#theres another gap on the knowledge from there

[awoowoodog]

Thinking about being hypnotized ~ its been a kink of mine for a long time but I still feel like I know nothing about it. I've done my reading learning theory and certain practices, but that still leaves me in the dark about so much.

Thinking about being hypnotized and it starts as I expected. Reading you learn how induction is supposed to work and have an expectation going into it. I've tried and failed to self hypnotize so I feel excited and focussed on getting put into trance for the first time.

Thinking about being hypnotized and this time it's working. I notice myself dropping and realize this is it, now I get a real taste.

And then I'm thinking about how once I'm under the hypnodom starts doing things I haven't read about, or just don't understand, getting me to sink deeper and deeper and shaping me in ways I never could have anticipated.

[the-s1lly-corner]

Hiya:p

Can you do a masky/tim from marble hornets with like d*ad!reader? Like she died before or during mh (you can pick if she was involved during mh or no)

Pleases and thankyous:3

-🙀 anon

Tim x deceased!reader !

points rare marble hornets request/specification for characters that were originally MH but were sucked into the grubby mitts of the creepypasta fandom (/lh admin loves both versions of the characters) OOOOOOOOO okay so im still on my rewatch of MH, i think im like halfway through the series? i forgot what exact # entry im on but i know its after the hotel thing/when jay is done watching the tapes from before his memory getting all fucked and to finding tim again; the last time i watched MH in its entirety was YEEEEARS ago so my memory is a little murky... along with that this post is less of a proper list of headcannons and more so the admin bouncing around because they cant find an idea to commit to </3 secondary warning that admin has not seen marble hornets in a hot minute and has not finished their rewatch (and likely might need to restart their rewatch </3)

god theres so many ways i can go about this. you passing away before the event of MH, you passing away somewhere along the way... i do know im going to utilize the memory gap stuff... because can you imagine?

youre already gone, but the memory of your passing is wiped away along with some other stuff tim has lost. like can you imagine how fucked up that is?

initially thinks that you just skipped town and cut everyone off, assuming he truly forgets, tries to reach out to you but of course he comes up with nothing

this is of course assuming you dont have any family members or friends that are going to remind him

oh when he does find out hes just absolutely crushed. it doesnt matter how you died; something outside everything, or a death caused by the things going on in the series... fucked stuff either way

i do think, post series, because iirc he does leave he probably makes a little memorial thing wherever he ends up settling; cant really blame him for wanting to go back, and thats even assuming thats where your body is buried

hell this is assuming your body is even found; and youre not just missing

thats another route, i think, that can be fucked up.. like imagine your death actually is a product of say; alex going off the deep end

shrugs

now as for how that actually makes him feel; theres the grief of course, but i do think he would be angry. for one hes angry at himself for forgetting, but hes also so angry that he wasnt there for you when you needed someone to come and save you. he strikes me as an angry griever, cant really pin point why though....

oooo but imagine you had a certain style or accessory and he incorporates it into his everyday ware... think like an earring or bracelet; he seems like the type to do that, me thinks..

ponders

his smoking gets worse, especially in the beginning as he tries to wrap his head around literally everything thats going on; probably a few sleepless nights in there too..

this is all over the place given admins limited knowledge, but also theres so many ways to go about this... and i think thats nice since it adds variety... you know?

[ge]

what do you like about rotmhs? like what draws you in?

GAHH IM SO GLAD YOU ASKEDDD at the top of my head thhe top three things i felt really drew me into and made me fall in love w rotmhs is the found family/bonds before blood narrative, the action/fight scenes, and the comedy..

rotmhs is not a romance and i feel like that really pushes people away from reading it, especially folks who were first introduced to east asian novels through bl (specifically mxtxs novels like mdzs tgcf etc etc) which i feel is incredibly disappointing because yallre missing out on a certain depth of writing and nuance you otherwise wouldnt get in a romance focused novel. (orv is another extremely popular knovel with no romance.. if you like orv PLEASE give rotmhs a shot)

rotmhs is about a dead man resurrected a hundred years into the future having to come to terms w the fact that everyone he loved is dead and that the only home he ever had was destroyed, its inhabitants and centuries worth of teachings burned to the ground, and that it was partially his fault these things happened, so in order to prevent a future catastrophe he knows is on the horizon, he trains the youth of this new generation and finds a new home surrounded by ghosts in the wreckage of his home of his past

⬆️…very dramatic but somewhat accurate barebones synopsis of rotmhs which is fairly faithful enough methinks.. rotmhs doesnt make a point of going ‘heyy these guys are family nowww theyre brothers and sisters and love each other like familyyy’ LOL the growth is very subtle and before u can really blink ur like ‘oh man.. chung myung would kill for these kids. obliviously though. i dont think he knows he even likes them’ all the while hes still aching w the loss of his loved ones before.. if we’re being really really honest chung myung, the mc, truly is the star of the show and a character i got attached to incredibly quickly.. hes so stupid but so smart he has so many issues i want to hit him with my car then nurse him back to health just to hit him again

chung myung himself is a whole other thing i could get into but he has so many layers.. so much depth.. on the surface ud look at him and think what a punk but look a little closer and then ud think oh this punk has depression ptsd survivors guilt hallucinations etc etc LIKE DAMN.. I THIUGHT HE WAS JUST A FUNNY LITTLE GUY WHYD I GET SUCKER PUNCHED

what was i even talking about. OH right romance. please please dont let the lack of romance dissuade you, imo it is soooo refreshing to read something that isnt focused on romance like i love yaoi like the next bl reading bitch but damn.. ive always been into found family and while the bl novels i have read did always have a little hint of it, i always wanted more and rotmhs fills that void

(that being said i cant stop yall from shipping if yall want LOL im guilty of shipping charas too despite everythiing i just said… if yall want yalls yaoiyuri fix may i direct yalls attention to the ‘doomed by the narrative, tragic best-friends-to-almost-lovers tangchung’ & ‘love at first sight sweethearts iseolsoso’ ….. :SMILES: I LOVE TANGCHUNG..!!!!!!)

NEXT, the action and fight scenes in rotmhs, even in written text form, are sublime to say the least.. my fail cis dudebro trait is that i love crazy insane adrenaline rushing heart pumping shounen-esque battles so much that i could typically care less for the rest of that specific piece of media as long as the fights are good.. FORTUNATELY FOR ME rotmhs is crazy good at balancing its comedy, action, and otherwise more ‘mundane’ scenes together so harmoniously that its such fun read even when theres no swords crossing or heads being beaten in

also important to note, despite being a knovel w korean naming of characters/places, rotmhs actually takes place in ancient china in a wuxia setting so jumping head first into it wont be all that confusing for first time readers/cmedia fans and u can use ur knowledge of cnovels to fill in the gaps.

theres not really much more i have to say on the topic of fighting, im just personally a huge fan of the crazy spectacles rotmhs brings to the table.

saved this for last but THE COMEDY…!!!!!!!! after being soo dramatic w all my previous points and comments ur probably thnkng rotmhs is heavy and somber w no breathing room.. WELL YOURE WRONG. ROTMHS IS FUNNY AS HELL quips and jokes and simple funny actions and scenes litter nearly every page. i mentioned this novel balances its action and comedy well and im NOT LYING youd think maybe the heavy action and light comedy would awkwardly clash but u cldnt be more further from the truth.. rotmhs wears action and comedy like a pair of twin gloves

rotmhs handles its action and comedy in equal doses and it all fits together like matching puzzle pieces, like i really cant stress enough how fun it is to read. not every fight scene is somber, most of the time its chung myung oneshotting someone by hitting them across the head so hard they pass out..

unfortunately im not really the best at listing instances so its be better for u to go read it for urself but this scene from one of the later chapters is soo funny every time i read it i start giggling

(LIGHT/MINOR SPOILERS FOR THE NOVEL it probably doesnt even matter u wont even remember this when u start reading)

right so i think thats most of it.. too lazy to read through everything i just wrote so if nothing makes sense… well. …well!

rotmhs deserves to have the same amount of fame as ORV and MDZS and TGCF have and it is my civil duty as one of the oldest mxtx novel outlets on tumblr to put yall on it..

my thumbs hurt from typing so im done now but if u have anymore questions PLEASE ASK IM SO DESPERATE TO TALK ABOUT ROTMHS ok byyyeeeeeeee

[xikyuu]

“oc question #3: if they could have a real life conversation with you, how would it go?” curtesy of ‘_..darr1ingz.._’ on tiktok.

at some point, the conversation became one-sided and more of me psychoanalyzing them. it kinda resembles a letter format, but if you pay attention, there are gaps where it seems like dallas (he/him) responds. extra notes are at the top of my tags. have fun reading!

total words: 2,329. writing under cut:

i’d ask dallas what its like to see all these worlds. yes, i know i made you and the conversations you have but i desire connection i cannot have.

what is kismadoré actually like when everything is sewn together lovingly? did you feel loved, even if it was temporary? are the city streets worn down with love and care? does it show the world that city of life is, indeed, living? that there is water in it’s roots?

what’s your handwriting like? did you ever decide to go to college in a universe? if so, what was your major? did you get multiple degrees? what was your favorite class? least favorite? favorite teacher? do you have a favorite fun fact? please tell me.

where there times you were genuinely scared for your life? are you afraid of me? of the complete power and creation i hold over you? i’m so sorry i hurt you.

do you have a favorite stuffed animal?

what was your father’s name? do you hate me for what i did to him? do you hate me for what i did to your mother? do you hate me? i caused all this hurt for you. you could’ve survived if i gave you a happy life. i could’ve made you a loving father, but i don’t know what that looks like. i could’ve gave you your mother, but i’ve never seen my mother and father exist in the same place and not be at each other’s throats. do you forgive me? please don’t forgive me. i love you. i wish i could be you. do you hate me? i killed alibi. i killed skip. i killed you. they’re dead because of me. they had to start a rebellion because of me. your father is cruel and evil because of me. would you kill me if you had the chance? do you wish you could see them again? i’m so sorry.

you know this is real, right? you are real. you exist because i exist. i made you and i am still making you. you are something i will always come back to. you make me happy. you make my friends happy. they love you. yes, really. i wouldn’t lie to you about that.

did you know alibi is based off my friend? they created kit’s design. i made alibi into themself. did you know that one of the potential names for alibi was mochi? there was supposed to be another in the resistance crew. i scrapped them early on.

what’s it like to shoot a gun and know every shot has killed? i’m sorry. is the metal cold to the touch? does it burn your hands with memories? does your finger still sit perfectly on the trigger? even if you try to bury the subconscious knowledge of how to do anything with that wretched thing? it’s why you got your namesake, after all. i’m sorry. i don’t like guns, either. i wanted you to be safe.

you need to let go of the mask. stop pretending you are fine. people want to help. remember what we say about communication? it is key.

who was the person who killed you? i don’t know who they are, just that they were misguided and brainwashed into hating you. i’m so sorry. you could’ve had another friend before you died.

what’s your favorite plant? did you ever hide in the willow trees like they were curtains? what is the easiest tree to climb? does that one tree still have bark torn off from how often you guys tried to climb it? do you remember the tree that bore fruit and attracted the many flutters of butterflies? and how they rested gently on your hands and chest? how you held out your arm and several would perch on your arm like it was an extension of the tree? and didn’t that one butterfly land on your nose? did you have fun?

theres so much pressure on you. i’m sorry.

juno and asmo are okay. they survived. you know this, right? i’m sorry you didn’t get to see them heal. they miss you.

do you still wish on acorns? do you still play the violin? do you still dance in the rain with a big smile on your face? do you still dance around the tall bonfire to songs of kismá? and what of the picnics in flower fields?

i’m sorry you had to hide guns in a basket of flowers. i’m sorry you had to be paranoid and hypervigilant. i’m sorry i ruined your breathing with the orange gas.

do you still share folk stories to the multiverse about kismadoré?

whats your favorite color? is it green like me? how is it that we are so similar but so different? i made you in my own image, but the mirror reflecting me is distorted.

whats your favorite form to stay in? do you have any favorite jewelry pieces? what is your favorite dessert?

you can see the indents from when i made you—like clay. does that mean i messed up or does it show the care that i put into you? molding you until you grew into something i cannot be?

do you have a favorite memory? do you have more? what was it like to sit in the desert at a campfire, surrounded by people you love? did you have the heart to say that you might not survive this run to freedom? what was your reaction to the walls falling? i’m sorry your home is so corrupt.

what new dishes came about in kismadoré that i’ll never be able to try? what cultures meshed to make one giant city? had anyone ever tried mixing soul food and japanese together?

what songs play at the funeral rites? what colors do you wear to mourn?

do you still know cardinal directions like the back of your hand? it’s because of the compass, right? does kismadoré have an official animal? official dish? is it recognized on maps? if it isn’t, i’ll write it into canon. how many people live in kismadoré? i know the initial population was small. oh wow. that’s a lot.

whats some of the funniest reactions people have had to your powers?

are your fingers burnt from the fires? do you lose sensation in them sometimes? does the cold make your bones hurt? i know it does for me. how bad are the scars in person? i’m sorry. i’m so, so sorry.

do you have a favorite book? what genre do you like? i have so many recommendations. do you have any for me?

do you draw? paint? can i see? it’s totally okay if you don’t want to show me. how’s your poetry coming along? any favorite symbols you love to throw in? yeah, floriography is great.

were you aware when asmo blessed you as you bled out in her lap? she recited the poem. ‘may the stars be there to guide you.’ that one.

i’m sorry. i took you away right after you finally got your freedom. do you think that’s cruel of me? you got it eventually, just not in the way you expected.

what is time like if time is not linear?

you know you are allowed to be loud, right? it is your right. it is in your nature. kismá calls to ask you why you aren’t screaming and yelling and singing and crying and clapping and stomping and dancing and whistling and humming and laughing and breathing and living and why are you not shaking the stars with excitement and joy because you are loved, my dear, did you know that? did you know that your heart beats in your chest, even if it is out of tune? the blood in your veins makes music you cannot even comprehend. the wind makes a sound that we can copy and sing along with. the water is clean for you to wade into. kick it around and laugh. your clothes get wet, but that is nature. the wind will hug you as it passes. its cold but it means well. the flowers dance even in the midst of a hurricane and so will we. we will dance even when crying. that is the beauty of it. sá boé dáli, sá baoyă dáli.

do you still think of them? the nostalgia is lethal. but does lethality even matter to someone who cannot die? do you indulge yourself with poison just to wonder what could have been? when did you forget their faces? when did you forget their voices? do you know this is self-destructive? of course you don’t care.

does your home still affect you? are you kintsugi pretending to be a person? do you know where each you used to be? where on your porcelain vessel lays the tiles of the child soldier? the fake confidence and paranoia of the resistance leader? the people-pleaser? the scared child? and did you get your eyes from the gods who remade you? the gods who held your cracked form gently and helped heal you? at what point are you not a person anymore? how cracked is the still, cold heart that rests in your chest cavity? it contains every person you once were and will be. you can take the man out of the walls, but the walls came crumbling down and embedded themselves into your then fragile, human skin. you can try to pick out the concrete but it’s stuck, it’s there. just like the shrapnel from the bullets that fused themselves to your corpse. you can run, but you can’t hide. you can never avoid the past. do you even want to?

you forget you aren’t human. not anymore. even so, you cling onto humanity like a child crying for their parents. you feel emotions as deeply as the next. you stand next to a human in a vessel that is dead and wonder why you feel as if you don’t belong. your empathy is damaging. your mannerisms mimic something you aren’t. hold onto this. pray for more. do not loose it.

how do you manage your anger? where do you feel it? that’s interesting. can you feel it twist itself between the valves and chambers of your heart? do the thorns of malice pierce your lungs? do you wish it would stop burning in your chest? do you ever have a sick satisfaction with you shoot off insults? do you feel regret when you snap at a loved one? when does it spread to your throat and take it’s wretched hands and choke you? when does it embrace your shoulders in justice? do you give people what they deserve? and what happens if they don’t deserve it? whenever will your lungs be damaged from the live coals that simmer? do you ever cough up the smoke? and when do you grab that gun and deliver retribution? is anger a welcome feeling for you? do you hate the thought of hatred itself? that would be funny. or is it that you fear who you become when you are this monster born of emotions, ash spewing from cracked lips with magma burning in your eyes?

and how do you feel about violence? is it an unremovable part of you? is it in your brain and does tends to stick no matter how hard it clings to your amygdala? what would you be without it? do you still remember how to kill a man? the best place to hit with the bat covered in rusty nails? does the blood still drip from your fingers and onto the floor? do you still feel that automatic reaction to pull out the gun whenever anything bad happens? do you forget how to care about the blood dripping from your fingers? did you still crave it? do you crave for the thing that raised you? do you ever smile when you shoot? have you become desensitized? you hate it. you hate it so much. you love it. the rush of adrenaline. you hate that you crave it. you pull your lips back into a sick and bloody smile when the tyrant is dead. you were numb the first time it happened. why are you so conflicted?

was death cold? what form did it take, if any at all? did it embrace you or was it so sudden that you thought your neck broke? did it unsettle you or did you feel comfortable? or did you feel nothing at all? after all, most are nothing in death. who was the first to meet you? to come and take your hand and lead you to the Garden? and how many times did you refuse that you were safe in Their care? how many times did you die after that until you finally cracked and sobbed and went down that road of healing? did you expect to see your old family in death?

what’s it like holding stardust in your palms? to be able to peek in at universes? to be able to walk among worlds like you are a part of it yourself? what’s it like being everything and nothing at once? can you hold the multiverse’s mysteries in your many arms? do your wings ever get in the way? what’s seeing like with that many eyes? to be so human and so otherly that you are stuck in an eternal venn-diagram, comparing your every move with that of your mortal past and your immortal future? but the past is the future and the future is the past, right? how silly of me to forget.

what will you do from here? now you’ve met me? am i everything you thought of? am i so different from your expectations? am i pressing too hard? wouldn’t you already know this? you’re made to know everything.

i’m sorry for everything, by the way. i think you knew that— yeah. come visit me again. ‘May The Stars guide you.’

[istherewifiinhell]

okayyyy also. tagged by @joelletwo for 5 topics i could talk about for an hour with no prep.

now. two things. 1. i have infernal podcast dude energy and could say a lot about nothing. weird trait to have if u dont like talking to people? hard to say. 2. GESTURES AT BLOG. im ALREADY. talking at length abt my beloved shit. so im just ruling out turtles, alien robots, trek, etcetcetc all the shit thats been a main blog topic for the last past. 4 years?

I'm gonna say.... western voice actors? not that i could really. Give a lecture so much as. I'm way more familiar with them that than I am live action actors. And I'm kinda just CONSTANTLY like. Oh you know so and so from every cartoon youve ever fucking seen? And FEEL a real. gap. with people when they dont have a same reference point. probably like how ppl feel with me when i dont know their acting guys jhadbgjfga. Like u can name 5 VAs from ur childhood cartoons/animated movies right? And personal interest like, hey btw u know like the entire cast of tng was in disneys gargoyles? U know keith david can SING? And diego luna? Hey you know about Canadian actors who are in all the dubs and video games and yeah cheap shit? You know Scott McNeil right? You know Ian James Corlett? You know. THE IAN. of being Ian. Hello. is this thing still on?

I really like and care about the topics of education, children's rights and pedagogy? Not academically so much as, personal interest. What seeing very clearly that there was a lot of arbitrary rules that involved things like. The Government. and Systems. as a child does to a motherfucker I guess? I'm always INTERESTED in a discussion about it, is how i mean I guess. Like focuses of multiple intelligence and "applied knowledge" (and short comings there of). I mean long and short of it. Kids are full human beings and until u can grapple with that their feelings and opinions um. Actually matter. I hate you? jdhbgjhdb. And Naturally the world being good for kids has the prerequisite of it not sucking ass for adults too....

UHhhh guh. User design/civil engineering? You'll hear it from me until the day I die, crushed under the tires of a ford f1 giga truck with the LED 20million watt bulbs. PROTECTED BIKE LANES. for the love of god. I just know a lot of designers I guess and like engineering, conceptually. But like, u know that famous bridge everyone crashes into. If theres 80million warning signs and people are still crashing... maybe theres. other factors. Or you know ofc like, traffic planning, vehicle accidents, structural disasters. A lot of them are not just. Things happening. Tragedies. There's politics there. Usually a lot of Money stuff. and structural racism. The real reason your fridge is full is that there's a bunch of half empty condiment jars hiding all your forgotten left overs. And widening the roads isnt gonna do shit for traffic.

Jackass entry: Themes and motifs of anyyytthing ive watched with another person or saw, and like they also know it. I realllly like, visual theming and narrative shorthands. Anything that breaks like, maybe people in this setting dont have the same customs, but their gonna do something so you the audience can recognize it. Non literal/accurate use of colour and lighting, for mood and clarity. Breaking the physical shape and scale of things so they can appear and be readable on screen. COSTUMING COSTUMING COSTUMING. A well styled character can do soooo much for your understanding of a work, especially with large casts, and a poorly styled one can take me right out. Well. anyway. yes i love animation u all knew that.

uhhhhh Thatgamecompany/giantsquids studio. im giving myself a free space. lol technically I DO. blog about this. the music. at least. BUT beloved. games. Me and everyone else I guess. Hey speaking of u know its laura bailey and troy baker as the voices in the pathless? And you know how a lot of the games have themes of coming into being/growing/rebirth. And LOTS of environmentalism. And implied cultural world building, and wordless stories. and beautiful metaphor rich otherworldly visuals. and gameplay styles that really connect with the emotional story their going for. and ofc, the music. oh the leit motifs. well. there u go. sword of the sea when?

tagginggg. uh did anyone get @deadgrantaires or @army-of-bee-assassins yet? anyone elseeee who wants to regale me with things they knowww about. id love to know.

[yuukei-yikes]

hope you dont mind me asking this but since you seem very knowledgeable about the fandom and all i thought it was suitable

why is there so much ship content between sato kido and kano?? are they not adoptive siblings?? theres even some in semi canon (i think) contents like in anthologies too,, i mean not surprised it exists since weird people are in every fandom but its talked so casually here

with momo and hibiya too actually! because of the huge age gap you would think it wouldn't be such a casual ship but it somehow is?? as far as i seen anyways

oh man lollll nah i dont mind. fair question and it's much better to have an answer to this

im putting it under the cut bc it turned out kinda long and into a rant, and also to warn i mention the themes suggested in the ask (incest, age gaps)

basically it's no secret that in japanese media, incest and age gaps are widely normalized even today so just imagine in 2013 when kagepro was at its peak.

back then, kido and kano specifically were a WIDELY popular ship. here's the thing with the weird kano and kido (and seto too but mainly kano and kido) shipping, aside from what i said abt normalized incest and shit. kano and kido (and seto) being siblings is actually... sort of a spoiler? it's not revealed early on.

kano and kido are presented as 2 kids the same age living together and having different names. and they purposefully stop acting like siblings. SO it doesnt register until you get into their backstories. they're both adopted into the same family when theyre like... 7 or 8, and were friends before becoming siblings so people were able to use this excuse: "OHHH THEYRE MORE CHILDHOOD FRIENDS"

but like..... they live together as siblings for YEARS and to be honest im sure 99% of people watch the song mvs FIRST which u can binge in 1 afternoon and if ur watching with any sort of actual interest and attention, you WILL see kano and kido as part of the tateyama family in ayano's theory of happiness. not to mention the anime came out in 2014 which im also sure 99% of kagepro fans have seen. so to me that was always an excuse if it came from a very dedicated fan though i do understand it if it's from a casual enjoyer, like they truly didn't catch that they're siblings

when i joined the fandom i was 13, didnt know eng or japanese, and thought mekatrio childhood friends made total sense for some good 6 months into the fandom until I realised properly. a few months ago, i discovered a very close friend of mine had a kagepro phase in 2014 or something and told me he really shipped kano and kido and when i told him they're siblings he was like WHAT!!!!!!!

and another thing abt kano and kido. they're indubitably the queerest characters. THEY LOOK THE FUCKING GAYEST. there is Something abt pushing the gay characters together?? kido is constantly mistaked for a guy. kano the poor thing had ANOTHER popular ship going for him with ayano because people decided he is that way to shintaro because he actually had a crush on ayano. yeah. this was the fucking consensus with kano, shintaro and ayano. like i mentioned i DONT KNOW japanese and only ever read the translations of the novels and i also dont Know what jin was thinking when writing kano and shintaro. But. dear lord it reads fucking homosexual my dude. jin does this by accident a lot though. look at kido and momo. momo calling kido beautiful 1000 times but she's like Well as a woman i am jealous i wish i was that pretty. bruuuh ok anyways moving on Ill GET to jin again in a second.

like you said, semi official stuff like the anthologies are very heavy on this ship and also.... sorry, the manga which is an official media. is Heavily into this ship. for jin's stance on it, i am not sure. i do think he laughs it off but he NEVER intended to write them that way. in the seventh novel theres a whole bit where kido's telling kano you shouldve never hidden this from me im your sister we are family. even shintaro who is the pov ur reading from is like wow what a nice brother and sister AND THATS THE SECOND TO LAST NOVEL WHICH BY THEN THE SHIP WAS SUPER POPULAR SO TO ME THAT WAS JIN'S WAY OF REMINDING EVERYONE THEYRE SIBLINGS. personally i think jin truthfully intended to write kano and kido as siblings but doesnt care people ship them otherwise he wouldnt have had the manga written by someone who shipped them

so basically what happened. kagepro was confusing and people sometimes missed they are siblings. in japanese media its super normalized. it is 2013 so here it is also normalized in fandom spaces. fanart ensues, even official or semi official content teases it, and yeah. boom its popular

another big part of it was, EVERYONE GETS A PARTNER!!!! kagepro content has A LOT of Shipping Pieces if that makes sense. idk what to call it but like god, pixiv entries with 1 shinaya, 1 harutaka, 1 setomary.... and 1 hibiya and momo and 1 kano and kido. god awful. if any golden year kagepro fans follow me they will KNOW what im talking about.

now that i mentioned it. hibiya and momo. ough. idk man. people were properly weird with this one. because with kano and kido they at least made up a damn excuse. with hibiya and momo there was nothing. but the thing is, jin is entirely to blame here. absolutely fucking disgusting bro. unlike with kano and kido, with hibiya and momo he actively wrote it. in the third novel their chapters together or any of hibiya's chapters are actual fucking torture to read. i wont go into details if u havent read it but like there are Reasons i never recommend kagepro to people.

its good to give jin proper respect he IS the creator of my favorite characters ever in the whole wide world and the writer of the story that makes me the happiest ever in the history of life. but. that doesn't mean i dont hold him accountable for being weird as hell in his writing because he absolutely is

back in the early days of this blog i had my very own Gets Send Deaths Threats arc by some people who shipped these guys or people who were mad i criticized jin (i always suspected it was like. the same 1 or 2 people. with a lot of time in their hands) soooo honestly answering this activated my fight of flight a little bit but tbh i havent seen Any content here on tumblr (i do have everything blacklisted to hell and back) or gotten ANY rude messages here in years, so i think we're good👍

hope this was helpful and i hope ur not grossed out of kagepro though I'd understand. u kinda need a strong stomach not only for its themes but sadly kagepro does the gross anime thing animes do :(

[forlorn-crows]

Hi im so here for hypno ghouls, im like super normal about the idea actually.

A friend and i toss around the concept that Swiss has the ability to hypnotize others (mainly because the idea of him abusing this ability is very fun, and lets be real he would use it deviously)...and i mean, hes a multi ghoul, theyre meant to be versatile and adaptive! I never considered where he might have picked up the technique until now, but oh i adore the thought of it being from Aether.

Theres a clear difference in the way they both do it as Aether's comes from deep at the core of his power, he puts his entirety into it to clear away each idea, but Swiss is a mimicry...not that what he does is any less effective, but he fills the gaps where one thought ends and meets another. He slips in and methodically plucks away at whatevers bouncing around in your head until theres nothing left.

Aether carries you under while Swiss walks you deeper, floated down as opposed to being led further...

Yeah....

Like i said im Super Normal, you can trust me just open up the the door to my enclosure :)

-@divine-misfortune

(Apologies if i dont make much sense i just woke up, it is the middle of the night, and this was rattling around in my head)

at this point its just a chain of passing on quintosis knowledge from ghoul to ghoul.

i know many of us like to think of sunny as a multi ghoul as well, do we think her powers would be strong enough to do it? itd probably be so lulling from her, like a cool summer breeze that makes you turn up your head and close your eyes in gratefulness.

i think aether is the talker. his powers are enough to take you under, but he's always been afraid of taking it too far. talking gives him more control, so he uses that to his advantage and comfort

swiss is allll feeling. he can probably feel a little bit of what the other is experiencing, being more susceptible to its pull; he ends up too loopy himself the first few times he tries with aether (who has enough experience to pull them both out if he has to). he has to remind himself not to be too eager, because his powers are stronger than you think

also, omega teaching aether the skill? chew on that

[hungrydolphin91]

BIG update this time for Xillia 2 Sister Addition, we've had several long sessions I wasn't writing down but I'll try to share what I can remember 😅

My sister pointed out the symbolism in the Frere apartment naming and I had a :o moment because I keep forgetting that French is a language 😅

Gaius joined in the second half of the chapter and I've been playing as him a bit, he's fun but a little tricky. It's amusing that his partner skill is to defend you, imagine having the king of Rieze Maxia as your bodyguard 😅

We explored the Mon Highlands and those icy caves nearby and for some reason they're chock full of French toast??

And also Hazardous Liquid. Sis: "That's the secret ingredient to their French toast."

We got the knock off Bunnykins in Elize's chapter and both agreed it seems like the kind of thing a shady merchant like Alvin would sell 😂

There's a bit of a gap here because I actually let my sister play without me while I was... otherwise occupied (*coughplayingpersona 4cough*) so I missed another one of Alvin's chapters (Sis: "Him and Yurgen broke up"), and she also started chapter 9:

Me: "So what'd I miss?" Sis: "We're in the square dimension and there's a voice." Took me a couple second to process that one 😂 but I actually like this chapter quite a bit, the stuff with the Arc is fascinating even though it never gets mentioned again 😅

The battle music changed to be Milla's and it's a bop, probably a nod to Fractured Milla before she goes away 😔

A cat found us shamisens while we were in the Ark and my sister equipped them to the whole party. Me: "The rest of the party is going to wonder what the heck happened in this fractured dimension that made us form a band 😂"

The music in the Ark is so soothing, and it has those fun statues that play music from other Tales games so I got to flex my knowledge there a bit 😌

The sentient guardian Waymarker thing wants to turn everyone into digital data. I spent the whole battle trying to come up with a pun based on file types and the name "Elle" but all I came up with was "HTM-Elle," someone let me know if you have a better one 😅

I've been sprinkling in some reminders of the overall lore, like the fact that Julius took Ludger's pocket watch for a while and that Elle's father apparently had one and that the ability to travel between dimensions is a Kresnik thing. She speculated if maybe Ludger was Elle's dad in another dimension... 🤫

My sister loves to play dress up every half hour, here's a screenshot of Ludger so you can know my pain:

Whenever I play Milla, Jude just stands there and shouts "I've got your back!" without doing anything. When I switched to Jude though, Milla jumped right in front of him while I was trying to hit an enemy. Sis: "See, you've got her back, literally!"

I didnt realize there was a skill that pets Milla cast in midair but that's incredibly fun to abuse, I feel like Muzet casting death spells from above 😂

We keep laughing at how Fractured Milla shouts "HEY!" every time she levels up. Sis: "She sounds like she's trying to keep kids off her lawn."

Since I'm not playing Ludger I've been able to enjoy some link artes I never saw, including one where Rowen and Gaius ride a paper airplane together 😂

And since my sister IS playing Ludger I get to get startled everytime she uses Hammer Toss in my vicinity. Me: "Would you stop throwing malatov cocktails around?!"

Both of us were wondering what the others see whenever Ludger uses the Chromatus. It seems like he's kinda freezing time, so he and the enemy would suddenly appear somewhere else whenever time resumes, or just be gone if he beat them all. Imagine blinking and a giant monster is suddenly dead 😅

I forgot how so much important lore is shoved into confusing and not fully explained side quests, like everything with Marvin and Claudia 😓 I wasn't sure how to explain all that to my sister without spoilers but at some point I'll try to fill her in based on my own fuzzy knowledge

Speaking of which theres a sidequest with a guy named Aaron who apparently has beef with Ludger and was all "Don't expect me to forgive you for this," and we were all "??? Who are you again???"

After seeing the skit where Nova complains about Vera's shyness, my sister wanted to ship her with Ludger simply to watch them both squirm in silence 😂

That's the gist of the most recent stuff, though I'm probably forgetting some things. We're in Fenmont currently starting Muzet's chapter but after that is the final waymarker, that's gonna be fun to see 😏

Masterpost link here

[secondary-colorentimy]

I feel #BLESSED you're into Sonic and Twst. I haven't been into into sonic in such a long time, but I remember watching YouTube videos to read the comics lol. Any sites/starting points you recommend to read modern sonic stuff?

ooohh!! yeah sure!! the current running sonic comic is idw sonic :3 i personally buy each issue and read them on apple books BUUUUUT you can also read it for free here -> X

ALSO! :3 idw has some side stories which come in separate issues, like theres a miniseries that follow Whisper and Tangle, a separate story that follows the villain Doctor Starline during two parts, Bad Guys (which takes place between about issue 25 to about issue 33) as well as Imposter Syndrome which introduces the characters Surge and Kit and fills in story between issues 45 to 50. The mainline comic does a great job of being sure to let you know which issue they are referencing when referring to events from these miniseries (ex. if they mention something that happened in the Bad Guys series, they will say which bad guys issue it was in) You dont necessarily need to read these separate stories, but they do fill in some gaps.

IDW sonic is currently only 63 issues in (+ the annuals and miniseries) imho it doesnt require too much previous sonic lore knowledge, but it is relevant to know that the idw comics are canon to the games, IDW specifically follows the events of Sonic Forces. (but in my eyes its not really in the same universe but thats a debate for another time)

Id say dont give archie/ sonic universe much thought (despite this being what i grew up reading lol!!)

[lunatic-fandom-space]

I was googling around bc I was looking for a particular fanfic and I found like three seperate reddit posts being like "uhm Why do people ship Sebastian and Ciel" and ??? Okay, listen, I realize that reddit is very different from tumblr especially in the way they talk and think about ships there but cmon. Come on. You cant find any reason why anyone would ship them? Like, I used to ship them in the past so maybe Im just more capable of empathizing with the Sebaciel girlies, it takes one to know one and all that but. Ughh idk man. I know this mostly stems from people being like "oguhgohugogu how could you POSSIBLY ship something with an AGE GAP like THAT" and, i dont know how to tell them that that some people just dont care about that. I do and it makes me a bit uncomfortable ngl but Im not gonna sit here and pretend like these two dont get a ton of moments that your average romantic ship enthusiast would kill for yknow

I mean come on. Sebastian will just carry Ciel around bridal style literally all the time and Ciel basically never complains unless someone points it out. The bit where Sebastian teaches Ciel the waltz. The Corset Scene. This doesnt have that much to do with their actual relationship, but Sebastian regularly takes on the role of Ciels teacher and a lot people have a bit of a kink for that. That moment towards the end of the circus arc where theres liquid trailing out of Ciels mouth bc he just vomited and hes panting and shit and Sebastian is grabbing and/or caressing his face being like "call my name~". That part where Sebastian gives him his ring back immediately followed by Ciel asking him to stay with him until he falls asleep. You know whats really popular right now, especially online? Couples where they like, love each other obviously but they also bicker and banter and LoWkEy HaTe EaChOtHeR UwU. yea. And thats all just the obvious palatable stuff I could come up with off the top of my head, dont even get me started on the sensuality in wanting to eat another persons soul

I dont really know what my point with this is tbh. I guess it was just me kinda ranting a little bc its annoying to me that some people cant see why Sebaciel was literally the most popular ship in the fandom even though its incredibly obvious if youve been on the fandom side of the internet for more than a month yknow. And again, I dont ship them either I just like, have eyes and some knowledge on what people on the internet like to ship. My personal opinion on Sebastian and Ciels relationship is that in order to actually properly assess it, you cant really put it in any of these boxes of romantic, platonic, familial because its more complicated than that and its more interesting and fun to just analyze them without putting labels like that on their realtionship (at least for me)

[valdederon]

FLAMES JOURNEY CHAPTER #14 ancient secrets and difficult combat

with in minutes of valdederon beeing surounded hebegins dodging attacks from the ancient gollems witch use elemtntal magic attacks one even using a type of lava magic melting the stone floor in spots

valdederon---- well this is a dam fine situation isnt it.. fuk sake.

he dodges out of the strikes and uses a quick attack to dart through a gap out of the room to get some distance and begins firing stone bullet spells to see how efective thed be only taking out 3 of the more delapidated golems the stones bouncing off the others so he switches up to wind type blade spell witch cuts into the thick stone causing light cracks.

valdederon---well..thats good to know.wind blade works to some extent.. but theres to many of them to try an use it repeatedly.

for an hour valdederon fights the hyper agressive gollems dopping them slowly 1 at a tyme having to focuse all his energy at one target at a time to take them down with any speed only having taken out 7 he pants heabily and notices at a fiar few are lined up in a perfect row and unleashes a holy javiline the spear of ligning ripping 12 in hallf all at once the other gollems backing up slighly reccognizing the danger of bunching up close together the cores of the 12 golems melted into ap udle of molten stone silver and gold.

valdederon---fuking hell these buggers are smart..

panting heavily valdederon holds his staf up and out forward of his body staring down the rest of the 31 golems both sides at a stale mate neither side making a move giving valdederon ample time to rest and recover some of his arcane power and physical stamina. soon one golem aproaches non agressively core yellowish orange instead of agressive red as if aproaching to end the stale mate.

valdederon--- can you rock heaps speak..niether one of us have gained much ground and youve all seens my holy javiline spell can tear you apart.. and to get to me youd have to enter the hallway witch would become a kill box.

the golem begins projecting poke script in the air with a magic projection

gollems pokescript --- state your business in this sacred place flesh bag.. or be torn apart

valdederon-- realy.. rock for brains.. kill box… holy javiline.. 12 dead at once.. i have more powerful and destructive spells by the way.. call me by my name.. valdederon and ill answer your question.. other wise ill come in and destoy the rest of you.. all 31 of you..

the gollem takes a moment to process it and reply

gollem pokescript --- verry well valdederon.. state your purpose in this sacred place

valdederon--- at the moment exploring and looking for any valuable knowledge.. if your willing tp part with it id also like to take some jewels and gems to help pay for the damage i caused in my guild i dont wish to plunder your.. sacred grounds dry..

the gollems all seem to think while stading still. untill attacking att at once valdederon sighing in anoyance

valdederon--- fine.. your funeral holly javiline i callapon you split your self into many and pierce my foes

a laerge gold ligning spear forms and splits into several smaller ones from edge to edge filling the hall way and unleashing them selves into the golems in a coninuous volley like a macgine gun mowing down an army after a short 10 minutes all thats left of the gollems ias a molten puffle as valdederon walks back to the room finding many books and even a old note paper next to a long dried ink well and a feather pen inside it he picks up the note and begins to read it.

(( WARNING DESCRIPTIONS OF HATE AND ABUSE OF ANOTHERS RACE ))

note ->-- i find my self one of verry few left who still rembers the old ways of magic.. my name is sellpheema and im in some ways consideered an infadell.. the fairies have tried to shield me but the world changes and its become bigoted.. hateful distrusting.. im a half blood. a vile sach of flesh.. ive even been caled tainted fairy.. my best friend was exacuted weeks ago he was a kind boy only 326 years old.. still a young adult. his wings were riped off of his my mother a clefable told me to run and find some place safe to hold down. my dad a type of fairy called a pixie is probably out exploring old ruins and researching them. if you find this note and this old crypt treat my treasures with respect and love my delphox friend left me his staff and left a coupel days ago ugh ill have to build gollems to protect my crypt here i leave you the reader evrything i posess in the event im long since passed on. please stay safe and stand up to bullies revive magic in this world.

valdederon--- poor guy must have been rough no wonder the gollems were agressive.. ill collect this stuff after reading up thes books. ha ha vex will be happy to have some new books in the archives.

he looks through the books carefuly turing the pages by using psychic on it avoding tearing the delicate and fragile paper thats hundreds of years old or older eventualy finding out that magic once existed commonly along side pokemon some pokemon even beeingable to use magic and a diagram of the planet with 4 dots in a squar shape that form the 4 arcane nexus gates witch are now long since closed

valdederon-- odd if the arcane nexus gates are closed how can i still use magic.. could it be because my soul is conected to this world and my old world . ill have to research into it and this dark presence mentioned in the last 4 books.. its odd as well as if somthing evil is trying to pluncg the planeti into perril.

he uses his item box spell and puts evrything accept the staff in it and begins to search for an exit out of the ancient crypt eventualy finding his way out the sun now setting as he heads back to the guild furr dusty and matted from the fight and he walks up to the archives slowly and exaustivly knocking on the door to see if vex is awake to wicth she opens the door with a groggy smikle

vex--- you look like a ryhorn ran ya over.. whats up kid

valdederon--- stumbled into a crypt full of gollems and found some books for you they need to be restored and such they are evrry dellicate.. i had to use psychic just to read them they are on the verge of becoming dust.

she smiles and heads inside with valdederon and he uses psychic to pull the books out of his item box and gingerly sets them on her work table.

vex--- aint seen parchment like this in a good thousand years or so. these books are verry valuable good on you for not touching them ill get to work right away.. ill give ya some coin for them so you

valdederon shakes his head

valdederon---ive got all i wanted from them plus there were other treasures in the crypt to so i can pay back the guild for the mess i caused awhile back.. im sure the guild could also do some shopping to .

he heads to the guild masters quarters were he still sleeps and smiles when kleo and tiga both growl alittle

kleo---were have you been

taiga--- why is your furr a mess

valdederon--- kind of got stuck in a crypt while i was exploring the forrest abit might have alos melted a few gollems as well but i also came back with books for the archives and some treasuers for the guild

they sigh and chuckle at the explanation.

taiga-- well go get cleaned up and then in the morning we can look at what you got for the guild

valdederon--- i found more then just the treasures.. i found questions and more info about this world.. old secrets this world used to have magic but the sources of the magic have been closed off. tomorrow ill deposit the treasures in the guild treasury and head to the training hall im more determined now to be a pheonix hawk there are lots of questions that need answers.

he heads to the bathing hall and gets cleaned up and then comes back laying down and promptly passing out snoring deeply.

[delightfullygiddy]

Just became obsessed with new imagery for a set of characters in my story (same vein of the demon masquerading as human bit) AND I can’t get rid of it. Let me preface them both because I’m only gonna talk about him. (i lied this turned into a spiel of text that takes forever to truck through-don’t read it)

They both are sort of...battle worn hardened characters (one from war and another from wildly different survival circumstances) and are more or less trying to survive and have some semblance of living a calm life. Its interesting because how they come to even interact with each other in the first place is through the happenstance of battles, and depending on whose side was there or not, they would be at odds with each other. In the beginning there was jsut straight up stay away from me or i’ll have to kill you vibes.

She has them more than him since he was mostly fighting on orders but wasn’t really into the war like that (he’s part of something of a noble/important family known for it’s fighters so for the sake of profit and family, he’s made to be apart of it) hers is just the straight up visceral survival as in, I will maim you to the point where you are no longer a threat, and if you are still alive by then you’d better have learned you lesson and leave me alone. So there’s actually good gap of about 20years? before they even meet each other? and by then theres some sort of history and rumors set in place.

No one really knows who she is, only the fact that there’s this like absolutely massive bounty put out on her by this slightly prodigious human family. Like first of all other human being were the ones going after her thinking they would make easy money. BUt they really don’t know they aren’t being told the whole story, because in the attempts to capture her, so much blood. So much absolute fighting destruction on her part, that she is literally broken bones and bleeding and visibly haggard  but she just won’t stop fighting back.

She wll literally get herself killed before giving up so they back out a lot with their wounds. Overtime people lose track of who exactly she is, just the facts of what she looks like and her abilities, to the point were people think it’s someone else entirely. This sort of mythical monster that has a form of a human springs up and spreads, the bounty is still out there if you are brave enought to try for it. So the long story short bit- she’s gotten sued to being on edge and hiding. Its easier when most people assume that the real form of her is a dark armoured up man monster creature.

[[Like halfway through writing this im realizing I need to put this in my notes document but I’m too far gone baby! so onward we go!]]

How he ends up showing up is that after these 20 years, some demons are more focused on treasure hunting than bounties though some have tried their hand at it. But at this point they don’t actually know how to find that particular bounty target and leave it. They are more interested in finding treasures or you know espionages or the obvious colluding with enemies so that they can have  astrong foothold in their own communities. You know the evil version of people jsut using each other to get a foot hold in life.

antyways

commonly in this world, what demons, fae, humans and other non human alike treasure, are these rare bits of energies and creatures that show up in the world. What is the term again (i dont remember but it’s illegal animal...farming...black market whatever) its illegal and they are killing and feasting off these rare creatures because of the various materials people can use from them. Whether it be their knowledge or actual rare organs and the like. Sometimes as well it’s actually just rare items from different species and cultures that have a lot of magical essence attached to them. They have great signifigance and often stolen because of that.

there’s part groups that come together to find and collect these items for their own use, other that search for them to sell on the black market, others who wish to return them to their original owners, and so on and forth. There’s a lot of bank to be made with studying them as well.

he’s on one side that simply seeks to collect certain items for their magical essence, it’s like a rare delicacy that empowers demons innate abilities. It’s easier to steal and kill competitors for it than buying it on the black market for so long.

She actually finds them to study them for a while before giving them back to their original owners if she can. Bringing the lost back to their homes. But her guise makes her look like another treasure hunter. She also have something of a leg up on them as her abilities she’s honed over the years has acutally made her very adept at finding these items (She is able to common with ones commonly reffered to as Lesser Fae- they are considered not as grand or powerful as Grander Fae, but this evened out by the fact that they are more abundant in the world and can easily travese different realms. They aren’t as stingy when it comes to talking with other species, cautious but very friendly and trustings towards the ones they come to bond with, also word travels faster through the fae vines)

starting off in groups (supposedly) aiming towards working together to find these rare artifacts (humans and demons and tasked with working together so you know one doesn’t have more power than the other) it eventually dwindles down to a few groups actually getting far enough to find the artifacts but getting lost in the wake that takes to capture it.

He almost gets it, but through happenstance, she ends up actually being able to secure the artifcct properly as its common for these things to have wild energy, and gets away with it. It’s a very minor scuffle in my mind, but it does end witha bit of bruising and a little blood. What makes the situation interesting though is that she actively aided him at some point in the hunt and left him without causing any more harm. And thats the thing that intrigues him.

It doesn’t get his attention much until different times later on when they keep coming acrosseach other in different scenrios in passing. Some where there is battle involved and others where they are literally just casually trying to be. But they respect each other’s space more as 2 sort of predators that know the dangers of each other. So its even more awkward when the only time they really interact with each other is when there is fighting involved.

Its interesting because at some point higher ups and family are both getting irritated with this interferance with the human hunters and are seeking a way of udnermining them. SO they stage a fake discovery to trap/ delay opponenets and steal some of their spoils.

He doesn’t approve of this plan/ he along with a good few of his friends have some morals about them / even if they arent afraid of killing. And he finds that as long as he just scares the groups away it’s mroe efficient than killing him. It doesn’t even cross his mind killing them until a few of them decide to loot some of the spoils and keep them for themselves outside of the higher ups circle without reporting to them.

So in doing so, they make a silent coup of killing within this secluded section and hunt down the bigger hunts, planning on systematically hunting them to hide their deeds. Some then come across her and despite the fact that she doesn’t carry much in terms of treasure (she is actually very particular about the hunts she enters and is few and far between) but the fact that she managed to secure some high level artificats is something that compells some of the group to hunt her and try to get her to bring them.

The intercept her with this intention and much  like a group of hagglers, they try to frighten her into giving the items. She says she doesn’t have them anymore and isnt really swayed by their fear tactics- so they focus on trying to take something she keeps on her. She calmly reiterates that she doesn’t have anything to give and wouldn’t give them anything anyway,  and if they persist her she tells them in no uncerain terms she will fight back.

They persist and so she fights back, and through the scuffle she actually wields a long dagger. It instantly catches their attention because of the magical essences it gives off is not only ominous but powerful. They offer to leave her alone in exchange for the blade and when she declines they threaten that they’ll just take it by force.

-going to wrtie the rest of this in my notes because my god is this going onnn-

[transrightsjimin]

ive been trying to read more into Black history nd postcolonial theory in relation to the Netherlands, bc while a lot of stuff ive learned over the years from BLM, antifascist collectives and other antiracist movements have been useful, theres a lot i do not know yet.

ive lost my concentration over a decade ago nd dont rly read books anymore so i mainly see only snippets of antifascist / antiracist perspective news and experiences in the Netherlands, through mainly twitter accounts nd articles w this focus (e.g. from new urban collective, kafka, oneworld). there are obviously similarities in these histories nd how racist still manifests across countries, but there’s a lot i dont know yet!

despite the Netherlands being very americanized (e.g. in how the same conspiracy theories r popularized here too) nd having a similar history of colonialism + capitalism, there are various nuances, events nd identities which r more relevant here but which i dont read abt in US-focused discourses.

like how here Black experiences r often tied to cultures stemming from former Dutch colonies (”former“, on paper at least) such as Surinam and Curaçao, though of c there r also migrants from other areas. nd how here there’s also Black-origin “slang” popular among youth in cities and in hiphop culture, but here specifically containing many words from the languages Sranantongo and Papiamento.

and then there’s so much i don’t know yet abt all these other countries tht have been colonized by NL and i would like to learn more abt, bc in high school we only learned abt the colonial violence against Indonesians, which is good to know, but there is so much more. and read into how cultures are tied together, e.g. how Carribean, Black / Chinese / Indonesian cultures blend together in Surinam and Surinamese diaspora nd how that shows in how takeaway restaurants blend these cuisines together.

these r just some of the things i want to read more into nd i keep struggling to get a super deep or coherent understanding bc short articles nd a very limited amt of videos won’t paint a full picture. i need to get back to reading books again nd visiting exhibitions on this nd just engaging more / listening more to ppl w these experiences here, but of c i dont want to just make friends w ppl for being marginalized or smth as that just feels like tokenism. i wish i was better at socializing bc i rly got stuck on that when i was still w the workers’ union, or any social context really.

[howtofightwrite]

The Self-Delusion of "Good in a 'Real Fight'"

Hii how are you both? I like your blog’s tips as a fan of fantasy fiction, but I thought you could answer a real-life question. I do HEMA (im not good at it but its good fun!) and something comes up every now and then that i thought you could weigh in on with more authority.

Theres a big guy who isnt the best, but whose refrain is that he would win in a real fight since he wouldnt be holding back. He says its not a gender thing, just a size thing.

Since everyone has to hold back so we dont injure each other (and we still get plenty of bruises) he’s right, it’s an artificial environment.

Does he have a point that everyone’s restraint disadvantages big guys more, or is he being a bit of a poor sport?

Thanks!

rub-the-rest-with-yellow

He’s deluding himself, in a variety of ways.

Generally speaking, size doesn’t help, especially not in armed combat. It just means you’re a larger target for your foe’s weapon. Sword combat isn’t about being bigger and stronger than your opponent, it’s about opening your foe up and filleting them.

It’s important to remember that being bigger does not make you tougher, and no theoretical biological advantage makes you tougher than steel.

The entire point of using a blade is cutting your foe, not bludgeoning them. The emphasis here is to point out that you do not mindlessly hack away with a sword, trying to brute force your way through your foe’s armor, you look for openings and either slice through them, or thrust through them.

Now, if you’re using blunted edges, it is true that he could cause some misery if he didn’t hold back. However, that’s true for pretty much anyone in your group. You’re not competing to hurt one another.

Even with blunt weapons, like warhammers, maces, or mauls, you’re not relying on your strength, you’re using the inertia of the weapon to cause harm, so being a big guy still doesn’t offer any real advantage there.

Guys like this aren’t uncommon. They’re convinced that they’d be good in “a real fight.” In actual combat they would, inevitably, go down with the first hit, and then whine about how the fight wasn’t fair (if they survive.)

This is may be a bitter pill, and I’m not judging you for this, but there isn’t a single member of your group that would be okay in a real swordfight. The defect is in HEMA, not in you. HEMA, like many martial arts, is a revived art. This means, at some point in the past, the last person who was properly trained in your combat style died without passing that knowledge on. Someone in the 20th Century found surviving training manuals and manuscripts and did their best to rebuild the martial art from scratch.

This isn’t a case where the best techniques survived and have been codified, instead the only filter on which techniques survived is which texts survived the following centuries.

More than that, we know our reconstruction is wrong (or at least, incomplete.) We know this because of Polish Crosscutting. Unlike HEMA, this is not a revived art. It was (at least partially) preserved. It does a number of things that HEMA preaches against, and it decimates HEMA practitioners in competitive bouts. To be clear, Polish Crosscutting is not some incredibly effective set of sword techniques, it’s just better preserved than HEMA.

The end result is, our understanding of Historical European Martial Arts is extremely limited, with serious gaps. Against someone who actually knew what they were doing, any one of you would be screwed. And that’s not the point of the exercise.

This is going to somewhat duplicate the previous point, but, as you said, you’re training recreationally. This is for fun, and there is nothing wrong with that. However, if you’re training recreationally, or for sport, you are not training to use your skills in, “real,” combat. Again, you’ll find guys who are studying other recreational or sports martial arts and hold that up as their ability to handle themselves in “a real fight,” and they’re also deluding themselves.

If you want to train for combat, you train to kill people, not to, “fight.” It’s not fun, it’s not recreational, you’re not doing it to prove you can fight. It’s about ending another person’s life as efficiently as possible.

The idea of, “a fair fight,” (or in this case, “a real fight,”) is an illusion. It’s actively dangerous to both participants. In a real life or death, situation you’d want to take him out in as few strikes as possible. Realistically, we’re talking about ending his life in less than a second. Ideally, before his brain even realizes he’s in combat, and can react, though that’s bit harder to do reliably. If he is aware he’s in danger, neutralize his weapon, then end him. Again, the goal is for combat to be over in under five seconds. That probably won’t happen, but it should give you an idea of just how fast this would need to be. The longer you’re in combat, the greater the risk of you taking a hit, and in real combat, that’s a risk you cannot afford to take. Any injury means you’re at a disadvantage when you’re facing your next foe.

Killing someone is an entirely different discipline from recreational martial arts (and even from competitive sport combat.) If you train to kill people, you’re ready to kill people. If you train to have fun, you are not. If you’re in a real fight with real weapons, you’re not fighting to, “win,” you’re looking to end your foe.

To be fair, he may not be a poor sport about this. He probably, genuinely believes he can take any one of you. But, if he believes it’s because, “he’s holding back,” and he’s not one of the better duelists, yeah, he would not survive.

-Starke

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The Self-Delusion of “Good in a ‘Real Fight'” was originally published on How to Fight Write.

[transhoverfish]

I FOUND IT

Like I get where this person is comming from but when Ryley landed on 4546B Bart would be 29

I think that the game made it very clear that the Degasi crashed a decade before Aurora and Bart was 19 at that time.. which means (in combination of Subnautica lore and math) that IF Bart survived the 10 long years he would obviously age up

Maybe reading the PDAs is something that should be done even if you wouldn't get addicted to the game... just saying🤷🏻‍♀️

[I just remembered that I saw someone on Instagram ranting about how shipping Ryley and Bart is weird (or 'fucked up', I don't remember exactly what they said) because Ryley is like 25-30 or something like that and Bart is 19 and I was like "do your math pls" So yeah... I ended up laughing for like 5 minutes (Too bad I didn't take a screenshot)]

yeah ok i get the concern here but like yeah as you said!! this isnt like one of those "taking a 15yo and aging them up to 18 to make them legal", bart's already 19, and he's 19 a DECADE before the events of the game, including any possibility of meeting ryley.

assuming ryley is 25-30 - which his age is never mentioned either, so for all we know, ryley could be 19 himself!! - but we're gonna assume he's 22-30 based on his job, general appearance and maturity in a high stress situation. in the ten years that pass between bart and ryley EVER crossing paths, bart would be 26-31, give or take a few years for that mentioned decade to be possibly rounded.

bart could be OLDER than ryley for all we know. worse case, these guys can't have more than like, maybe a 6 year age gap. and that's entirely dependent on someone's personal reading of ryley. his age is NEVER mentioned or hinted at. the youngest he could be is 18. oldest maybe 40. but who's to say?? it's never brought up!

taking the decade jump into account though,, yeah ryley and bart are like the same age. they're probably within 5 years of each other, both in their late twenties by the events of sub1. its just the time skip between the degasi and aurora that creates this weird "Bart's 19, Ryley's 26" mentality.

like an example off the top of my head would be like, saying you cant ship nathan drake with chloe because they show nate as a kid a couple of times. kind of arbitrary.

but on the other hand, yeah, i guess this ship is founded on bart's 19 year old personality. which is weird at face value now that im thinking about it. but even then, ryley doesn't have a personality to begin with, outside survival knowledge. and bart clearly isn't some super naive child; he goes through some massive maturing character development just over the span of the months the degasi were all alive. bart can clearly take care of himself and speak up on problems, and we don't know if he had another birthday after the crash or not. we don't know exactly how long the degasi were there! or how long they had been in space prior! bart could have been 20 when he died, he was definitely an adult by that point. young, but cmon.

if anybody is shipping bart in degasi era, where he's like explicitly 19, ie shipping him with marg, then YEAH thats obviously a problem. but ryley/bart is, in my experience, almost always written in a bart lives story where he spends 10 more years maturing before being introduced to ryley.

they're,,,, they're the same age. almost always, if theres some odd story out there making it not always, expressly written where bart is nearly 30, making him typically older than ryley. the central idea with this person's take is that bart is not, and should not, be written as his Recent Post-Crash self. bart is Post Reaper Incident, and gets added several more years on top of that. i think it's a misconstruction on the lore/fandom ideas of ages, but otherwise not a horrible thing to point out ig??

(some of the bart ships DEFINITELY NEED TO BE LOOKED INTO. ryley is like, the most tame option, and thankfully why its likely the most popular!)

[tomugatchi]

Tamagotchi V5 Customisation Guide: Painting

This is part 3 of my tamagotchi customisation series, showing how to paint a tamagotchi.

For the rest of the series, click here:

Part 1 - Dissasembly

Part 2 - Painting prep

Part 4 - Reassembly

Part 5 - Overview

Obligatory disclaimer - I'm not responsible for any damage caused to your tamagotchi, you do this at your own risk. I'm just showing what I did!

You will need:

- A tamagotchi (disassembled and taped)

- Matte spray paint

- Paint pens

- Glossy clear sealant spray

- Newspaper

This is a do as I say, not as I do situation. If you care about the surface you're painting on, spend time actually covering it with newspaper, and take wind direction into account. I was not super invested in protecting this grass from the paint and now theres a weird white patch on my lawn. But it'll grow out!

I'm not going to pretend to know enough about paint to give solid recommendations. If you know more about paint than I do, use your own knowledge and make good decisions. If you don't, maybe do some research!

Personally, I went with mtn water based spray paint in matte white. Make sure whatever you choose advertises itself to be used on plastic.

To decorate, I used posca paint pens. For my design I used blue, pink, green and yellow.

To seal it, I used craft sealer from hobbycraft, because posca pens recommend using a water based sealer. I know Mr Super Clear is popular, but this was cheaper so it's what I went with. So far, it's holding up well!

This is where the pencils are super useful, especially when painting on grass like I was. Stab them into the ground, then spray the shell. Once again, I'm no expert. I recommend watching a youtube video if you don't know how. Keep the first coat light. If you miss any parts, you can get them in the 2nd coat.

Another benefit of the lollipops! They held the shells very easily for drying. I just poked them into the gaps in this table.

Best to follow the instructions of your specific spray paint for this. Personally, I did two coats, with 30mins between them, but my paint had a faster dry time since it's water based. Then, I left them overnight to ensure they were 100% dry before using the paint pens.

Now for the fun bit! Decorating the shell!

TamaShell is such a good resource for inspiration. I loved the half and half look of this shell so I used that as a starting point. My tama has yellow buttons, so I also incorporated that into my design. I wanted mine to look like an official tama design, so I put the face on the house and matched it with the button colour.

Paint pens are pretty self explanatory. I drew the outline of my design, and then filled it in. I had to go over some colours a few times to stop the white from peeking through. Unfortunately I forgot to take any photos of it after I added the details, but you'll see those soon enough! The good thing about paint pens that if you make a mistake, you can just paint over it! Avoid unnecessary stress by having a paint pen in the spray paint colour if you can. The pressure to not get any paint on the white parts was a lot and could have easily been avoided.

When you're 100% happy with your design, it's time to seal it.

Back to lollipop mode. Cover any unpainted parts in tape, then put them back on the pencils. Follow the instructions on your sealer. I did two coats, and left it to dry for half an hour between them. Sealer is really important because not only will it protect the tamagotchi from wear and tear, but it will also give your tamagotchi a really nice glossy feel. It wont be identical to an original tamagotchi, but it makes it feel more official.

Once that's done, make sure the sealer is dry and then it's time to put it all back together!