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terubakudan · 3 years ago

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This may be an old article from 3 years ago, but these cultural aspects/observations still apply even today. And though this is strictly a Chinese perspective, a lot of these everyday life bits are observed in Overseas Chinese communities in countries such as The Philippines, Malaysia, Indonesia, etc. as well as countries heavily influenced by Chinese culture like Taiwan, Japan, and Korea.

I've always liked learning about other cultures and making comparisons between how things are done East vs West. Which probably stems from growing up with two cultures and Mom raising me on American movies xD

So the irony is if you asked me how many Chinese, Taiwanese, or Hong Kong actors I know, chances are I know as much as you do xD Like Jackie Chan, Andy Lau, and that's about it. But if you asked me about Western (specifically American and British) actors, then I have a useless brain dump of movie trivia and who was with who in what movie xD

Hmmm, both Taiwan and the Philippines are two distinct cultures but both look up to a certain country and are fascinated by that. In Taiwan's case, Japan and the US for the Philippines. In both cases, this is due to being under the rule of those countries in their history. Taiwan being under Japan for 50 years, and the Philippines being under Spain for 300+ years, followed by periods of American and Japanese rule. To put it simply though:

Taiwan is "mini-Japan with a very Chinese culture".

The Philippines is "former colony of Spain with lots of American influences".

But unlike the author, I've never set foot in any Western country, so my understandings are strictly what I've observed in media, which while it can be accurate, doesn't compare to actually experiencing the culture.

Some further elaboration on most points:

#1 We quite literally use chopsticks for everything. We use it to pick rice, viands, vegetables, fruit, smaller desserts, almost all the food you can think of.

But where do you put your chopsticks when you're not using them? Just put them on top of your bowl or flat on your plate. But do not ever stick them vertically. It's taboo, since it looks like incense sticks, which we use to pray for those who have passed, like our ancestors or during funerary services.

#3 The majority of Asia is obsessed with fair/white skin. In my time at the Philippines, I grew up watching all these Dove Whitening commercials and my classmates often commented on how fair my skin was, how they envied it etc. In Taiwan, girls often say they don't want to 變黑 (biàn hēi) 'become dark'. Japan and Korea too are not innocent of this either (if their beauty/skin products weren't a dead giveaway).

People here at Taiwan often mistake me for being from Hong Kong or Japan (as long as I don't speak Mandarin with my heavy accent xD). A Taiwanese classmate of mine joked that she often gets mistaken for being from Southeast Asia due to having a darker complexion. And while I laughed it off with her at that time, looking back, I now realize she was lowkey being racist. xD

And believe me Filipinas have mentioned literally being told 'your skin is so dark' here in Taiwan, or being given backhanded compliments like 'you're pretty despite having dark skin' and...*facepalms*

My point is, beauty is not exclusive to skin color. People who still think that are assholes.

#5 Not to say we don't have salt and pepper, but yes soy sauce and vinegar are the classic condiments you see on the table, be it at home or at a restaurant.

And if I may add, Taiwanese love their pepper. xD If you ever get to eat at a night market or a smaller "Mom n' Pop-style" restaurant here, some dishes/soups tend to add quite an excessive amount of pepper. Not like anthills, but quite liberally and way more than average. Enough that you see traces of pepper at the bottom of the food paper bag or swirling in your soup. xD

#6 I know this all too well from personal experience. In my years of studying at Taiwan, I always had roommates. 3 in my first school (I graduated high school in the Philippines pre K-12 so I had to make up 2 years of Senior High), followed by 2 in college, with the exception of 1 in freshman year.

My college did offer single person dorms but at around 9000 NTD ($324) per month compared to around 6000 NTD ($216) per semester. Because I wanted to save, the choice was obvious for me xD. But ah, this doesn't mean I don't value personal space, in fact I love having the room to myself, and since both my roomies would go home to their families every weekend, weekends were bliss for me xD

And you don't have to be friends with your roommates (that's an added bonus however), you just have to get along with them. I was quite lucky to have really great roommates all throughout my schooling years.

#9 In the Philippines, we do. Owing mostly to American influences and maybe being predominantly Catholic? xD

#10 *sigh* Chinese parents and parents from similar Asian cultures tend to put too much emphasis on grades, so much that kids could get sent to cram school as early as elementary. This is because what school you get into could literally affect your future job opportunities, and while that's not exclusive to any particular country/culture, I feel it's especially pronounced here in Asia. I'm really lucky my own parents weren't that strict about it. However, if your parents don't point the mistakes out to you, chances are you'll do it yourself, if you're an Asian kid like me anyway. xD It just becomes a habit.

#11 My family is an exception to this. xD We do say 'I love you' directly, but complete with the 'ah eat well ok?', 'don't scrimp on food', 'sleep well' and similar indirect words/actions of affection. We were doing 'Conceal, Don't Feel' before it became popular. xD

#13 I'm kind of confused about this but this has sort have changed over the years in which eye-contact is now more encouraged. But don't stare, especially at elders and authority figures. Sometimes it's just shyness though. xD And I've observed this with my own Taiwanese friend, especially when I'm complaining or ranting to her about something. xD I'm a person who likes to express my opinions strongly, which tends to scare/alienate some of the locals here, as doing so is kind of frowned upon. Thankfully, she does listen and offers her take on things.

#14 Ah this. xD In the Philippines, this is a common greeting known as beso-beso, and I freaked out too when an auntie did that to me. xD Needless to say, Mom lectured me later on what that was. ^^"

#16 Along with #3 another crazy beauty standard. In my view, people always look better with a little meat on them and when they're not horribly thin. Asia still has a loonng way to go with accepting different types of bodies if you ask me. This combined with modern beauty standards has made the pressure for women especially to 'look beautiful' higher than ever.

I know many people love them but please, starving yourself or glorifying eating disorders is never OK just to get this kind of 'ideal' body. I'm not part of the Kpop fandom, but even I think when idols get bullied just for gaining the least bit of weight among other insensitive comments, that's really going too far.

#17 'If you want to make friends, go eat.' <- I couldn't agree more. In the Philippines we have a greeting: 'Kumain ka na ba?' (Have you eaten?) . Similarly in Taiwan, we have 吃飯了沒? (chī fàn le méi), both of these can mean that in the literal sense but are often used as greetings instead. By then which invitation to having lunch/dinner together may or may not follow. Food really is a way for us to socialize and to catch up with what's going on in each other's lives. Not to say we don't have regular outings like going out to the mall, going shopping, etc. but eating together is a huge part of our culture, be it with family or friends.

And while I'm at it, some memes that are way too accurate good to pass up xD

Parents, uncles, aunties alike will fight over the bill xD

Alternatively:

You just space out until your name is called xD

My parents are guilty of the last one. Logic how? xD

#18 True. xD I like giving compliments out to people but I have a hard time accepting them myself, though I've learnt how to accept them much more now than before. We're kind of raised to constantly downplay ourselves so we often say things like 'ah no no' or 'I'm really not that good'. The downside of this of course is that it can come off as somewhat fake. xD

Again from personal experience, that same classmate who made the lowkey racist remark, she was good, she was on the debate team, was a honor student, knew how to mingle with people, but she downplayed herself way too much, while praising me but I honestly thought that she never really meant it from how she treated me. She wanted to keep me around her yet make backhanded compliments at me and she didn't want me socializing with my other classmate who is now my friend. *sigh* It was only after discussing this with one of my roomies did I realize how this 'excessive downplaying' might come off to people like me who more or less grew up with a more 'Westernized' mindset. I'm not saying brag about your achievements but don't be overly humble about them either, which can also be a turn off.

#20 We do tend to be a lot more realistic on how we view things, neither entirely optimistic nor pessimistic. We try to think of things practically and often analyze things on pure logic. A downside of this however, is that Chinese people can be overly practical. Taiwanese for instance don't like to 'find inconveniences' and generally keep to themselves, meaning, they won't help you in your hour of need even when they do have the capabilities. Sounds really harsh I know, but in my 6 years of living in Taiwan, while this doesn't apply to all the people, a lot of them really do only find/talk to you when they need something.

So for some people saying Taiwanese are 'friendly', that's BS xD If you ask me, Filipinos are infinitely more friendly, and again while not all, generally make more of an effort to help you when you need it. I really felt more of a real sense of community during my years growing up in the Philippines compared to Taiwan.

#21 Children do tend to stay with their parents well into college and adulthood, since Chinese families are indeed very family-oriented, in a lot of cases, grandparents often live under the same roof as us as well! And it really does save a lot of money. I see there's a real stigma in the US when it comes to "living with your parents", but that's starting to change especially because of Covid and having more and more people move back in with their parents.

Housing unfortunately is pretty much hella expensive no matter where you go, and Taiwan is no exception. Steep housing prices and the very high cost of raising a child (schooling + buxiban fees, etc.) contribute to a very low birth rate and thus an aging population like Japan. It's not uncommon to see both parents working in Taiwan.

#23 I'm an overthinker myself, but I totally agree with the author that the best is to strike a good balance between these two. Which I guess is why I love drawing or any other related creative attempts, it helps me be more spontaneous or well, creative! I like to remain intellectually or artistically inspired.

#24 Is French high school really like that? xD My friend did watch SKAM France and more or less got a culture shock from what was depicted on the show. I can confirm however that most high schools both in the Philippines and Taiwan require students to wear a uniform, only in college is everybody free to wear casual/civilian clothes.

#26 Ah this is part of our Asian gift-giving etiquette xD We always open gifts later after the event/meeting and in private. Never open them in front of the person who gave it to you or in front of others. This is to prevent any 'shame/embarrassment' that may result both to yourself and to the gift giver. I know this may come off as something weird since some people may want a more honest response or immediate feedback when it comes to gift-giving, but that's just how it is in our culture. You're always free to ask us though (in private) if we liked the gift or not ^^"

#28 I want to say the same goes to drinking, partying, and drugs however xD Those are things which are still frowned upon in our culture. And to be honest, whenever I see those in movies, it does kind of turn me off xD It doesn't mean that we're "uncool" or "boring", we just think that there are much better or healthier ways of "having fun".

#31 Is this true in France?! Man I would kind of prefer that instead of people being on their phones all the time xD This kind of goes with #20 in that Chinese are overly practical or logical, and don't read fiction as much as nonfiction. My Taiwanese friend is an exception though, she's a bibliophile who loves the feel of paper books compared to e-books, and it's a trait of her that I like a lot. Both the Philippines and Taiwan however have a huge fanbase when it comes to manga and anime though.

I'm all for reading outside of "designated reading" at schools especially. Reading fiction improves your vocabulary too, and can be quite fun! It helps you imagine and really invest in a world/story, and if you ask me something that I feel Westerners are better at, they're more in touch with their emotions and creativity, and are thus much more able to write compelling or original stories. Believe me, I've seen a fair amount of Chinese movies that rip off Western movie plotlines xD

#33 Nothing much to add on here..except that since I'm a "weird" person, Mom often jokes that she got the wrong baby from the hospital. xD

#35 True. While I agree with the care and concern that your fellow community can give you, the downside of this is we tend to only hang out with our own people, e.g Chinese with Chinese, Taiwanese with Taiwanese, etc. I've seen too that it's especially hard to make friends in Japan and Korea as a foreigner. Not only is there the language barrier, but the differences in culture too. In a way, Asians can be pretty close-minded on getting to know other cultures or actually making friends with people from other countries. I know this all too well being half-Taiwanese/half-Filipino, being neither "Filipino" enough nor "Taiwanese" enough. xD It's more of people here being too used to what they're comfortable with.

#36 Oh this is something I feel that Chinese students and other students from similar cultures should really improve on. xD How will people respect you if you don't speak your mind?

I felt bad especially for my Spanish teacher in college, granted it was an introductory course (Spanish I and II) but the amount of times that our teacher had to prompt a student to recite/speak even with clear hints already made her (and me too) extremely frustrated. The thing is, these are college students, I personally feel they don't have any reason to be so shy of speaking and technically by not doing so they're slowing the pace of the class too much and a lot of time is wasted.

Unfortunately you can't always be very vocal with your thoughts and opinions in most Asian cultures. I would say strive for that, but at the same time, play your cards well, especially if you're in a workplace setting.

If you made it to the end, thank you for reading and here's a cookie! 🍪 I'm not perfect and there's bound to be something I missed so please let me know if you spotted anything wrong. Feedback/questions are very much welcome and please feel free to share about your country/culture's differences or similarities!

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festivecuriosity · 4 years ago

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[October 13, 2020]

♡ Mercury retrograde in Scorpio is happening tonight. I can already feel/see it's influence. It also doesn't help matters that my current household is primarily made up of Scorpios or Plutonian individuals (most of my roommates are "essential workers" like EMTs or caretakers). Brad (the most Scorpio of the house) has called for a rare consideration; that there be silence in the living room (communal space) when he comes home. He's never asked for that before. This feels very symbolic of Mercury Retrograde in Scorpio. A moment of silence in our otherwise very talkative household. Besides that, he's coming home right around the time MRX/Scorpio would be officially beginning.

♤ Identifying omens is part of my practice. It's one of my oldest, foundational, cornerstones of how I communicate with the Universe and my guides. When you notice something (really notice it) to the point that it stands out in your mind and you end up thinking on it all day, it is an "omen". A symbolic representation of the message the Universe is sending you. I was given an omen by the Universe yesterday as to the immediate future/Mercury RX in Scorpio. I was outside (smoking) when I saw a hawk soaring in the air, being pursued by two black crows, and navigating around their assaults. The hawk (personally) represents my spiritual vision/focus/accuracy. The two crows, I believe, represented thoughts that attack my focus. I.e. Huginn and Muninn, thought and memory. Although, Huginn and Muninn are technically ravens. Not crows. I still think the message from the Universe is to tame my PTSD/where my mind goes/stay focused on my goals instead of letting my negative thoughts pick at me.

Also kind of reminds me of the qliphothic sphere/inverted sphere of Netzach. Where the "crows" pick at the beauty of Source. Another reminder to keep my inner criticism from attacking my spiritual focus/my ability to see the beauty in my life and self.

Two other people in the household got omens on the same day as me. One person got a vulture eating roadkill on the side of the road, the other got a brown cricket. Since the vulture means rebirth and ressurection through shadow work, I think the household is going through a transitional phase (what affects one person in the house typically touches all of us). I am not certain on the brown cricket, however. Good luck? What struck me the most about it was that my roommate was trying to catch it...and it always knew when to hop away just in the nick of time.

♧ I've been rearranging/unpacking my boxes from Seattle finally. For a long time now, I've just been living out of boxes, and refusing to do much magic. I didn't even set up my altar when I got all my stuff back from [Redacted abuser]. It's taken awhile to even get myself back to directly communicating with my guides...much less the Universe/Source. Anyways, I'm finally going through my boxes, and setting up an official altar area. When I was getting into my old rock and crystal collection (I was into that stuff way back before I realized how harmful the crystal/gemstone trend is for Earth's environment), I found an old piece of Mookaite that I friend gave me. And I shit you not, the thing physically vibrated in my hand when I touched it.

I've been holding it ever since. Have totally and honestly forgotten all the exact properties of the stones I own. It's been such a long time. I was also practicing "crystal/crystal energy psychicism" when I was homeless as a means to survive the streets so...I'm pretty sure my PTSD is blocking a lot of that information out.

I guess it's time to rediscover crystals again? Not buying any new ones. Just utilizing the ones I already have to the best of my ability. I feel like it was wrong that so many of them were taken from the ground to be pretty baubles for people. I might as well make it worth something by using them to help myself/others/incorporate them into my active life so they hold meaning.

Mookaite feels very grounding and soothing already. It feels like a very receptive stone, inviting energy into it much like organic pearls do. I also notice that it has almost a dream/trance-like affect to it's grounding energy. I think maybe I'll take time to meditate with it tomorrow.

◇ Brad pretty much runs the household that I live in. Further details; I live in a BDSM polycule, Brad is one of the doms. One of Brad's relationships was very close to being homeless recently. While normally, being homeless is... [redacted PTSD disassociating moment] being non-binary and homeless during COVID-19 is even worse. So we took them in. Inevitably, we had to make some major adjustments (about space, because technically we're fitting 9 people in a 2 bedroom house). It's been a test of adaptability through chaos for everyone. One of the major areas of contention is that everything inside the house is getting moved, rearranged, or tossed. And some people (mainly [redacted name]) is absolutely 100% terrible at adapting to change, unless someone is literally dying. Also, while I get that none of this can really be helped, I'm also a bit annoyed by the sudden introduction of someone new.

But even if I'm annoyed by it, I wasn't about to say "no" when Brad told us what was going on. I'm not a monster. I was homeless too and Brad helped me get off the streets. This person, while I don't know them well enough to make a judgement, deserves the same chance that I did to get stable in an era where stability is a pipe dream.

I'm actually not the one having the hardest problem. Surprising, it's the spirit of the house that's having the hardest problem. Our house is an old 1950's model built at the corner of a crossroads. Technically the house kinda exists as a liminal space. And there's so much stuffed inside of it that theoretically anything *could exist* in the house. Sometimes weird shit pops up and then disappears. It's very similar to the Seattle house I lived in when I was with [KILL BILL SIRENS] but has less of a metaphorical underworld cave vibe and more of a Howl's Moving Castle vibe. Anyways, the house itself is having a bad time adjusting to all the change/cleaning that the new roommate is doing...because it keeps hiding and moving (specifically) all the stuff that the new roommate has. They're not a stoner. They have a decently good memory. And I know that nobody in the house would do something like that. Plus, they apparently heard disembodied laughter right after discovering something was missing. The genuis locci (house spirit) is fucking with 'em hard.

I've never seen the genius locci do this before. The worst it ever did to me was hide a really expensive Egyptian cotton pillow case once. It eventually spat it back out after cuddling with it, I imagine. Seriously; Egyptian cotton sheets. Get you some.

So after the 100× time today that the new roommate was swearing about their missing things, I suggested that maybe they need to butter up the genius locci with gifts. Kinda romance the house a bit. Give it something so that it builds a relationship with the spirits that live here. They're a (self-professed) baby witch whose background is Jewish. They mostly excel at kitchen witchery (for now) and incorporating the works and wisdom of the Torah into their life. So they weren't too certain on ritualistic offerings to a house spirit. But with some suggestions from me and listening to their own intuition, they were able to put something quick together. It's nice to see people using magic around the house and learning new skills. And to their benefit, I felt the house chill out a bit after the ritual/gift giving was done.

I have been giving the house/my guides a portion of my nightly tea every now and then. It's honestly nothing fancy but I figure small gifts count for something right?

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autistichalsin · 10 months ago

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This is so well-said. The concept of intersectionality has backslid in recent years. People will stereotype to erase the possibility that a group they arbitrarily decided is more privileged on one axis are ALSO simultaneously privileged along every other axis too, so that they can remove any nuance they might have accidentally allowed into their worldview.

The idea that T and top surgery, life-saving healthcare for transmascs, are currently being called poison and "disgusting", by people WITHIN the community, is deeply troubling to me. The fact that there is little pushback against this is even more so. The fact that patronizing posts about how "you won't look like a cute feminine anime boys, you'll look like a gross MAN with a BEARD" get thousands of notes is disturbing to me. As though trasnmascs don't actually want to be MASCULINE.

The fact that we get called a threat to other parts of the community, the fact that we get accused of "taking" from others the instant we talk about our own issues, the way we get called "TMRAs" in a disgusting, bad-faith attempt to draw a comparison between vilification of transmasculinity and the inceldom that kills women, the way transmascs get shoved into a can't-win scenario where we are "gross" if we are too masculine, but "not even trying to pass and therefore just women trying to be not like other girls" if we aren't masculine enough.

The way transmascs keep getting left out of conversations about abortion and pregnancy, no matter how many times we try to bring it up, and that a cis woman was able to start infighting in the community by attacking transmascs over this. The way people still treat pregnant men like a joke, even in the community, and pregnant trans men have almost no resources, huge chances of getting fired from employment, and have had stillbirths due to doctors not understanding that trans men can give birth.

Transmascs are being demonized and othered within the transgender community itself, and our attempts to build community with other transmascs instead get us maliciously and mockingly compared to the cis incels known as MRAs. No matter how serious our grievances, no matter how life-threatening the consequences- again, an infant was stillborn due to medical malpractice against a transmasculine person- we are expected to simply be silent, because otherwise we are "speaking over" transfeminine people. We aren't allowed to speak in LGBT spaces because we're scary, we aren't allowed to speak in trans-specific spaces because it's not our turn, we aren't allowed to make our own spaces because that makes us just like MRAs, actually.

When are people going to start caring? When do our issues stop being just a joke or a footnote? When will we have ENOUGH sufferings to be allowed to talk about any of them in a community that CLAIMS to be on our side?

I'm really tired of it. I'm tired of seeing masculine-presenting nonbinary people getting kicked out of spaces that welcomed "nonbinary and women" people because "well, we didn't mean you." I'm tired of seeing so many trans people suffering because they can't get birth control, or their birth control failed, and they're terrified of navigating the healthcare system as a pregnant or at risk of pregnancy transmasc person. I'm tired of us being called traitors to women/tomboys/lesbians/the LGBT community/feminism/whatever else you could list. I'm tired of being told "TERFs aren't violent to trans men" when there is literally a viral post from a TERF who expressed their deep desire to poison all the attendees at a trans man's pre-top surgery party. I'm tired of us being the target of displaced anger at cisgender heterosexual men, at being treated as though we're interchangeable targets, at our pains being seen as some kind of karmic suffering for "joining the oppressors".

We deserve a safe space. We deserve to be heard. We are fucking tired of being ostracized and maligned even from within a community built on uniting those who face ostracism due to their gender identity. Transmascs deserve dignity and solidarity and advocacy, not demonization. And we're tired of being demonized for fighting for it.

We're fucking tired in general.

does anyone else get the sense that radical feminism discourse has progressed to this weird "(trans) women are people of color and transmen are white" mentality or am I just imagining things

#sorry for the rant #discourse #transmasculinity

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leonawriter · 8 years ago

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The Blade of Marmora Will Be With You

Read it on AO3

Fandom: Voltron: Legendary Defender

Characters: Shiro, Keith. Also: Antok and Kolivan.

Pairings: None yet.

Summary: When Ulaz said those words to Shiro, they were meant to be taken literally. As time goes on, however, Keith finds being the only Galra - even one disguised as a human - in a group dedicated to taking out the Galran Empire, with two of the last Alteans in existence on board, a bit more difficult than he'd planned.

...

The last thing Shiro knew before blacking out was pure panic, as well as frustration and fear at being restrained, seeing these people in masks and holding implements and being unable to not see purple even though he knew that their faces were pink, that of the voices he was hearing, some were even familiar, but no one was listening to him.

No one was taking him seriously.

There was a needle in his (human, organic) arm, and darkness enveloped him once again, despite his efforts to resist.

...

The first thing he knew when waking up once more, was that he wasn't bound.

This was always a good thing, his mind supplied, although that didn't necessarily mean that he was in a good situation. He tried to follow the thought through, but the details eluded him.

After that, everything filtered through bit by bit - he could feel wind, on his face. There was sunlight shining on his face, not starlight. He was warm.

He opened his eyes, to see someone looking back. Familiar black hair, familiar red and yellow jacket. Familiar look of worry on his face.

Keith.

...

"It's good to have you back," Keith's saying.

They're stood outside, watching the sun rise, although he's having a hard time getting Keith to look him in the eye, for some reason. It almost reminds him of the time when he'd caught a hot-headeded kid being lectured again for starting a fistfight.

"It's good to be back."

He smiles for a moment, at the fact that he's back on Earth, that he's home, before realising that nothing was ever as simple as that. Earth was in danger. Imminent danger.

Keith's hand on his shoulder grounded him, however, to the here and now.

"What... happened, out there?" It almost looked as though Keith's eyes were searching for as many answers as he wished he had to give. "I had no idea where you were for so long, and then..."

"I wish I could tell you," he sighs out. He notices Keith blink at him from the corner of his eye, but he carries on. "But, my head's still pretty scrambled. There was an... alien ship, somehow I escaped. It's all a blur still."

Trying to think of anything more decisive than that comes up with an unhelpful and worrying blank in his memory. Keith, he notices, is now looking away, face scrunched up in a look of angry frustration he'd seen more than a few times before, but he hadn't a clue what the context would be in this situation.

"Right. Of course."

Then again, he had missed a good year of the kid's life. It could be anything. Or it could be nothing at all. Though knowing Keith, it was probably something.

"How did you know to find me, anyway?"

Keith sighs, and reaches around to bring out the knife that Shiro now remembers he's always carried with him - but now, like only a few other times he can remember, the hilt is uncovered, and the glowing symbol is clearly visible.

A symbol that Shiro remembers somehow.

He's seen one exactly like that, somewhere, at some point, before.

A knife or blade like that, which hadn't been on Earth.

"I was told someone would be crashing to Earth in a Galran pod, I just didn't know it'd be you," Keith's saying. "Do you... recognise this?"

He stares at it for a few moments longer, as though burning the symbol and the blade into his mind will help. Hoping it might trigger something off. And maybe it does, because the next thing he knows-

"The Blade of Marmora will be with you."

He shakes his head, trying to chase down the memory that the words come with, but everything is still a mess - he knows that they come with the escape, he knows that they're linked to how he was able to get into a pod in the first place. He knows that they are, somehow, linked to a blade just like the one Keith is holding right now.

He also knows that if someone had been in the position to do all of that, then they could not have been another prisoner - they had to have been a Galra.

Keith, meanwhile, is nodding, looking as though he's a lot more relaxed.

"Ulaz sent me a communication when he set the plan in motion to spring you free. He told me a pod would be coming to Earth, and to help them. I'm just happy it turned out to be you."

Ulaz. That's his name - the Galra who helped me. But then - this-

"But that doesn't make sense. Keith, I've known you for years. How could you possibly be in contact with aliens, let alone-

The ones who did this to me.

But if Keith and his memories were correct, then the Blade of Marmora - or whoever they were - hadn't done this to him at all. They'd helped him.

His head hurt.

"I... that's because I came to Earth not long before that. I'm not human, Shiro. But I promise, I'm not like them. The Blade and I - we're nothing like the Empire. I was sent to Earth as part of a mission. To stop the Empire from gaining even more power."

Sent on a mission? But we first met when you were thirteen!

He opened his mouth to protest, because that couldn't be right, but Keith's expression hardened suddenly for just a moment, and at the sight, he found that there was nothing he could say anymore.

"What kind of mission?"

Keith bit his lip, looking back at the run down shack everyone had stayed at for the night. He seemed torn between something, before finally giving in with a sigh and turning back to face Shiro.

"You should probably come look at this."

...

"See, Kethe? This is how you thrust. And this, the parry. Remember, you will always need to be able to both attack and defend yourself with your blade in both its short and long forms. Adjust for range. Again - show me how you do this again."

He did so. Again, and again. Until his arms ached, and his legs were sore. Until he could defend himself - or attack - when woken up and still only half asleep.

The Blade relied on vigilance and not letting anyone be left without the skills to stay alive at least until they could get out, get to safety, get free. Almost everyone was mission-ready - even the ones who would prefer not to.

Even the children.

It was war, after all. No one could beg for mercy or plead with the Empire to let them be. Some had even learned this firsthand. Like Kethe had, with his mother taken from him, and his father often gone on infiltration, hardly ever present.

"Victory," Antok told him as they worked on his letters, forming the shapes with a brush. It's an old tradition, putting down words without using technology, but it's also one that the Blade insisted on keeping alive. "It is something that as fighters, we strive for. But at the same time, we must also pick and choose what we deem a victory. Is it our blade in another, the fact that they are defeated? Or is it knowing that you are safe? Victory takes many forms."

He nods and listens, just as he has listened to the stories of the Blades that have come back from their own missions, with their own tales of victory and near-discovery and defeat.

Antok ruffles his head-fur and Kethe wrinkles his nose, rolling out of the way - he isn't a child anymore. He's almost ready for his first mission. That's what they keep telling him, at least.

Some of his yearmates have already gone - onto ships, into the military, into mundane, boring things such as accountancy and shopkeeping. Some more exciting than others. All are dangerous, all live in fear of discovery.

The Blade of Marmora only survives because no one knows where it is, or when it will strike, or even that it exists at all.

...

"Come."

He looks up, only to see the face of Kolivan their leader, and rises to follow, silently but with his fur standing on end due to nerves.

His anticipation of a mission is rewarded when he is lead into a room with several others, all looking deadly serious. Maps are strewn on the table's surface, and the walls are covered in symbols that he doesn't recognise at all.

"Kethe. You have been chosen for a mission of extreme importance. And it is one that, at the current moment, you alone can accomplish."

He hadn't understood until they had explained just how true that was.

A Lion of Voltron - found. On a watery planet that was far, far too close to where the next rounds of the Empire's patrols would take them. A few more days, not even a week, and it would be lost.

"No Lion of Voltron must be allowed into the Empire's hands." He knew that as well as any. "It must be retrieved, undetected, and taken far enough away that it will be safe. You must ensure that it remains that way. No matter how long that takes."

Not all of them had the gift of being able to manipulate quintessence in the ways of the druids - Kethe, however, despite his inability at the art of infiltration himself, had always been able to create a glamour, blending in with relative ease.

....

He had gone with another Blade, both of them in full armour and their helmets covering their faces. Kethe knew who they were despite that, though, just as they knew who he was. The helmets were to protect them from being recognised by the Empire, not from each other.

Their ship was small enough and unremarkable enough to go unquestioned through space, but big enough that, should the need arise, it could carry the Lion to it and Kethe's final destination with no problems.

On reaching the Lion itself, however, Kethe was quick to realise just how difficult getting the thing onboard might be, with the Lion unresponsive and its particle barrier unrelenting and unflinchingly unhelpful, making it fractionally bigger than the space their equations from a distance had told them that they would need.

Unless they found a way around this, they'd be stuck.

After two days stuck on the ball of water getting increasingly frustrated, with only another day until the next patrol was due to arrive and find all three of them if they didn't make a move quickly, Kethe rested his head against the glowing blue particle barrier, fists on either side.

"I grew up with stories, you know. Stories about Voltron. It always ended with, 'and then Voltron came along and saved the day', or something like that. But if we don't move, then... none of that can come true. The Empire is looking. Not just for us, but for the Lions. They've always been looking. If we... if we don't move, they'll find us. They'll find you. I don't know why you won't let either of us in - maybe you just don't like us or something. But we aren't trying to take you. We're the good guys." He sighed. Pushed himself away. "I just - I was sent here to make sure you were kept safe, all right? I'll... we'll do what we can."

He's a few paces away when he hears the sound of machinery moving, and he turns back to the Lion in astonishment. The mouth had opened, allowing entry to the ship. Kethe wasted no time in racing aboard, just in case the Lion might decide to change its mind.

What he wasn't expecting was to be hit by a sudden wave of lethargy and ease after feeling the hours go by tick by tick, a presence almost playfully curious at the edge of his mind, filled with ideas and thoughts and emotions.

You're small? Small and purple and young!

He wasn't that small, and he wasn't that young, and he was affronted by the realisation that this was what the Lion thought of him, but there wasn't any time to argue the matter.

You'll do for now, was what he had a feeling the Lion was trying to impart. We're no match but at least your feet reach the pedals.

He spent most of the week-long journey it took to find a decent planet to land on at odds with the energetic yet laid back Lion he was, like it or not, sharing space with, and who complained non-stop when he chose somewhere hot and dry to land, because at least it was somewhere the locals weren't as likely to come looking.

He felt warmth and regret and longing from her when he left to get his bearings on the strange planet they'd chosen. Loneliness. And something else.

He painted the blue lions on the walls of the cave as he found his way out, leaving himself something to remember the place by, and beginning to regret having landed somewhere so hot himself, with his fur sticking to his skin in uncomfortable clumps, the yellow sun too bright.

...

"I come back after two years and there's been a- a cave in? Is this what this is? Or is it just you trying to keep me out? Do you want me to feel grateful that because I can't get in, no one else can either? Because. I'm pretty sure that's. Not. How. This. Works."

He looks human, now. That's what they're called - humans. Thin, furless skin that burns easily, with no claws to speak of. The Garrison cadet uniform he's wearing sticks to his back as he kicks one of the rocks and tries to resist the urge to scream, tears already leaking out of his eyes.

He had already known upon leaving the Blade that he was unlikely to be able to return. His mission was to ensure that the Blue Lion remained safe. That was all. A mission that could well last longer than his own lifetime.

But now, he was trapped.

Earth... didn't have interstellar travel. Not truly. Their shuttles and space stations were primitive, and he knew that if the Empire arrived, it would be like trying to fight blasters with wooden sticks.

Still, though.

The mission stood. He still stood. Stayed - not that he had any choice, now.

He took photographs of the area, made sure that he knew where to go back to if he needed to in the future, and left.

...

He found out because there was a Garrison-wide assembly dedicated to mourning the loss of the Kerberos crew. He found himself staring blankly at the images displayed on the screen at the front of the auditorium, breath coming in quick and fast, feeling all of a sudden as though he needed to run, or find a better hiding place, he wasn't sure which.

He cornered Iverson while all of the other cadets were leaving, and the man put a sympathetic hand on his shoulder that Kethe - Keith, now, it had been Keith for over three years, now - hardly felt.

"I understand how hard this must be, kid. Shiro meant a lot to us all."

He shakes his head, in an attempt to free it of the daze that it had gotten into. To make some semblance of sense of things.

He needed to know what happened - what had really happened.

"Are you sure it was pilot error? Absolutely sure?"

He thinks that his hands are shaking.

"We received the reports from the crew sent to investigate when we hadn't heard anything back. It happens to the best of us."

His head, buzzing. He felt his cheeks flush. Eyes hard and full of dread, he pushed past Iverson on his way back to his dorm, and waited three painful days before sending out a transmission asking for a status report from the Blade, with an addendum that the security of his mission was in a potential compromise.

It was. If the Empire was what had happened to Shiro, then Earth didn't have much time until the Empire's spread came this far out. And if that happened - then rock slide or no, Blue would be in danger.

The report came two weeks later, and a day after that, he found himself kicked out of the Garrison for a 'discipline issue' - for trying to call bullshit on the fact that they were covering up something that meant everyones' lives were in danger.

...

"Thank you. For trusting me."

Shiro speaks quietly, just before they're about to go back in to meet with the others again and see whatever it was that Keith had been working on that he apparently feels ready to share.

The kid - young man, now; more than that, alien, possibly Galra young man - huffs, with a tense smile, but at least it's an honest one. There is, he's realising, a lot that's changed, and a lot to get used to.

But he can. He wants to.

"Heh. I could say the same to you."

He just shakes his head and carries on, thinking to himself about how young Keith had been when they'd first met, and his mixed feelings on the matter of a kid as young as that thinking in terms of missions and war at all.

...

AN: From the official stats, 'The Blue Lion is the friendliest of the Lions and most accepting of pilots.'

Also, the fact remains that they really don't make a good match - like Lance, Blue emanates feelings of being relaxed and/or energetic when Keith would prefer to feel tense and/or prefer to focus on just one thing, thank you. Keith only got in because he pretty much asked, plain and simple. But Blue also sees him as a kid - he's 17 when the series starts, and this whole set of flashbacks are about four years ago.

Kethe was basically a thirteen year old stringbean covered in fluff. YOU try not mothering that kid.

#voltron #voltron stuff #galra keith #marmora Keith #Leona fic #the blade of marmora will be with you

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youreghanamissme · 7 years ago

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Honey, I Am So Glad We're Through

It's the end of an era: I recently took down my mosquito net... but only because it was the only accessible netting I could find on such short notice. I had to delay the honey harvesting workshop by a week because the materials were just too damn expensive, so we're doing it local style, bizznatches! It's actually better, in my opinion. This way my community members won't have it ingrained in their minds that they need fancy bee veils and 250 Ghana Cedi all-white jumpsuits to be a beekeeper. 250 Gh₵ is a lot, y'all. A subsistence farmer sometimes has to stretch 300-500 Ghana Cedis to support his whole brood from a dry season to the start of the rainy season (depending on how the harvest fared). It's literally a matter of life and death. And that's for one suit. We need four: two for the men's group and two for the women's group; we needed two sets of everything. The bee veils weren't cheap to make either. I had to pay the foreigner price on Bolga hats (the only hats with a wide enough brim to not induce claustrophobic revelations), and we're snipped up and sewed my mosquito net along the rim. Everything was three digits (₵₵₵), but I'm sure our locally-made bee veils are cheaper than whatever the facilitator is charging.

I know I'm griping a lot about prices when I don't need to be. Hell, I wrote a grant for this! But the facilitator inflated the prices again recently, and I want to encourage a more local and sustainable approach. I had to buckle and buy a bee smoker off of him though. I asked around and an Ag PCV gave me a contact where I could get it significantly cheaper, but because of the distance (she's originally from the Brong Ahafo region, so her contact is from there as well. Thaaaks, Adrianne! You're the bees' knees!), it just wasn't going to work. I wanted to wrap up this project pronto. It's been plagued with problems from the get-go. We had to start over after a parasite infestation contaminated our colonies. The honey harvest was slated for March 7th, but our facilitator never showed up because of the rain that was pouring in from Tamale. He never called us, so my poor women (the only folks dedicated enough to actually show up and remained at our meeting point on market day!!) were left waiting and waiting and waiting. It would've broken my heart if it didn't catapult me into a rage first. The facilitator and I have butted heads since six months back when I confronted him about the gouged prices the first time around, so when he flaked on us on the 7th... hooo-boy. I gave him an earful. In response he called me some nasty things, but there's nothing to do but take it in stride when you need to get shit done.

We rescheduled for the following Monday, and I tell ya what—we didn't gather people until after he came. But he wasn't picking up his phone or anything, so no one was holding their breath if he decided to flake again. Thankfully, he arrived just before sundown. We were suited up and ready to “hunt” (as the locals call it) for honey.

For the life of me, I dunno why Ghanaians are so afraid of bees. Yes, it hurts to be stung (hell, it happened to me at the borehole), but they're, like, traumatized. Our locally made suits had collars which is apparently a big no-no, even if we tucked our veils inside our collars (I didn’t have the foresight or a demo to surmise that beekeeping suits should have zippers all the way to the chin, a la steam-punk vibes). Harvesters had to tuck their veils inside their collars, wear a scarf (!), and tie string around each gloved forearm to close off all points of entry. It was pretty precious; they looked like they were going on a trip, not collect honey.

We had four hives, but only two were ready to withstand a honey collection. But if you told me that all the honey we got was only from two hives, I might not have bee-lieved you (hehe). There was so much. We filled buckets upon buckets upon buckets. The beekeepers are thrilled, and there's hope to use the bees wax for batik dyeing as well. The majority of my women beekeepers are actually members of a batik group that I helped start from way back when. I'm pleased as punch that they're dedicated to all the income generating projects I've done, going so far as unifying two in a mutually beneficial handshake of sustainable supplemental income.

Back to taking down my mosquito net. Um... I have never washed it. It was covered under two year's worth of dust. It was pretty disgusting because the dust spread everywhere. Since it was tucked underneath my mattress, I had to lift everything, and that's when I saw it: my very own cockroach graveyard. Grossssssssssss.

So, so many exoskeletons. And dust bunnies. Now that my mattress was no longer confined to the corner of my room where the mosquito net was nailed to, it was time for a room makeover. Read: I moved my mattress closer to the center beneath my ceiling fan. The open floor plan has been splendid as I can stretch out and fall off my mattress without running into my dusty net.

My room has been in a state of organized chaos lately. I'm in the midst of giving things away, creating a burn pile, and forming ideas of who I want to bestow my perfectly-fine-but-I-don't-have-space-for-this-in-my-luggage discards to. I'm thinking about bringing a bunch of stuff to the JHS and telling the girls they can pick an item or two. The bike will probably go to my GLOW/BRO gal, and my CP called dibs on the mattress (he wanted the bike too, but I prefer to give it to a young woman). My landlord's families are eager to claim the remains of my room: toiletries, clothes, furniture, propane tank, kitchenware, you name it. I'll need to burn the undergarments though. Not culturally appropo. I just wish there was some huge linen recycler who would take it and make insulation and couch stuffing out of it instead; seems like such a golly waste for it to go up in smoke as carbon dioxide and toxic fumes.

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#cos #peacecorps #ghana #pcghana #howiseepc #beekeeping #honey #beesknees #mosquitonet

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