#this is google translated so people don't come for me if it doesn't make sense 😂

[kirby-manga-translated]

It’s Kirby Time - Book 9 English Translation + An Update on Blog Happenings

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! IT'S HEEEEERE!! A truly adorable story about Kirby and Meta Knight deciding to spend some alone time and the activities they like to do during that time. Featuring beautiful illustrations painstakingly cleaned up by myself, this one is a must-read for fans of the relationship between Kirby and Meta Knight. Read the full thing at the links below:

Imgur

MangaDex

Google Drive

...But wait, there's more! Because the illustrations are so pretty, here's a link to a folder containing just those illustrations with no text at all! https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/19z8WLah-ZGES2jnyZOILJKc9kE75Wvs9?usp=drive_link (I'm probably also gonna make a post featuring all these images on their own soon.)

Finally, I have an update regarding the blog. tl;dr, I'm definitely gonna keep doing translations, but the rate at which they are completed and uploaded is most likely going to change soon. I don't know by how much or even if it will be positive or negative. For a more detailed explanation, click the Keep Reading.

So, I got a job! *audience cheers* But the job does not involve translating Kirby manga. *audience "aww"s* Ordinarily I wouldn't get more specific than that since I try to avoid revealing too much about my personal life, but in this case the explanation won't make much sense unless I do, so: The job entails working on fishing boats. This means that there isn't really a set daily schedule or even a weekly schedule. When the boats are fishing, I'm working, and when they're not, I have next to nothing to do.

I've been told by many people that I should expect a lot of down time for that reason, so I'll definitely have time to work on translations. However, I can't predict exactly how much I get and I also most likely won't have an internet connection on the boat. All this is to say that I literally do not know how this is going to affect the rate of translations on this blog beyond just, "It's going to change." I could find that I have so much down time on the boat that translating is the only thing that keeps me sane and I actually get more done. I could find that the boat I'm on is a super-busy one and I get barely any time at all. And regardless of which one of those happens, I won't be able to actually upload anything until the boat gets back into port, which is entirely dependent on how long it takes for the boat to catch all the fish it needs.

The job doesn't start for a couple weeks yet, so I'm gonna try to fulfill a few more requested chapters before then. Once again: I'm definitely going to keep translating, I just don't know how often I'll actually be able to do it. So enjoy this translation, look forward to more coming in the future, and please wish me luck both in my work and in getting time to translate!

[syyskirjat]

Sueños de piedra (ch1)

Okay, I promised (to myself) to check out whatever media won the ultimate obscure blorbo tournament ( @who-do-i-know-this-man (I wasn't sure whether to tag you or not but in the end I figured I might as well, hope you don't mind I guess))

Turns out that it's a guy from a 2015 Spanish YA fantasy book

And turns out there's a free sample available! Which is lucky for me because I'm currently very broke

Sueños de piedra by Iria G. Parente and Selene M. Pascual

I don't speak Spanish so I'm gonna rely on the translator quite a lot lmao (well I understand some Spanish actually, but definitely not enough to read a whole book)

The title translates to something like "Dreams of Stone" I think?

Once upon a time in a kingdom far, far away, a prince rewarded a wizard for helping rescue a young girl in trouble. Charming. Too bad none of this is true. In reality, the prince dreams of glory and revenge; the magician, with her spells not always being a disaster and the young woman in trouble, with fleeing from a past that torments her... and from the memory of the man she has killed. Once upon a time...

(Yes this is just Google Translate, sorry)

Okay so, prince, magician and a damsel in distress? Prince wants revenge for something, who knows what, magician is having trouble doing the magic, and the damsel is in fact a killer? Ok ok

The dedication goes as follows:

To all those who embark on a direct journey towards their dreams every day. May you always reach your destination.

Okay so Marabilia is a place? That's apparently also the name of this book series. Is this like the kingdom then? So it consists of three islands, two small ones and one big? Or is it supposed to be a continent? It definitely seems too small to be a continent

I know the blorbo is called Arthmael de Silfos so I'm guessing he's from the Silfos area in the north of the big island then. I can see what's probably a city called Duan and a forest called "Merlon Forest". We also have different towers around the big island, one of which seems to be called the Tower of Black Magic. (I didn't even need to use the translator for those yay xD)

Okay the first chapter is called Arthmael so I guess we're meeting our blorbo already, which is nice

— Let me make it clear: are you going to give my crown to a bastard?

Okay..... the very first line and I already think Arthmael might be a bit of a spoiled brat (I assume he's in fact the prince)

Apparently Arthmael just found out that he has an illegitimate older brother but I guess this brother's mother is noble anyway so it's legit? I dunno yet. Arthmael thinks this guy is blackmailing his father somehow and is already considering poison as a solution

And anyway, what kind of a name is Jacques for a king?

lmao, so much shade to all the kings called Jacques

Okay so Jacques's family is very powerful and loved by the people of Silfos and the king fears a civil war if he disrespects his claim to the throne. Alright. Kinda weird since based on Arthmael's thoughts, this society has a similar attitude to bastards as in European history, but okay then. I wonder if Jacques is even actually the king's son or is this some kind of a ruse?

Arthmael is very cheeky and even references his dad's love life directly to his face, his dad is not very happy

The king tells him to just be a good boy and hopefully they'll find him some crown princess to marry so he'll get a kingdom that way

I guess these different areas on the map are kingdoms then, that makes sense. They look like very small kingdoms but this is a small place in general.

Arthmael doesn't seem to mind this idea except that there's only one possible princess like that in Marabilia and that's Ivy de Dione. Not sure what's wrong with her.

Well, who knows? Maybe, if I wait a few moons, some other bastard, in Verves or Idyll, will come out from under a rock and come offer me her hand.

Somebody's very snarky, that's cute

Arthmael is very haughty about how the people have always known him as the crown prince and accepted him as such, Jacques laughs and asks what has he even done for the people. He's like well he hasn't really done much yet because he was planning to do things once he became king, but he's been supporting the local business (taverns) and employing servants (lmao). Also apparently there are some girls he's seeing...

Apparently Jacques's family are big traders and business people (despite being noblemen) and create lots of jobs, and also big on charity, so everybody loves them

Arthmael is jealous of how proud his dad looks when Jacques says this, and how he's never looked at him like that

Well, I guess you're kind of a little shit so it makes sense, Arthmael

— If the smartest thing is to become the idol of a few starving people in order to be king, I can do it too.

Oh my god, this little brat

He declares that he's going to be a hero, to overshadow the charity of Jacques' family, because heroes are remembered by history while philanthropist aren't

So he plans to become a storybook Prince Charming, saving damsels in distress etc.

Jacques finds this understandably hilarious, the king is not amused

Once Jacques leaves, the king again offers to arrange a marriage to Arthmael, specifically with the princess of Dione

I'm almost tempted. I have never been to Dione, but they say that their ships are the lightest and fastest, and that sailors come to their shores from the other side of the sea, speaking strange languages that only they understand. Who come from lands where women wear short dresses, if they wear anything at all. Places where war is so normal that, as soon as a child is strong enough to pick up a sword, they push him to the front lines.

Alright then, I see what he fixates on

Was there anything wrong with the princess then or?

Barbarians. I remove the thought from my mind.

Oh okay. What a charming young man /s

Dione is like right next to Silfos according to the map btw, is this like one of those neighbourly feuds?

Okay he says it's because he doesn't want a foreign kingdom, he wants to keep his home, which is fair I guess

The king is like what do you want me to do, kill Jacques and his pregnant wife? And Arthmael is just like yeah great idea, because he's a dumbass. The king is like wtf

Apparently Jacques' family is from that Duan city that I noted earlier, and his mother died a few days ago and apparently "her loss is greatly felt"

The king regrets spoiling Arthmael too much, and talks about how Arthmael doesn't understand anything about suffering or anything and only cares about girls

Arthmael is already considering faking his death to make them all feel sorry, because of course he is, he's exactly that kind of guy

He says he doesn't want to go try to charm the princess, he'd rather just go off on his own (also there's a whole bit about how only a man can rule Dione or something and the king of Dione won't accept his daughter to become a ruler)

His dad tells him no, just stay here and be a good boy, don't make everybody gossip about drama in the royal family

Arthmael is like hey you managed to hide your bastard son for years, you can hide my disappearance

They fight a bit more but then Arthmael just storms out, grabs a few things from his room and leaves

a change of clothes, a bag of coins, my sword, and my favourite cloak. I do not need anything else.

Okay then, good luck I guess

To be a hero you only need a brave heart. Or so they say.

I feel like you also need to not be a selfish prick but maybe that's optional

Okay end of first chapter!

Our blorbo seems like a real brat!

But I guess the point is probably that he needs to learn some lessons along the way, or something like that, idk. I'm sure there's a reason for why whoever entered him into the tournament likes him so much

I'm guessing the damsel in distress is not the princess? Probably? She wasn't called a princess anyway. TBH she's the character I'm currently the most curious about. The next chapter is from the point of view of someone called Lynne and I hope that's her. Could be the magician too though I guess? No wait, I think the magician is a guy. Altho idk maybe Lynne could be a guy's name, I don't fucking know.

I'm guessing that Arthmael will try to rescue the damsel so he can be a hero, because that's what heroes are supposed to do, but then it'll go wrong somehow? And then the magician will get involved somehow, I have no clue.

That's all my predictions I suppose. Altho I'm guessing that Jacques might turn out to be a villain somehow, I didn't get the vibe that he was particularly great either, just not as much of a brat as Arthmael, and it would then be something for Arthmael to do when he gets back home. Then again maybe the book will surprise me, who knows. To be honest, it would feel a bit like a cop out if it turns out that the guy he hates actually is evil, but it could be handled well, and it's not like I like Jacques either so far. He seems extremely sus too

No guesses as to what the title refers to yet, it could be anything

Idk, like I said, the damsel's storyline is the one that interests me the most rn, it might actually get me to read further (good job, blurb, you got me)

I still have a surprisingly good amount of the free sample left, there's actually nine chapters here, so idk, maybe I'll keep going? We'll see

I'm pretty happy with how much I was able to follow the text even on my own, altho I definitely had to rely on the translator. I would not have had the patience to try to translate all of this myself. But I definitely understood multiple full sentences! Yaaay xD

Apologies to fans of this book series, I hope I didn't seem too rude

[violetvenom]

Okay, here comes a post I wanted to do for a long long while and I summon all the fellow Walter enjoyers for this.

In the last 2 years I've rewatched and reread Hellsing several times and I have to admit I love to analyse stuff. So naturally a lot of questions popped into my mind regarding my fav character.

But one question stood out in particular: What the fuck is Walter? Yes, you've read this right..what..not who!

Yes, there is a theory in the fandom I think not many people know of or even care for, which actually makes a lot of sense. It's clear he his human (except at the end of the main story) but I think I speak for us all that his abilities are way over the top for a mere human. Some peple will probably know where this is going..but before I start explaining, I just want to clarify I will cite and take references and informations from several fan translations, fansubs and the official German translation of the manga. I just started to collect the new edition of the English one, so I can't properly refer to them but please feel free to fill me in with the old English version if there are drastic differences in context.

With this said..let's go trough what we know about Walter step by step:

We will start chronological with his youngest persona we saw: Young Walter or how the Japanese like to call him; Sholter.

So in The Dawn we get a throwback to a 14-year old Walter, who get's send on the mission to fight the Nazis in Warsaw in 1944. At the round table he gets praised by Arthur as the "strongest human of their existing militants".

So this clears Walter is in fact human and not something else, and also Hellsing's top figther. Alucard doesn't count here since he is a vampire and the secret special weapon.

We learn from Alucard that he officially must have met Walter when he was just mere 9 years old. Citing Girlycard here:

Hellsing's main story plays in 1999 and Walter is 69 at this point...that's simple math.

And this actually makes sense. When Girlycard and Walter get sent to Warsaw you can tell they already know each other. I won't dive deep into their dynamic here because I plan to do a seperate post for this, but I think the most notable moment to make that point clear is when Walter insults and questions "Bastard. Where's your shape?".

Or how it got translated in one fansub:

While Walter asks this, Alucard is already manifesting as Girlycard, stating "the form I take means nothing to me". So it's pretty safe to say Walter knows about the usual red coat man form and the vampire's ability to transform. Overall The Dawn gives vibes that they both already have fought alongside for a while.

I think this is enough to estabilish they met when Walter was 9 years old. Meaning they probably worked together for 5 years to this point...or at least Walter dealing with Alucard's shenanigans.🤭

This rises the question...how the hell does a 9-year-old end up in such an organization?

We don't know where Walter comes from..where he is born..who his parents are..Nothing!

It's a big mysterium, which I find rather odd since he is one of the most important characters in the main story and even the main character next to Girlycard in The Dawn.

But this actually fuels the fire of curiosity in me.

So let's take a turn here and talk about his abilities: We don't know how his wires work or what they actually are, but I will mention my idea with the final conclusion later on. So for now we ignore this part and just look at some examples of his bodily capabilities.

He is stronger than the average human:

Walter drags Alucard's coffin with one hand like it's an empty cardboard box.

Since Alucard canonically can weight basically nothing and rests in no particular shape in there (that's why he later emerged as black wobbling mass which first has to manifest into Girlycard), I just can point to the weight of a coffin for an adult.

This is the first data which shows up if you google it:

Also Alucard is canonically 6'6" (198cm) tall. Abraham staked him while he was more or less laying in the coffin...

...so it's not impossible the coffin even is oversized and weights more. I mean:

It's quite big, but not the most relatable source since Hirano fucks up with details a lot of times. lol

Walter then even kicks the coffin out of the plane with a simple kick.

Speaking of kicking; we also saw Walter kicking a knife.

You not only need a good control over your body to kick a knife from the table up and forwards, but look at the force he does this with. Animated it looked even more easy peasy for him to do so and the full force gets more clear if you see how fast the knife maneuvered to the Major. There is also quite the distance between them and the Captain catches the knife when it got pretty close to it's intended target.

Then he breaks the table in two parts with just one mere kick.

And even with 69 he still got a force in his legs which is astounding.

We saw how he kicked Jan against the wall for a brief second. And again animated it's even more impressive, when you can see and hear how Jan smashes against the wall.

And not to forget he could lift out the Harkonnen I for Seras like no biggie.

Just to paint the picture more clearly: The Jackal for Alucard alone weigthed 16kg and he handled it with it's case like it was nothing.

He is very swift, flexible and quick in reacting:

When Jan jumped over him and tried to run, he didn't take long to react to that despite being baffled by the enemies actions.

Or before that scene when he and Seras crawled trough the vents to get to the round table, where it seems that there is difference between OVA and manga.

In the manga it seems Walter crawls out with the legs first and landing gracefully on his feet (and luckily not on Seras):

Seras on the other hand....we still love you, silly police girl. In the OVA Walter emerges face first from the vent and catches his weight with his hands...

...just to push himself in the air again to regain his stance.

I can't stress enough that he is 69 here! So when he is capable to quickly move and react in such an age, it's no wonder young Walter did stunts like jumping out of a plane without a parachute and crashing through a window.

He is incredibly sturdy:

The most unflattering panel of Walter ever shows us with what force the Captain was punching the teen.

Like holy shit...that must have hurt. I can imagine this blow is the reason for his monocle later on.

Then he took a blow to the guts....

...and one in the back.

Ignoring that every anime/manga character has at least 100 litres of blood...those hits from a werewolf are sure something. No way a normal person would have survived this.

And yet Walter manages to quickly react and headbutt the doggo.

Also with an incredible force.

It's surprising as the Captain starts to strangle him, his neck isn't snapping like a twig.

We just saw how the werewolf just crushed a knife with a bare hand.

Looking at all those facts, you can't tell me he isn't the true one hell of a butler he is a mere human.

I'm convinced Walter is like Anderson an enhanced human. Which is also the theory circling around in the fandom and answers the question what he is.

But I never saw an explanation why this theory exists in the first place. So the gears in my head started spinning and tried to solve the puzzle.

We know the Vatican experimented on Anderson and thus creating his regeneration powers.

I can't remember if it ever got explained how, but it doesn't even truly matter in the end. Which matters is the fact that Walter was able to create a weapon for figthing Anderson. So my best guess is they experimented with biotechnology, which also plays a huge part in creating freak vampires.

BUT

Hellsing got their own ways and the prime example is Alucard.

It often seems to get forgotten who Abraham Van Helsing was, and what he was knowledgeable about.

And since Bram Stoker's Dracula is kinda canon to Hellsing, it's a fair use to cite Wikipedia here. ✌️

Integra even said that Alucard is the culmination of "generations of Hellsing's occult knowledge". This means nothing other than Alucard got experimented on, which makes sense since all the usual vampire weaknesses don't apply to him anymore.

But how do you experiment on a vampire? Well, if the word occult has not made it clear enough; let's have a look at a part in the manga where Richard chases smol Integra and provides some insights what Hellsing manor contains on rooms:

I think one is clearly sticking out a bit: Wizardry Analysis Room.

Combined with the fact Alucard's seals on the back of his gloves are pentragams with runes speaks a lot about what kind of experiments Abraham did.

This makes alchemy and sorcery to something which is canon and existing in Hellsing!

Since we know literally nothing about Walter, I think it's no wild guess to assume he is like Alucard an experiment of the Hellsing organisation.

I wouldn't go so far and say he is an homunculus since Arthur clearly said he is human as he fills in the round table about freak vampires, ghouls and Walter's existence. I see no reason why he should hide the fact they themselves created a homunculus at this point.

But what stood out to me was this sentence tho:

The majority of translations seem to go with born, but there are also some who are more like this:

Since I'm not able to find raw scans of The Dawn to maybe translate that part myself and to confirm, and I don't understand Japanese well enough to maybe listen and understand what Arthur exactly uses for words in the animation; take the following with a grain of salt.

If we go ahead with the born sentence...what actually would that mean?

Walter would have been indeed be born into the role of a vampire hunter. Which could also overlap with his role as being Hellsing's butler.

I'm no historian and very far off so but as far as I could research, this was something which was a thing:

Which makes the whole thing even more interesting. We don't know if Walter even has parents in the traditional sense. Is he some sort of lab-grown baby? If he got parents, were they also employed at Hellsing? What happened to them?

Questions which can't get answered here but can inspire to create nice headcanons.

To bring this long post finally to an end; My conclusion is that Walter is indeed an enhanced human, created by Hellsing themselves probably through alchemy. Which could wonderfully connect to his wires, because they could also be a product of alchemy or wizardry of some sort, since there is no logically explanation for this. 👀

Let me know if I've had missed something.

[fandom-hoarder]

Ok, so I got an ask for mutual aid. Of course, it's human to want to help someone in need, even if all you can do is reblog their post. But you also don't want to be scammed, or help spread a scam. So you look for clues, or you only reblog your mutuals' aid posts because you at least know they're *real*, or you don't reblog aid posts at all.

So, what are the tells? (I'm not an expert, this is just what I've learned through osmosis.)

Do they follow/interact with you, outside of the mutual aid request?

Is their username weirdly generic?

Does the blog look like a real tumblr user, and not just someone who made a tumblr to ask for aid? How old is it? Is it involved in any fandoms? Does it seem staged?

Does their aid ask and needs description make sense? Is it overly vague, or bogged down with unneeded details?

If you quote-search the body of their aid ask, do you get any similar hits for scams on other sites or under other names?

Does the account for donations look legit?

What do you find when you reverse image search?

So, having received an ask that sounded very much like someone whose mutual aid I would want to support if they're real, but already having two red flags from the jump (not following me and not in my notifications, weird wording and grammar on ask), I endeavored to suss them out.

Screencaps of my adventure under the cut.

Like someone else has said, please don't go harrass this blog. Even if it's a scam, at some point there's a person behind that screen.

So here's the ask.

Red flags: they don't follow me, I don't know them, the ask is long, the grammar and punctuation are bad, word choices are odd or misspelled. These don't mean it's automatically fake, but it looks more like a weird AI than someone using google translate to communicate in English.

So I check their blog.

Their pinned post is this (click to read, it's a longass pic):

I don't take any links yet.

I take a block of their post and check it in google; all I get are snapshots of tumblr reblogs for their aid post. I click the "buy me a coffee" link, and it looks...idk, fine I guess. There's a tumblr logo, but clicking it seems to do nothing. (I'm on mobile)

A quick search of their name on tumblr gives me 2 posts mentioning them spamming this same message to people.

I read the one with the readmore linked here

After reading wannursyafiqah74's post about it, I got on my laptop and went back to casualdonutfire.

Mostly random reblogs; cats and other random reblogs of mostly pics, many with comments that could've/should've been tags, and no actual tags whatsoever. Like set dressing that says, "See? I'm a real person! I'm leaving comments about my reblogs that show I'm not a bot! I interact! I know what I'm I'm reblogging!"

It gives me a creepy vibe. I try google again to see if I can find their presence elsewhere on tumblr. The returns are still all snapshots of their mutual aid post. I open their archive. Ok, their tumblr has archive on...?

There are no fandom-esque posts until the very first reblog, a comment on One Piece fanart on October 18, 2023.

Their first post about needing aid was on November 7, 2023. Nearly the same wording as their pinned post, except they don't mention having a child. Zero specifics on what amount is needed for what or a timeline or anything. Not even anything about Christmas coming up. Tagged generously for trans surgery and other visibility words.

Oh. AND. The buymeacoffee is different. Adela, not Adella.

Then their next post for aid is fresh on January 11, 2024; nearly the same wording, except now there's a daughter and a birthday -- no date for the birthday, though, is there?!

[reblog linked here] If you go to their January 12th reblog and click on the "video proof," it's an audio-only black screen upload to imgur, with no identifying info for what's going on other than what they describe (and it doesn't really sound like what they describe; it sounds like a kid ready for christmas but not disappointed, like idk what more you're supposed to get out of it)

Then I clicked on their buymeacoffee link and noticed something. When I hovered my mouse over the tumblr symbol under their blurb, the link embedded there showed up at the bottom of my screen. And it was NOT casualdonutfire.

It was deepeagletimetravel. And, of course, it's a nuked tumblr. Hence doing NOTHING for me on mobile.

So I went to google again!

And lo, what do I find in those lurking reblogs?

ANOTHER MUTUAL AID POST IN EVERYONE'S REBLOGS. WITH A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT PERSONA AND STORY. BUT THE SAME WALL OF TEXT + BAD PUNCTUATION STYLE

Using a stock photo for their initial "bio" that seems awfully misleading when you don't say it's a stock photo.

And with stolen/uncredited art by thetransformistress as a thank you.

And, of course, the buymeacoffee page it linked for Ameera (buymeacoffee.com/AmeeradelzC) is blank. 👀 Totallynormal, nothing to see here.

But this makes me think. I go back to that Nov 7 casualdonutfire post, with their first buymeacoffee link to "Adela" (buymeacoffee.com/adelladomil)--

and what do ya know, the tumblr that opens is casualdonutfire!

So did they forget they made an adela account, and change their ameera buymeacoffee account to adella for their new post, forgetting to change the deepeagletimetravel tumblr name?! 🤷‍♀️

[random-and-average]

Yandere Miguel O'Hara with Shadow Wizard!S/O

Author's Note: I spent hours pondering how to make this work, but I came up with nothing that would make sense in terms of the movie. Thus, my rationale is that, if the multiverse details every single possibility and change, then magic has to exist in one of them, right? (Please just let me have this :']) Also, this headcanon is most likely the darkest one I've made so far. With great power comes great suffering, it seems.

Content Warning(s): kidnapping, confinement, mentioned drugging, exploitation, stalking, Google translate Spanish, extremely bad writing

At first, Miguel would try to find a way to use your magic to benefit him while determining your specialties and limits

Of course, those a part of the Shadow Wizard Money Gang Secret Society (SWSS) have to be exceptionally good at magic, so you're no exception

(Although, the society exclusively practices conjuration, transmutation, and necromancy magic because I don't see a Shadow Wizard society practicing things like divination or abjuration)

At the very least, if you refuse to use your magic to serve someone who is lesser than you, you'll just have to conjure random items that Spider-People need, such as a screwdriver or stepping stool

At most, if you're willing to be under Miguel's orders, you will be a semi-member of the Spider-Society, so you'll be brought on missions to aid in maintaining the order of the multiverse

On the off chance that Miguel has free time, he'll demand you see him so that he can witness you utilize your magic

Your universe's Spider-Man, if he is a part of Miguel's society, is internally cursing the entirety of the SWSS for causing him trouble outside of his universe

"Do you guys have to cause chaos in every location you're in?" Spider-Mage complained as he followed you around. As your universe's original Spider-Man, he was tasked to monitor you while you get comfortable at headquarters, though the two of you hated the idea of being in the other's presence.

"And do you have to be a wet carpet in every location you're in?" You quipped. "Spirits forbid you cast a minor transmutation spell! You might just upset the very order of magic with that one."

"I fail to see how using a shrinking spell to make Webslinger think his horse went missing is a 'minor transmutation spell,' but please enlighten me."

"I can't enlighten a fool who thinks size reduction is anything more than a minor spell. Inherent ineptitude isn't something that can be fixed immediately."

"Why you..."

»»-———¯\_(ツ)_/¯———-««

The moment he grasps the full scope of your abilities, including your necromancy ones, he'll start taking up more of your time until all of your days are spent with him

Granted, at this point it's not out of love, but so you can bring the family that he lost and was never able to get back no matter how hard he tried back

And he will force you to truly resurrect them, no matter the price

Diamonds? A body? Something holy? Something cursed? Anything you need, he'll provide it for you

You'll be confined to a solitary room until you get the spell right, unable to see anyone but Miguel when he provides you the materials to resurrect them

He can't afford you being distracted when the possibility of getting his family back is within reach

Unfortunately, the main component of true resurrection is that the soul of the person is willing to be brought back to life

Main problem? Only Gabriella is willing to come back, both of his wives meanwhile...

You can't even plead with them to come back, as Miguel doesn't have either wife's corpse

And he refuses to not have both his wife and child

So you're forced to stay in that cramped room and sleep on an uncomfortable mattress for longer, draining your energy repeatedly casting the same spell

With nothing grounding you to the present except for the buzzing of fluorescent lights, you started wondering how long it had been since Miguel quite literally dragged you to this small room in order to fulfill his deranged fantasies.

'Bring back my family,' he demanded from you as if you could just perfectly resurrect people at the press of a button, and even then, with his distasteful personality, you doubted the reunion would be all sunshine and rainbows.

However, you were starting to get desperate.

You didn't care how he was going to insane lengths to bring back his dead wife and daughter. You didn't care that the former individual didn't want to come back. You didn't care that he somehow was able to not only supply but continuously provide the materials you needed to cast the spell.

You just wanted to get out of this prison.

You couldn't stand the buzzing lights; the stiff spring mattress that reeked of body odor due to you not being able to shower; the putrid stench and humiliating sight of the toilet bucket, stripping you of your pride as a Shadow Wizard; the monochrome color scheme of this spirit forsaken cell that was exacerbated by the grey concrete walls all around you; the lack of being able to interact with anyone, save for the madman that brought you here; and the fact that you were only here to be exploited, to be treated like a tool that can be used whenever and however its owner pleases.

The screeching noise of metal against concrete stole your attention and forced you to look at the only person who would enter this miserable room.

"I have the needed materials."

You couldn't help but sneer at Miguel's statement. His straight-forwardness was refreshing at times, but in this situation, it infuriated you. He didn't even politely request that you cast a difficult spell or ensured that you were comfortable to do so. If only he knew that, back in your dimension, people would get on their hands and knees to beg you to cast a simple spell.

"What makes you think that your wife will allow herself to be brought back? She hasn't done it in the past, so what would make her change now? You might as well give up or settle for only Gabriella being resurrected," you reasoned. Hopefully, he still had enough sanity to know that what he wanted was a pipe dream. If he did, it would mean you would be able to be freed sooner.

"She might have finally come around to the idea that it's better to come back to her husband."

Rage almost compelled you to lash out at him. How easy it was for him to talk as if he was minorly inconvenienced by his wife's refusal when you were the one suffering because of it. Though, you reigned your anger in since you wanted to reduce the amount of time you had to spend in this place.

Miguel would eventually understand that achieving his dream was futile, and some vengeful part of you wished to see him break down in despair when he does.

»»-———¯\_(ツ)_/¯———-««

His feelings for you only start to change once he realizes that, regardless of how many times you cast True Resurrection, neither of his wives will be willing to come back

Miguel is obviously devastated by these turn of events

Suddenly, he is much more aware of how lonely he was this entire time, and it's too much for him to bear alone

So he finds comfort in someone that has no choice but to provide him solace, you

Slowly, with each visit (or counselling sessions, basically), he grows fond of you

You are the only one who stood next to him when he was at his lowest (even if it was unwillingly)

In gratitude, you are let out of your room, but you're limited to the entirety of headquarters, nothing outside of it

He can't let you leave after you saw him when he was the most vulnerable he'd ever been since the loss of his second family; you were special

Eventually, the longer you stay by his side, his fondness for you grows into something else as he takes note of your interests, quirks, and minute features

"Miguel? Miguelllllllll. Are you even listening to me?"

Lyla appeared in front of the footage of you laughing with the other Spider-People as you demonstrated that you, too, were capable of shooting webs like them, forcing Miguel's attention to focus on her rather than you.

"Por el amos de Dios (for fuck's sake), what do you want, Lyla? I'm busy."

The woman gave him a stare that indicated that she didn't believe him. "Yeahhh, busy doing what exactly? Busy being a creep?"

"I'm busy monitoring the anomaly to ensure they don't interfere with the multiverse."

She scoffed, "You and I both know that they have no intention of doing so. If they did, they would've done it already, seeing as they have plenty of magic at their disposal. Obviously, you're stalking them out of your own self-interests."

Miguel glared at the hologram as he turned off the footage with a frustrated huff.

"I don't care what you think about me, but any word about this to anyone else, especially them, and I will erase you. Understand?"

All of Lyla's sass vanished faced with the man's glowing red stare that pierced through her being. Although she wished he was just bluffing, his tone clearly showed otherwise.

"...I understand." And with that, she disappeared.

»»-———¯\_(ツ)_/¯———-««

You'll know when Miguel is completely besotted with you

He will start taking up more of your time, just like he did when he understood your necromancy magic

This time, however, it's not to resurrect his dead family; it's to just spend time with him

It starts out as being forced to have breakfast, lunch, and dinner with him

Then it turns into full-fledged "dates" where he allows you to explore various dimensions under his supervision

Finally, you are forced to choose to have a microchip implanted in your body so that Miguel knows where you are 24/7; be magically bound to Miguel through a sacred ritual, courtesy of an intimidated Spider-Mage following orders; or stay by Miguel 24/7

Of course, the man does feel guilty for keeping you in the equivalent of solitary confinement

As a result, he is willing to bend the knee to you at times, giving into your demands as long as they aren't too "unreasonable"

He will spend the rest of his life atoning for what he did to you

Dedicates a space for you in his home where you can cast and experiment with as many spells as you desire

(It has cameras hidden in every nook and cranny in case you start dabbling in magic that'll take you away from him)

Absolutely melts inside when you start becoming less hostile/defensive towards him

(However, if your hostility doesn't stop, he'll simply remedy the issue by sneaking a love potion—once again, courtesy of Spider-Mage—into your drink)

Without fail, he takes a week-long break on your "honeymoon" every year, which usually involves visiting your home dimension

Speaking of your home dimension, the Shadow Wizard Secret Society (SWSS) initially doesn't take too kindly to one of their own being romantically involved with a magic-less person

But as the saying goes: if there's a will, there's a way

After a few choice threats and an offer to provide them with any needed materials, they're perfectly fine with Miguel

Though your colleagues pity you for being bound to such a lowly lifeform

Miguel loves seeing you cast magic and will even set aside some time for you to show him your power if you desire it

Secretly looks forward to watching you teach your future children magic

Gave you access to his desk, so you can also watch the Spider-People

Even allows you to be there while he discusses plans, mainly because Lyla likes having you there

(She sometimes begs you to demonstrate your magical prowess by having you animate objects into recreating the plan)

Will keep you in the dark about plans concerning individuals that could negatively influence you, specifically Miles and Hobie

Jealous of any creature you summon/conjure, even if it's to do a task; though, his jealousy intensifies if it's a humanoid

Goes through the effort of learning wizard customs (courtesy of Spider-Mage, like always)

All things considered, it was a normal day for you. You just spent hours watching movies that Miguel bought for you in his massive luxury apartment, and there weren't alarms about a rogue anomaly. The entire day so far was peaceful and uneventful, really.

And that made the alarms in your head go off.

Your thoughts were interrupted when your homunculus dropped right beside you on the couch with an excited chirp. With a smile, you pet your servant.

"So, is Miguel hiding something from me again?"

It tapped the cushion twice. Yes.

"I knew it," you sighed. "I wonder if it has something to do with Hobie again."

You got up from the sofa with a groan as you stretch, and your homunculus jumped down to join you. However, you picked it up and placed it back where it was.

"You'll have to stay here for now, Empanada. Wouldn't want the mean spider to know who gave away his plans."

The homunculus, Empanada (You honestly thought that it deserved a better name, but Jess jokingly suggested that Miguel would like it more if you named after something he liked), whined, but it ultimately laid down on a pillow, indicating that it wouldn't follow you.

With your homunculus out of the way, you closed your eyes and pictured the meeting area that you were familiar with as well as the empty chair that was reserved for you.

"Teleport."

Rather than feeling the soft cushions of your chair, you felt the sensation of falling from the sky, and when you opened your eyes, that was indeed the case since you teleported a good amount of feet above the ground. "Are you kidding me right now?"

Expectedly, the people in the room didn't anticipate your arrival.

"I didn't know that they could teleport!"

"Gwen, you didn't tell me that there was a Spider-Person that could come out of thin air!"

"Oh ho, that person is the last person Miguel would want to be here."

"Querido/Querida!"

Before you could cast another spell, you find yourself in Miguel's arms while he chided you.

"What are you doing here? You should be back at home!"

"Don't think I'm stupid, Mig. I know something's up when there's nothing going on."

"That doesn't mean you should cast such a dangerous spell!"

"Any wizard worth their salt knows how to cast a teleportation spell. Besides, it's only 'dangerous' if you're not skilled enough."

"...Mi vida, we're having a talk after this."

Miguel set you gently onto the ground, and you steadied yourself before you saw that there was a seemingly new addition to the Spider-Society, a Spider-Man who looked to be bleeding out of his armpits.

"You didn't tell me that you recruited a new Spider-Man, Miguel."

"That's because I didn't. I had Jess bring him here because he disrupted a canon event in Earth-50101."

"Lemme guess, someone was supposed to die, and he saved them, right?"

"It would be for the sake of the multiverse-"

"So you say. Anyways," you turn to the new Spider-Man, "what's your name?"

"Miles. Miles Morales."

There was something about him that made him stand out from the millions of people you've seen across your life so far. Even though you've never touched divination magic, you could tell that Miles was destined for great things.

And you wanted to be there to experience those things.

"Something tells me that you and I are going to get along real well, Miles."

[illuminatedferret]

So I've been trying to do a bit of detective work regarding the origin of the "E-ming reopens wounds" translation. TL;DR I think it may have come from an early version of Suika's translation, and is likely a mistranslation.

Most translations I could find online (including Deep Dream translation group, several bootleg novel sites that have stolen Suika or Deep Dream's translations, and a couple of machine translations) have that passage in line with the official translation - that simply, E-ming is dangerous, forging it took a cruel ritual, and touching it would have terrible consequences.

I did however find a pdf containing the webnovel chapters 12-43, with the following:

precisely the excerpt I submitted before. At the top of this pdf is a note:

The link in this note leads to a 404 error, but is one that was shared around a lot before the Sevenseas' official release. I found a tumblr post from 2019 which identifies this link as Suika's (now deleted) translation.

https://web.archive.org/web/20200508224041/https://arahir.tumblr.com/post/188476102230/ok-im-an-anon-who-in-the-past-has-asked-you-how

So, it looks like this is a old document of Suika's, and I can only assume the "reopens wounds" thing was a mistranslation that Suika later corrected.

The TGCF epub I have on hand is an amalgamation of sakhyulations' (up to ch 23) and Suika's (ch 24 and beyond) fan translations. Well, it doesn't actually say it's using Suika's work, but, it does link the source of the ch 24+ translations, that being the above google drive link. I'm not sure who made the epub or when it was made, but they must have taken Suika's work before it had been properly edited.

IIRC this was an epub that was circulating tumblr a while back. I don't know how widespread the "reopens wounds" fanon is, but if it's popular on tumblr, I guess this explains why.

Sorry for such a long ask!! I think that covers almost everything I found. Oh, there was one single bootleg novel site that did have the passage:

"The wounds inflicted by the evil sword of E-Ming are all cursed. Even when the wound is healed, if Hua Cheng wants it, it will bleed once more." Jun Wu answered.

which is slightly different from the above passage from that pdf. But I couldn't find any real source for this translation, so I'm thinking it might just be based on the above passage, with words switched around to disguise the fact it's stolen.

wow!!!! don't apologize for the long ask, this is some awesome digging you did!!! thank you SO much for sharing all your hard work!!

E-ming reopening old wounds being a mistranslation of some sort does make more sense to me than anything else, just because it's so specific and yet the official translation makes no mention of it, but it being from one of Suika's earlier translations is interesting. I'm still curious what the original raws read like. I wonder, considering Xie Lian's arm injury doesn't heal without special medicine, if the raw says something about wounds being slow to heal or not closing, and that's where the mistranslation initially occurred.

'E-ming reopening wounds' isn't a fanon I see discussed much, but I've read more than one fic that uses the idea, and I've mentioned it to friends before in the past without anyone questioning it until recently. So, it coming from an old translation that was probably one of the initial ways people read TGCF makes a LOT of sense- people read it, internalized it, and stopped thinking about it when more accurate translations rolled around, while still keeping the idea in their head.

[logicpng]

my friend and i have started collaborating on an ukagaka!!! full disclosure, i might be in your inbox way too often. i only have two questions today:

do you have any tips for inexperienced ghosters?

and is there a specific way you'd recommend organizing ideas / information?

thank you!!!! still obsessed with aster they're so lovely

if you're going to be asking about ukagaka development, I strongly suggest joining the ukagaka dream team server instead of coming to me on here. there's people far more experienced with ukagaka development than I am who are also very forthcoming with information. don't feel overwhelmed by the amount of people on there, very few are actually active, but the ones that are have a lot of experience.

I'm there too so I'll be able to help you there personally as well if I can, but pls don't use me as your only source!!! I've only finished one ghost and made the shell for another

as for your questions:

"Do you have any tips for inexperienced ghosters?"

this ended up wordy but I feel like this is a necessary warning, especially if you're using the Girl and Triangle template

Right now the most comprehensive guide/template for ghost creation is the one on ashido.com. I've personally found a lot of use for it and it covers the process of ghost creation very well! The template is likewise full of helpful functions and commentary. Far as I'm aware this is what a lot of people use for their first ghost, so I have to presume you're using it as well.

But the template the guide provides has an unfortunate side effect, and since Aster was built with it, it also may have contributed to it: it can make an impression that ALL ghosts, including ones you make, have to be just as complex or full of features.

Despite the comments saying that you don't have to fill out/even have a function, you may feel like throwing away anything sacrifices the quality of your ghost, or you may feel that it won't be complete that way.

Please don't fall into that trap!!!! This is something I've experienced making Aster, though lucky for me, most features make sense for them, their character being a literal virtual assistant. Not all functions may be fitting for your character!

Most features within that template are Completely Optional, and all your ghost needs to be a good ghost is just creative random talk and a decent shell. This is why Aster's page suggests using Simplicity template as base, it's what I'm using to make Terror Star! So that I can gradually add any functions I may need for it, instead of having an entire shopping list of things I feel like I Have to fill in, even if it may Say I don't have to.

But I feel like the g&t template is still good for studying how to use some functions for shiori events, if you use any! Since the creation of that guide there's also been an entire page of shiori events translated. So once you have some grasp on how the events work, you can just use whatever you need from there. you can also study other ghosts to see how they do things instead!

There's a saying that most developers never finish their first ghost, and I feel like this is a pretty big part of the reason why! Ultimately keep the scope of your ghost small, it doesn't have to be nowhere near as big or daunting of a project as it may seem.

"is there any way you recommend organising ideas/information?"

I've personally used Google keep for a todo list and dialogue drafts while making aster, and rn I'm trying out Obsidian, but literally anything works as long as it works for you! some folk also use Google docs for their planning. don't be afraid of playing around with different software tbh

I genuinely wish you luck on y'all's journey, and if you have any questions, please ask them on the server instead! My experience may not be enough to help you!!

[pernillemagda]

Hey! if you'll have time any chance you can give a short translation to what she said?

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C3m9IxNqrrw/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Kvindelandsholdet (@kvindelandsholdet)

I just threw the danish version into google translate, so there might be a mistake to two. But just text me if there is something that doesn't make sense.

Training camp. It's been a while since you've been with the national team. What is it like to be back as part of the squad? It's great, it's boring to be away and sit at home in the living room and watch the national matches. You want to be here, so it's super nice to be here again.

You've tried it quite a few times now to join the training camp, this time it's 10 days, it won't be a bit boring for you. It's just another winter start-up that you've tried before? I didn't think it would be boring, I really like having a lot of training where we train in the way we want to play and we can develop it. We can also do that during matches, but sometimes it's nice to have training where we can go into details. I'm looking forward to that, and it's also great to be here in Marbella with sun and high temperatures

Is the weather better than Munich? Yes it is.

One thing is what happens on the field, but there is also everything outside. How do you pass the time when you're away now? You know what to do you've tried before? I sunbath. No I don't 😂 We relax, recover, have meetings, and enjoy ourselves. It goes a bit on the routine with meetings and such, and then enjoy a good cup of coffee in the sun.

There was also a puzzle of 1000 pieces, maybe more. Are you one of those who lay pieces on it? No, I'm not, I don't have the patience for that. I'm one of those people who come once in a while and place a piece and then I leave again

So do you put it right or wrong? I usually set it right. Quality over quantity

[theverumproject]

Character Name Origins Tag!

Thank you for the tag @moltenwrites

(Sorry I'm a little late, haven't really been here for a few days)

Luce Balton/Verum

The name Verum appeared first. Verum, who was called XVerum at first, was a superhero with spiritual powers. I call this Verum Proto-Verum 3. I wanted a name with a meaning. Those who know a little bit of Latin might have noticed that Verum means truth. Though today's Verum doesn't associate with that meaning anymore.

As I wanted to write her story, I needed a legal name for her too. Italian speaking people might recocnize that Luce is written like the word for light, that was intentional. Luce's name means light. At the beginning, I wanted something that fits together. Truth and light does.

Balton on the other hand is a last name that I made up. I don't doubt that some person in the world could be called Balton though.

Dethra

If anybody has read my story, you might know that Dethra was called Deathrage in the very beginning. Dethra's entire being was inspired by one track that I loved years ago. You see, there is this artist called The Enigma TNG (I was obsessed with their music when I was younger) and they made a track called Death Rage.

Bluctro

Bluctro's name is rather boring. His name is made of two words. Blue and Electro. Blue, because that's his primary color and electro because he is a robot. Still not the proudest of that name, but that's just what he's called.

Arushi Ghosh/Naitikmarana

Arushi had a different name at first; Naityu. But then I discovered a song that is called Naitu by the band Turmion Kätilöt. I got curious about the lyrics, because I understood one word in it that made me think it might be a sexual song. And I was right! The English title is fucked.

So I decided to change her name, because Naityu and Naitu look a little bit toooo similar.

I had to give her a new name. So I did the same thing again. I went to Google translate (bad TheVerumProject, baaad) and translated something like moral death into Sanskrit. Naitikmarana is the name I chose (I have no idea if it actually makes sense in Sanskrit).

Arushi Ghosh is a name I only came up with recently, like two or three months ago. I looked through a list of Indian names and eventually stumbled upon Arushi. The red sky in the early morning. But it apparently also means she who is non violent. What a perfect fit!

After that I went through a list of common Indian last names. Ghosh was the one I thought fit best, because of her childhood. Apparently it means cowherd. And Arushi grew up on a farm. Though she took mostly care of the sheep.

Zri’Kla

As of yet, Zri’Kla doesn't have any meaning, but I will come up with something in the future! Ever heard of glorb zorp? gleeby deeby? Yeah… Zri’Kla is basically something like that…

Tags: @creative-author @mrassassinscreedhimself + open tag!

My tag list

[alatismeni-theitsa]

So I just wanted to share this because I thought it was hilarious it happened.

So the PJO subreddit just made a post titled "Hot Takes? [general]" And I knew what I wanted to say after reading some of your posts about valid criticisms when it comes to the series.

So I made a comment basically "I think the series could've been better if it was set in Greece. Rereading the series as an adult and truth be told having their gods leave the country for America because it's "the new beacon of western civilization" feels like an insult towards Greece. It could've been interesting learning about a culture I'm noticing barely gets any attention in media except for their Ancient classical civilization and some tourist spots. But I understand why Riordan didn't do it because it can be terrifying setting your book in a culture you know barely anything about and have no connection to."

And guess which comment was the only one that got downvoted? XD

Whatever, as some plain bread American I stand by with what I said. I loved books as a kid set in other cultures and learning about new places. While I still loves the series (warts and all) I do wish it could've been used to teach American kids like me more about the amazing Greek culture.

(Also off topic, but I liked one of your posts about this and there are some things I'm confused by that Google is not answering for me. What's a Greek Theia? And what's a soi? Sorry, like I said Google is a pain and not helping me here. ;n;)

-🌟Anon

Anon, you're awesome! 💙 Thank you for standing up for us and what we (aka, many Greeks) have been saying for some time now. I bet the last part on RR not knowing anything on the culture and not having any connection to it felt like a burn to them but it's the (uncomfortable, for many fans) truth.

You stated your opinion respectfully and didn't trash the series, merely pointed something out. You may have just opened a few eyes and started some thoughts and discussions, and more people will realize your take has merit. I love your "plain bread American" approach, saying it like it is and letting the truth shine on its own.

Onto the words!

Theia directly translates to "(she) divine" or "(she) nurser" (if seen both, there's not a clear conclusion) and it's the word for aunt/auntie. The Spanish tia derives from it, in case you're familiar with the language. They're pronounced exactly the same, only theia has a "th" (as in "thorn"). Theitsa, as in my url, is a diminutive for aunty (-itsa suffix), also meaning "auntie", but in a more endearing way.

Soi means "the family/the clan/the bunch/the sort". It's a Turkish loanword. Examples of use that probably make sense in English: "The whole bunch came to town for her birthday" and "What sort of person is he, that he doesn't care about his fellow man?"

Hopefully this clears some things up 😁💙 But don't hesitate to ask more questions.

[wyllathepeach]

Ok, so my anxiety really did not allow me to get this out earlier lol. Anyway:

TS songs as Ducktales Characters, part III: Webby Vanderquack

(I would like to apologize beforehand for the poor redaction you're about to read, neither google translation nor my brain was having it)

If I had to explain Webby's character, I would sum it up with the concept of belonging. Having grown up isolated from the world, only with her granny, Webby needs connection with someone. She needs to belong or connect so much that she becomes obsessed with every detail of the life of the only person she knows, Uncle Scrooge, in the hopes she finds her place in the McDuck family. But, even when she starts to become family, she envies the triplets' relationship for she cannot be part of such intimate bond. She then clings to Lena, the only relationship she formed on her own.

Webby also gives the impression that her desire for an intimate relationship is the reason she supports Dewey despite not agreeing with keeping the investigation about Della hidden: it is something that unites them both in an exclusive way. It would also help her even more to be part of the family: if she gets to be just like Scrooge, then she MUST belong to his family. All for at the end being cruelly reminded that she'll never be family by blood, and, even if she was, family relationships are not unbreakable (speaking exclusively from her point of view at the end of Last Crash). This is why she needs to bring the family together at the end of season 1: she has done so much to form a relationship with the family, but if the family isn't together then she doesn't belong anywhere.

On a separate point, it is this sense of belonging that she has with the family that leads her to give so much importance to her friends and gives them her complete trust. It is friendship that allows her to have a family and therefore makes no difference between family ties and friendships. Hence her blind attachment to Lena.

Season 2, although Webby doesn't have an active role, is consistent with the former idea in Golden Armory: again she needs to prove herself as an equal to the new family member to feel validated. However, after Last Crash she is never again pushed away or questioned as family and her belonging is reinforced again and again, as seen in Found Lamp, where Uncle Scrooge trusts her with an essential part of the adventure, the same goes for Rumble for Ragnarok.

I don't remember much (and I don't have anywhere to rewatch the series at the moment) about her role in season 3 outside the plot twist that I so dislike (and that in my opinion ruins the message of found family and makes her entire development seem pointless), but I do remember that her fear of abandonment is consistent for Fight for Castle McDuck.

Anyway, all this to say that the Taylor Swift song that would be Webby's anthem, in my opinion, would be The Outside.

I've seen other people relate her to Seven or You're on your own, Kid, and although Seven agrees with the idea of longing childhood innocence once it's lost by the maturity that comes with experience (as seen in Harp of Mervana), the lyrics of The Outside expand the idea of loneliness and feeling like you don't belong anywhere, as well as learning to observe people to look for ways to connect. The song was written about going to school and meeting all these new people and realizing that you won't connect with them and will end up isolated, no matter how much you can offer to a friendship. Just as Webby would never be blood related to the Duck/McDuck family, even though she began to relate to them at the same time they reconnected and her fear of the family pushing her aside eventually.

"The Outside"

So how can I ever try to be better? Nobody ever lets me in. And I can still see you, this ain't the best view: on the outside, lookin' in. I've been a lot of lonely places; I've never been on the outside.

Thank you for reading. Next one should be Huey, but who knows what will come out of that (ゝω・)ﾉ

[morelikeravenbore]

🦋 Thanks to the cuties who have tagged me in this, I've loved reading everyone's answers!

How many works do you have on AO3? Uhh *checks* — nine. One long fic and a bunch of oneshots.

What's your total AO3 word count? 88k~ but about 76k~ belong to Villain (so far).

What fandoms do you write for? Hogwarts Legacy is the only fandom I write for, and Sebastian is really the only character I care to write about (HAHA sorry everyone else.)

Top five fics by kudos? I don't really pay attention to stats so:

1. How to Make a Villain

And then whatever the next top four are 🙃

Do you respond to comments? I TRY VERY HARD TO but sometimes it takes me a while (spoons/adhd-brain/burn-out etc). Like any writer, comments give me LIFE, but something I wasn't expecting to struggle with is the feeling that I don't really deserve them. Who knew writing fic would be a lesson in accepting kindness lol

What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Welp the only fics I've finished so far are my oneshots, and they all end with orgasms or romance so... 

What is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Here Comes The Sun: a cute little Sebaura proposal oneshot hehe 💍🌞

Do you get hate on fics? Not openly, lol. I do love it when people get mad about what my characters do though so pls don't hold back from yelling at them if the urge ever strikes you. 🍿🍿🍿

Do you write smut? I dabble every now and then, but to be honest it's not my favourite thing to write. Before writing for HL, I'd never written a sex scene in my life and I wanted to give it a go to challenge myself. Lately though, I haven't really had any smutty motivation. I'm definitely a romantic at heart and I LOVE writing about the playful side of romance: young love, cute banter, silliness, teasing, etc. Also bickering. Nom nom nom gimme all da arguments.

Craziest crossover? You and me bb :lip_bite:

Have you ever had a fic stolen? Nope! Does this really happen? Like, someone copies and pastes a whole-ass fic and calls it their own? 🧿🧿🧿

Have you ever had a fic translated? I've had requests to translate Villain into Russian, Polish and French, but I'd like to complete the story first.

Have you ever co-written a fic before? Does contributing crack fic ideas counts? Because 👀 yeah all the time lol 

All time favorite ship? Uhhh Sebastian and Aurélie HAHA. Otherwise, it's Allie and Noah foreverrrrr. (The movie version though, I've never actually read the book.)

💙 Honourable mentions go to Anne and Gilbert, and Emma and Mr Knightly. Dishonourable mention to Harry and Ginny, eurgh. 

What's a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? I only have enough spoons to write one long fic at a time, and I fully intend to finish Villain even if it kills me.

What are your writing strengths? Personally, I think my writers voice sounds distinctly me, which I'm very proud of.

Thoughts on dialogue in another language? OOH this is a great question since Aurélie is fluent in French and I don't speak a bloody word. Generally speaking, I prefer to write it like: 'I can't speak a word of French,' she said in French. 

Sometimes I'll use French if the meaning is clear to someone who doesn't speak the language, or if I can give strong enough context clues, ie:

'How nice,' Aurélie said eventually, her accent thick with French indignation. 'I can see you're both very passionnés about Quidditch.'

Sebastian froze, sensing danger.

'Uh — Passionate?'

'Oui. I did not realise you had to undress yourself to discuss tactique.' 

Or if the POV character can accurately guess the meaning, like this:

'You don't have giant spiders in France then, I take it?'

'Non pas du tout!'

He didn't need to know French to translate that as a vehement no. 

But I try to avoid using the actual written language as much as possible because nothing kills immersion faster than trying to read dialogue you can't understand.

Also I frequently annoy my French friends for translations because uhh if I used Google Translate they'd probably guillotine me hehe.

First fandom you wrote in? This one.

Favorite fic you've written? How to Make a Villain is absolutely my greatest writing achievement ever hahaha. But aside from that, I'm really proud of Noctilucent because my goal was to write something suggestive without making it smutty and I was quite pleased with the outcome.

🦋 np tags for my writer babes and anyone else who wants to join in: @galaxiasgreen @lyworth @sloanesallow @sunsetplums @gingerlegacy07

[iapetusneume]

Director's Cut: Dualitas Hastarum

Oh dear.

So, when I write something, I will (on average) have 0 - 2 people look at it before I post. For 40k stuff, pretty much everything I write Lieara sees before I post it. Sometimes I grab a beta, sometimes I don't.

This time, I had 4 people look at the Google Doc at various points. This doesn't include the questions I asked in the Discord Server. One could argue that with other people's help, that number goes up to 7 or 8. I don't remember the last time I've needed so much assistance.

Dualitas Hastarum

Sanguinius had cautioned Guilliman and the Lion that his change would be soon. Shapeshifting was peculiar like that. He'd once described the sense of the change as if an old human could feel the drop of barometric pressure in their joints. “Its not painful,” he had clarified, “but there is the sense that it is time. I can feel it. The change is needed, and will happen.” “Do you know what form you'll take?” the Lion had asked. Sanguinius chuckled, and shook his head. “Not specifically. Sometimes I have no clue. Sometimes, I have an idea.” When he had told them the change would happen soon, his smile was full of secrets. Sanguinius had an idea, and he kept it close to his chest. (Alternatively, Sanguinius can change his hair color and eye color. What if he could change more than that?)

I don't think it's something many would expect, either, that this fic was very difficult to write. I wanted it to be sweet, sexy, and simple. I didn't want a lot of "extra" plot. I wanted the reader to feel the love and trust between the three of them.

And yet.

This is the first piece of smut that I've posted anywhere that involves a vagina. I have an unfinished scene for a longer work, and I've RPed it plenty. When i realized this was where a lot of my anxiety was coming from, it made sense, but was also hopelessly frustrating.

Then my anxiety shifted to the actual logistics. As in, word choices. I have a lot more experience writing about cocks than I do vaginas, and I found myself getting hung up on words. So much of writing smut is "what feels right," which is so hard to do when the words escape me. I frequently found myself having a name for a body part but just not liking it at all in the prose. When I write, I try not to let word choices slow me down. I will put an approximation in &ALLCAPS, and then highlight it in yellow so I can't miss it. And well, this fic was littered with them before I started doing my editing.

There's also a phenomena with a lot of fic writers who have vaginas often struggling with writing about them. Something about it being too personal. I certainly felt that here, and then me struggling with the language that I feel like I really should know was rough.

I made a distinct decision to not change Sanguinius' pronouns in this story. I see him as being nonbinary/genderfluid, but more like... he doesn't really care about what pronouns are used? Or, alternatively, the pronoun he prefers to use is something specific to Aenokhian that doesn't translate into Low Gothic. I also see him using male pronouns in Low Gothic because of partial anxiety when dealing with Big E since he said he had sons. And Sanguinius has battles to fight and he doesn't care enough about this one to put up a fight. He has other things he's worried about.

But that's angsty. And even a more positive spin on gender presentation would start to make this fic feel heavy, and that's not what I wanted. And while I'd love to explore Sanguinius' gender expression and identity, that's not what I wanted for this story.

I kept running into these hurdles, in terms of angst. This is set during Imperium Secundus, which is already prone to angst, since it's during the Heresy. I wanted to make a reference about Sanguinius learning how to shapeshift from Magnus, but no, can't do that. That would bring up a traitor brother and at best it would be bittersweet. Same problem with Horus, whom Sanguinius has definitely fucked in this form. I'd even considered making an offhand remark that Sanguinius had fucked Jaghatai like this, but at this point in time the three of them do not know that Jaghatai is still alive.

I am a fan of angst, but that's not the goal of this story.

I was also running into a lot of moments where I was using gendered language. At first I was beating myself up over it, but then I just had to accept that it would be something I fixed in a later draft. This is not a Rule 63 fic. This is not a fic where Sanguinius is binary trans. I struggled with the tags on this for this reason as well, because I know how much it bothers a lot of people to see fic/art tagged as "female" because the person in questions has boobs and a vagina. Luckily Ao3 has a ton of variety of tags, and I think I was able to get around that hurdle.

I know my writing won't be for everyone, but I want to be respectful of this in my work. I also want to do it in a way that doesn't feel like an After School Special.

I also didn't want to get too deep into Guilliman or Lion's sexual identities in this. I HC that Lion is demisexual, and Guilliman is either bisexual or pansexual. They both don't have experience with tits and pussy because Lion just never felt very strongly about anyone who had them, and Guilliman was concerned about hurting his partner.

Due to a lot of reasons, I feel like I break out in hives whenever someone is terribly naive about sex in fic. It's often done for laughs, and I don't find anything funny about it. This is something else that's a bit personal and I won't get into here, but I was determined for Lion and Guilliman to not come off like that. What to do, then? I thought using the surprise and wonder angle was a good way around that. They're excited, and no they don't know what to do, but they're going to figure it out.

When they're looking at Sanguinius in this form, they are attracted to him for different reasons. Lion just sees Sanguinius, the person whom he loves so much, and his form is different. So what? And Guilliman sees Sanguinius in a different body, but this is another body that he finds attractive. Guilliman has yet to find a form of his he didn't like.

They love each other, they respect each other, they have fun. Sanguinius feels comfortable enough around Guilliman and Lion to show that he likes a wide variety of bodies, and Guilliman and Lion love Sanguinius no matter what body he decides to wear. It's sweet, it's cute, it makes me go "awwwwwww."

And I realize that I never got around to my idea about Lion reading romance novels in this, but I feel like that deserves a different post.

[elektrischemaidchen]

Lisztober #9: Blind Grief

“Hey, good news, Drosselmeyer has made an 11 minute long weird ballad about Liszt.”

“Oh, COME ON!”

@franzliszt-official : We have TWO songs for you today.

One, from a noble spirit with a sense of beauty, the other is a roast, written by a Maiden without a heart, frivolous and wicked. There's a nice German expression, decribing the latter: What does it matter to the proud oak tree if the bristling cattle rub against it? ;)  I laughed my ass off anyway. For real. Chapeau.

Here we go: A Liszt-(Aleksey Konstantinovich, not Leo) Tolstoy-Ballad! (No translation, this time. Really, that’s too difficult for me and would destroy the beautiful spirit of it. I didn’t find an English translation either, but here’s a link to the whole poem, maybe you will be able to translate the site via Google)

See, even tumblr itself hates it:

If there's one unwritten rule in the Maidchen Fight Club, it's: no song without a twist or a joke. I've already broken this credo 4 times this week alone, mea culpa, I accept my punishment ;)

Enjoy this lovely pasquil, a nasty tribute to our single „Zeitmaschine“:

(So baby, take a time machine now and fly away for a month / You cheeky little bee Stay in the past / until Franz finally crowns you with a laurel wreath She bangs Franz Liszt, Oh yes Oh yes But he doesn’t  hear her plea She bangs Franz Liszt, oh yes We know You have studied/ now give it a rest otherwise our listeners will be all gone in a flash We have to save our honor now And jet to the next destination... Which is not Franz Liszt, oh no oh no Not even as a young gentleman Nor from eighteen-thirty or how old he would have gotten

Franz looks at her and says Praise to my listeners! Leave me here with thanks and we'll leave very quickly She bangs Franz Liszt! And I also greet those who have not heard my song. May only salvation befall them! Long may the prince reign happy and honored! May the people be granted a carefree life And peace to the noble boyars!” [I don't even know what boyars are, Bro])

And now for my defense of the “most boring piece of Maidchen history ever written”, with the “ROFL speech filter” that you “hoped someone would get to the point at minute 5 and would just take pity on the guy and slap him, but then the bullshit went on for another 6 minutes” and whose “last verse is so ironically abt that you could have put it at the very beginning”:

1 The text is not mine, it's Count Tolstoy's. Liszt himself set it to music autobiographically in 1875. And hardly anyone knows it. A pity. This time the song is not based on his notes. More on that below. You can skip it ;)

2 There is no poem that could appeal more to musicians. Because the blind singer is also you, my friend. At least sometimes. Not even our friends and fellow musicians hear this, so why should boyars?

3 I find the poem heartbreaking-beautiful and so sad that I actually shed a tear. I'm a sentimental bitch. Go ahead and laugh!

4 Any shortening would have ruined the story. Especially if it had been cut down to “two verses”. Philistines.

5 The filter is really cringeworthy. Sorry. The time pressure, the time pressure.

6 As for the boyars: Google is your friend, „Bro“

Now to Liszt himself:

I originally wanted to write something about Daniel and Blandine. But that didn't really seem appropriate.

When Franz set “The Blind Singer” by Count Tolstoy to music, he probably didn't know that his eye condition would get worse and worse six years later. Oh, the irony. :( But the text must have spoken to him differently: It also reflects his entire musical life with such bitter sweetness that I was truly awestruck. He, the blind singer, originally called to entertain the nobles at dinner; he, who makes the most beautiful unearthly sounds, doesn't realize that no one is listening to him. And just carries on. Even when he finally realizes that nobody is around anymore, This.

It's a bit like in this place, you see ;)

[harukamitsuki]

i really resonate with your opinions about lance and the fandom surrounding him, but you really kill it any time you say some shit like "i wonder if people would treat him the same if he was white"

they 100% would. this is tumblr, bro. most blorbos are white. just look at the previous main three shows, superwholock. lance being cuban has nothing to do with him being treated the way fandom treats him. he is just, like you said, an everyday man who's easy to project on.

another critique i personally have of voltron is that while everyone's skin tone and background is varied, they all have always felt white to me. they have no cultural identity in the show. was hunk's samoan background ever even named or did we just get that from a book or a tweet? i feel like viewers shouldn't have to use outside material to complete the story in front of them.

the fact that we never got that in the actual writing of the show really pissed me off. and this is as someone who's latino. lance has always felt incredibly white to me because the writers spent no fucking time adding any cultural elements into is character. even if he was a no sabo kid incredibly distant from his culture due to growing up at a boarding school, that would still be something. idk if we ever got anything about him being cuban in the show.

part of the writer's inability to write complex characters is also their inability to write poc.

i think this is also why lance works as an everyday man.

my point is that lance would still be very loved if he was white. he's not getting any extra love bc he's cuban. honestly, i feel like his cuban identity just means fanfic writers get to use google translate for shitty spanish lines that make no sense for the story and to occasionally fetishize him. they put no actual effort into understanding his cuban background. and why would they? the writers of voltron never bothered to.

Yeah, no, I get that. Lance is very white, but because his skin isn't and he's canonically Cuban, people tend to forget that? Luz from the Owl House is 100% latina and it feels like she is. Because she speaks spanish and her mother speaks spanish to her. It doesn't have to be in-your-face, but it would have been nice to hear the POC characters mumble their home language under their breaths, or to speak idioms the other don't know because it's not a universal thing.

For example, everyone knows 'don't bite off more than you can chew', but it's 'the one that embrace a lot, cannot keep it together'. They mean the same thing, but it would have been nice for Lance to just come out with that and everyone is confused until he explains.

Or Hunk calling his parents 'tina' and 'tama', meaning mom and dad respectively. It would have been nice if he made dishes inspired by Samoan culture, such as koko alaisa, or something.

If there was just one scene where one of them struggled to find a word in English, I would have been a lot more convinced that they're POC. Just one scene where someone is all 'oh, what was the word. you know? that thing! the thing, you know!'. Just one short scene.

Or, like, a culture clash? As in, they compare something on an alien planet with something common in their homeland and the others are just like 'what? That isn't normal.' And it just delves into a conversation about what is normal in the US but weird in their home countries.

There's just so much that Voltron could have done, but it doesn't which is a massive shame.

[momo-wants-siesta]

SAMURAI OF HYUGA -BOOK 1- [REVIEW]

I did not originally intend to read this IF. But by popular demand I have been pressured to write this review.

Apparently it's the story of a "samurai" who lives on an island called "Hyuga" which is literally Japan, but I guess giving it a random Japanese name was cooler. More original.

This IF is divided into different books, and the adventures of this "samurai" and his companions will be told. Let's get down to business.

CHAPTER 1

Well. Let's see what this brutal interactive heart-pounding interactive tale is about.

The text of the Chapter 1 (Along with the Kanji) basically reveals to us that the author doesn't know Japanese and basically used a kanji dictionary.

As a tip, Japanese translation doesn't conserve plurals, So instead of "Sake with the Oyamas" it should be "Sake with the Oyama" and probably specificy it's a group or family. But I digress.

Steamed dumplings, nice. It's good that we start a japanese setting with a dish that is from Chinese origin (Nikuman in Japanese, Baozi in Chinese) and probably wasn't introduced until later.

I'm starting to have my doubts about the MC being a samurai, given how the dude seems to love to mix themselves with "Bakuto" people that were basically part of the modern "yakuza" today.

So for some reason we are stuck with a "spoiled kid"

Next scene. Someone getting close to a "samurai" and asking for a favor. Yeah, that was totally normal back then.

But it get's funnier when the title of the game is "samurai of Hyuga" but the two options are basically saying "I'm not a samurai". I don't understand what the author did there.

Okay. So this MC that has been living on the slums, suddenly know all about nobility and "royals". Its funny using "royals". It's good to know that the author doesn't seem to have studied Japanese history. Mostly how the correct term would either be "nobles" or "clanmen" or "imperials".

MC: *Says they are not a samurai* Random dude/woman: Master samuraaaai

I'm starting to feel like the author has been under the influence of sustances while writing this. Since the lack of consistency is apalling.

I don't want to make this review too long. But I really need to ask. Why two nobles are trying to make an alliance marriage, in a fucking Inn. And not in their houses. That doesn't make any sense. And then "let's ask this random no life to pose with us". I think that the author believe the Japanese to be stupid, or have watched too much mainstream brainless anime.

The "how the bride looks" options seems to have been written by the horniest individual to have ever existed for Google play standards of non lewdity.

I feel like I need to stop and point this. Why is the groom wearing a Kamon? Why do they need a samurai if they are samurai?

I think the author needs to understand what a samurai was. Because I think they are confused and believed all the nobility to be samurai. And that's a grave error. That's not how it worked. Nobility didn't need to be samurai. And some samurai weren't even nobility. Samurai was a social class on it's own.

I don't understand why they didn't ask the MC name. What kind of way to refer to someone is "Samurai-san" is like someone comes to you, if you are barista, even if you have your name in the tag, and go "Mister Bartender, nice to meet you".

Japanese are polite. They would ask the name. We entered full weebish anime paradise and we are only on chapter 1.

Not to say, this marriage would never happen, in those guys were not part of the nobility. Unlike in Europe were the burgesy could buy titles and marry into nobility, in Japan that was socially forbidden. And blood was really important, to the point of eugenics.

The day i find a "japan" IF that has been written by someone who did actual research instead of watching anime, will be the day I plant a tree or something.

But what is bothering me the most, is how the MC is all knowing. Not only we cannot decide on their personality (even tought there are a lot of useless stats) but the guy is basically a Gary Sue. He knows everything. He looks at you, and he knows your tragic backstory already. There's some fucked up powerfantasy there already. And it still kills me how I haven't been able to customize anything yet. I'm playing with a MC that I don't even know the game. Its fucking awesome. /s

I love how threating each other in the middle of an Inn it's great. Or how for some fucking reason, the author believe that your typical western bar fights would happen in Japan.

Fuck's sake. This author needs help. That our a japanese history book in the head, to gain some brain cells.

.......I'm going to kill someone.

So some guys appear with what I supposed it's irezumi, or the ancient version of it.

MC: they are not criminals.

Me: THEN WHAT THEY HAVE TATTOS.

Just you guys know, back in the day the "yakuza" didn't exist yet. And Irezumi exist, because back in that day criminals were tattoed, as a way to mark them. So irezumi started as a way to hide those markings.

Why would the author write something called "Samurai of Hyuga" which is clearly Japan themed, but then refuse to do even the most minimal research? I'm baffled.

So suddenly we are at "Yamato" but the game calls the place "Hyuga" then the MC goes I'm from "genfu". Someone seriously need to decide on a name, or make a fucking map.

Good Lord, this is hard.

"Wish I had an escort of Ninjas" yea because Shinobi totally escorted people. FUCK.

"That was low even for a shinobi". What the fuck is this. Shinobi were not considered dishonorable, basically because they didn't have to follow the bushido.

AUTHOR, IF YOU ARE READING THIS, ONLY THE SAMURAI WERE FORCED TO FOLLOW THE BUSHIDO. NO ONE ELSE.

Stop calling him samurai-san after hearing his fucking name. ITS FUCKING OFFENSIVE. WHY ARE YOU OFFENDING PEOPLE, TOSHIO.

Okay. I need to make this stop. So for fucking reason, to keep going I need to kill a Carp. Because fuck yeah. If I don't want to? I better quit the game.

It's good to know that the Author is complete psycho who is into stupid edgy protagonist.

Why is this even an IF? Where are the options? Why I'm still playing?

I'm gonna skip for a while to make a more compact review, because if I have to stop at every fucked up part...

So super random fight where we get more male powerfantasy. Then it's me or it's the Masashi kid a RO? Because that basically child that acts like a child. So now the author is a fucking pedo too? What's next? The guy is into lolis?

AAAAAAAND I CAN'T KEEP DOING THIS.

PRECOCIOUS FINAL TOUGHTS

How the fuck was I ever convinced to read this?

This is not even an IF. There's not even real choices. Like, the MC is totally 100% set on stone. And this is pure anime weebish trash.

This is one of the most questionable tales I read in a while. I don't event wanna now about the other ROs. This bad, this is horrible. This is something who jack up to lolis and decided to make a fucking work out of their personal waifu fantasies.

What the fuck is this. Seriously. The worse part is how people actually bought this, and how there are so many books. Unless it suddenly improves.

I been deeply disgusted and I don't even want to hear about this work ever again in my whole life.