minutes as ‘punishment’ at a school fair.

What's the most important thing in your life right now? My job and doing well at it.

What is the most distant point on the planet that you've been from home? South Korea. I haven’t gone too far yet.

Do you enjoy trivia games? If so, which one's your favourite? I love trivia games and I’d join pretty much any of them.

Are you more logical or emotional? Emotional before, but I believe it’s more logical now