#which also means the title will have to be different.....

[redsugarx]

Hanfu in Components: Body Elements (pt6)

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ngl I don't really know how to title this one so I just called it body elements, which is kind of clunky but the best I can come up with right now. This is gonna be on the shorter side; I want to go over some of the more unique features you might find on the main body (身/shen1) of a hanfu top. Many of them are very specific to a certain dynasty or time period.

腰襴/yao1 lan2/Waist 'Lan'

Extremely overused pic of the Yuejiangchen ru, with lan highlighted in green

A 'lan' on a top or robe refers to a rectangular piece of fabric attached to the bottom of a garment to extend its length. They can be of the same fabric as the rest of the garment, or a contrasting color. You can identify them by a horizontal seam running across the waist-ish area of an upper body garment—that’s the seam line where the lan connects to the shen. The action or quality of having a lan connected to the main body is called 接襴/jie1 lan2/attached lan.

前秦紫纈襦甘肃花海毕家滩26号墓出土 Ru relic unearthed from Huahai Bijiatan in Gansu, restored by China Silk Museum

Lan typically appear in pretty specific places: one, on a 襦/ru2 top/tunic; and two, on a 襴衫/lan2 shan1/Lanshan robe. Ru tops are generally found in Wei/Jin styles (they exist in other time periods, it’s just that the way modern hanfu popularity developed led to them being sort of relegated/most commonly seen in Wei/Jin). Most are true cross-collar tops; some have a curved collar (less common). Lanshan robes mostly appear in Tang Dynasty menswear and onward; they are usually round-collared robes and the lan tends to be more trapezoidal in shape.

!注 Terminology Caveat: Majority hanfu enthusiasts agree to define 襦 as a top shorter than knee length that has a 襴, but there is some disagreement over this because 1) the meaning of the word 襦 changed over different time periods in history, and 2) the 2010’s hanfu movement, which was largely still interwoven with guzhuang and also heavily motivated by factories trying to jump on the trend for quick cash grabs, referred to any top as a ru. I personally only use the word ru when referring to a short top with a lan, but there are arguments to be made for either side, so I’ll leave that up to you—as long as we’re all capable of communicating our ideas, there’s not necessarily a right or wrong here.

斜陽 / Xieyang / Vesper by 九雲閣 Cloud9 Hanfu on Etsy (see alt text for photo credits)

Tops extended with lan typically do not have 衩/cha4, or vents/slits, at the sides. Instead, to allow more hip movement, some lan may have inverted box pleats (工字褶/gong1 zi4 zhe23) at the sides and/or center. In these cases the shape of the lan is still a long rectangle, it’s just a little longer to compensate for the extra fabric that gets folded in on itself during the pleat. Given the way that hanfu is constructed you can see how it might be difficult to add a pleat in the garment’s side without a lan—you’d have to have at least side seam in the way. Adding a lan allows you to pleat continuous fabric, and because it’s a narrow rectangle you can cut the whole thing from one piece of fabric with no connecting seams. 

Left to right: 剪秋姝品 from 端正记 (Tang Dynasty 圓領襴袍/yuan2 ling3 lan2 pao2), 江城子 from 溪春堂 (Song Dynasty 襴衫/lan2 shan1), and 梅紋暗花紗明制圓領袍襴衫 from 洞庭漢風 (Ming Dynasty 襴衫）

The other place that you’d see a lan is on a 襴衫/lan2 shan1. The name is slightly misleading, because we like think of shan as ‘shirts,’ but it really just means a garment that covers the upper body, so it includes robes as well. Lanshan are usually a type of long round-collared robe, popular among scholars and literati. The Tang, Song and Ming Dynasties all have their own versions of the lanshan (one of the Song versions and the Ming version look very similar), but the Tang and Song versions have a lan extension piece attached approximately at the knee level (afaik the Ming dynasty version just kept the name from the Song dynasty). As a result lanshan tend to be closer to ankle or floor length as opposed to knee or calf length like some other round collar robes. In most cases the lan might be closer to trapezoidal than rectangular, to account for the flaring of the robe's body shape.

Left to right: 剪秋姝品 from 端正记 (Tang Dynasty 圓領襴袍/yuan2 ling3 lan2 pao2), 江城子 from 溪春堂 (Song Dynasty 襴衫/lan2 shan1), marked up to show the center front seam and lan pieces.

衽/ren4/Lapel

The ren is the part of the 身/shen1/body in 大襟/da4 jin1/Great Lapel garments that bridges each front piece’s gap between the center front seam and the other side of the garment. It typically takes the form of a triangle or a trapezoid, though it might vary a bit based on the collar variety.

Depending on time period, it's possible that one or both sides of the garment incorporates the ren directly into the body without a separate front seam. Ming Dynasty tops specifically have ren on the outer flap, but the inner flap ends at the center front seam—that's why when you put it on you can't make the knot right at the base of the ribbon, you have to let the inside part hang down loosely. (This is 100% the most common mistake I see with people wearing Ming Dynasty tops—it doesn't not fit you you're just not putting it on right!!!)

(ex: round collar, cross collar, standing collar,

擺/bai3/Side Flaps

暮春间 from 执月, Ming Dynasty mens' 圓領袍/yuan2 ling3 pao2/round-collared robe with 平擺/ping2 bai3/flat bai highlighted in green.

Kind of at a loss for how to translate this into English. Not to be confused with the bai of skirts or the 下擺 aka hemline, the bai I'm referring to here is a feature specific to Ming Dynasty menswear—I've had a client refer to them as 'hip wing,' which I think is pretty cute. They're essentially extra pieces that extend out from the side of some Ming Dynasty mens' robes.

Still 暮春间 from 执月, Ming Dynasty mens' 圓領袍/yuan2 ling3 pao2/round-collared robe with 平擺/ping2 bai3/flat bai highlighted in green.

There are a couple different kinds of bai, that have to do with their shapes and placement. Most are 外擺/wai4 bai3/outer bai, meaning that they can be seen from the outside. The top may be flat (平/ping2) or pointed (尖/jian1) in shape. The pointier ones will often extend up to the elbow or further; generally when they're worn they go behind the arms and point backwards. You'll most often find outer bai on more formal garments like 搭護/搭护/da1 hu4, 直身/zhi2 shen1, 野撒/ye3 sa4 and 圓領袍/圆领袍/yuan2 ling3 pao2.

When worn, the bai is usually folded backwards under the sleeves, so they're not actually super visible especially if the sleeves are wide. They're more visible from the back/side and when sitting down.

云意 from 执月, Ming Dynasty 道袍 Tao robe. Purposely chose a version with sheer fabric so you can see the inner rectangular bai showing through the main body.

內擺/nei4 bai3/inner bai fold inwards instead of outwards, so they're not visible from the outside, but they still have essentially the same construction, just in a different direction. Cross-collar robes with inner bai are called 道袍/dao4 pao2/Tao robes. Cross-collar robes with outer bai are called 直身/zhi2 shen1/Zhishen robes.

Utility-wise, bai allow long robes to have very high side slits (for mobility) while obscuring what you're wearing inside of them when you walk around. They're also just kind of a fashion statement though. A lot of Ming Dynasty fashion liked looking Wide and Steady like an equilateral polygon or something.

Ok that's it for now lmao sorry im slow and tired, if I think of any other body elements + if anyone asks for them (pls send asks I'm lonely) then I will add them!

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[lucentshore]

obviously we'll have to wait and see, but i've been eyeing the steamdb page for silksong since i heard that team cherry uploaded language packs for the achievements, and i figure it might be a good idea to show what i've watched be uploaded in that time, for those curious about silksong development stuff.

for anyone who wants to review this themselves, here is the link to the steamdb page for the game.

so that others dont have to go to the page to verify what i'll be talking about here, i will provide screenshots. it's all under the cut, but if you don't want to read it all,

tldr; team cherry has uploaded translation packages for achievements in ten different languages (viewable on the steam page), uploaded two game packages (one of which uses the official title, the other being noted for developer & publisher use), updated a time or two more without adding details, and updated compatible operating systems to include mac & linux (not updated on the steam page).

JUNE 3RD, 2025.

this was the translation package that restarted the silksong rumors! the steam page was updated to reflect the languages the game will be available in now, too, while steamdb specifically noted them to be achievement languages.

the added languages are brazillian portugese, english, french, german, italian, japenese, korean, russian, simplified chinese, and spanish.

after this, two more updates were released. the changelog doesn't note what they were,

but if you head to the packages tab, you'll see a total of three packages noted. the first two are the ones that were updated during this day.

i had to look this up, so just to explain the billing type,

CD & Store Keys are how a game is verified after purchase. its their way of confirming that okay, yes, you did buy the game, and this is your copy. theyre called CD keys, because when games were distributed only on CD keys years ago, it was on the CD itself.

nowadays, it's basically a confirmation of purchase upon installation.

SO. let's start with that top one. Steam Sub 342710 (link to package) is for developer and publisher use only. it has ten different CD keys, is licensed for single purchase, and is listed as having 0 available. i would speculate here, but i know fuck all about game development, and i'm not gonna give any false hope.

...though i do wanna point out that if you go into the history for that package it has been there since 2019, and based on how it talks about a release override and counting as always being owned, this definitely is a dev-use only package. anyway.

you can see the information listed on the package's page below.

the other one, bearing the game's full name of Hollow Knight: Silksong (link to package), was actually updated like. twenty minutes before the other one. which unironically probably does not mean much, don't look too far into it, im giving you a timeline here. that's it.

this one has ten CD & Store keys, as opposed to only having CD Keys. i tried to look up the difference, but couldn't find anything. it's also only for single purchase, and is listed as having 0 available. it also has cross-region trading and gifting disabled.

you can see the information listed on the package's page below.

and that was all the changes for june 3rd, 2025.

JUNE 4TH, 2025.

there was one update on june 4th, and despite poking around, i couldn't figure out what the update was to. the changelog lists that there was an update, but it doesn't say what was changed. shrug.

you can see that below.

JUNE 6TH, 2025.

starting out strong with. well. a repeat of june 4th, we have a listed update that i could not find a notable change from.

and then, thirty minutes or so later, the compatible operating systems list was updated! i'll be honest, i don't understand all of what's listed here, but i do understand that this is confirmation that silksong will be playable on windows, mac, and linux.

unfortunately, as of the time this post has been made, the steam page still has not been updated to reflect this compatibility update.

that is, as of the time this post has been made, the last update listed on the steamdb page for silksong.

[midnightidk10]

A Discussion about Ace and Arophobia, Puritan Culture, and Allo Culture

trigger and content warning:

Acephobia, Arophobia, puritan culture, conservatism, hypersexuality, discussion of sex, discussion of romance, proshipping, long-ass post

A reminder that this is a discussion and should be kept civil. I will bring up a recent discussion I had online, but I will not talk about the person I had a discussion with, bring them down, or reveal them by name. Everyone in the notes, please do the same.

Me seeing a pattern due to that conversation doesn’t mean I am making a callout. I would like to thank that person, if they ever see this, for giving me something to think about more deeply.

I am on the asexual, and possibly aromantic, spectrum. I’m not ashamed of it. Despite that, I’m fairly sex-positive, love raunchy jokes, and have interacted with suggestive content.

During my time in a specific fandom, of which I will not name, I have noticed something. About shipping. There is a very popular ship that has attracted a large audience to a game that I once considered a more niche interest.

For the sake of clarity, we will call this ship BlueGold.

Despite the popularity of this ship, it is incredibly controversial. Many hate the ship. It has earned a few titles from this crowd, including:

proship

abusive relationship

toxic relationship

You might be thinking that these are harsh labels. And to an extent, I agree. I am a huge shipper of Bluegold. Though, I am not afraid to admit that it is certainly flawed and unhealthy. People have received death threats simply because they ship it.

I would like to note something about the ship. The ship is between two fictional characters that have never been portrayed using real people in official material. I am not huge on shipping, and I would like to say something about why I ship Bluegold in the first place.

FIREWORKS.

Bluegold may not be the healthiest relationship, but it is an interesting relationship. It has chemistry. So why are we afraid of pyrotechnics when we only want beakers that make blue foam and magic tricks?

Because of the shift right.

People believe that ships must be healthy. In real life, yeah, I agree. But we’ve already established that these characters don’t exist. We just moved out of an era where sex was seen as something that could be casual and consensual. Where people could do anything they wanted with their body, because it’s their body.

But now? People see sex as something dirty. They treat it as such. They treat it as something that should never be shared with the public. Something that shouldn’t be portrayed in media. And shipping has received the same treatment. It should not be portrayed unless it is clean. Unless it is pure.

And we shouldn’t ignore the other warning signs. People also tend to hate LGBTQ+ ships. Because of conservatism. The shift right. If they are not healthy and up to par with the standard, straight ships tend to get a pass while LGBTQ+ ships are fought over. Ships between immortal characters are often fought over because of a thousand year age-difference, even if the characters knew of each other’s existence when they were both adults.

But what about the latter? People who seem to embrace a ship because they like it? People who embrace sexual things, things that were once seen as taboo? Things that are not right, but left?

There’s a problem with them too. We aren’t done.

Hypersexuality. The word “puritan” is no longer justifiable. It is thrown around, used on anyone who ever discusses sex in a negative light, no matter the context. And VERY often used in fandom.

When people say that a character is hypersexual, and it doesn’t line up with the canon portrayal, they are seen as a puritan. That does not mean that they aren’t. It’s an issue that saying “hey why are treating this character like a sex demon in spaces that we shouldn’t and being completely serious about it” is treated like a bad thing.

This can be described as allonormativity. People who DO feel romantic and sexual attraction believe that it is wrong or weird to portray a character as possibly not liking, or even caring about those things. Not all characters will have sex discussed in the media they are in and sometimes it can be difficult to pinpoint whether or not they have a certain opinion on it.

To say that we should respect people who portray a character as liking sex and romance, loving sex or romance, or being hypersexual or hyperromantic, then turn around and decide that anyone who does not portray a character like that is a puritan, is an issue.

It is ace and arophobic.

Aroace people are often targets for this behavior. They portray a character as being aroace, and they’re the bad guy. Because it is so normalized in our society to like sex and have sexual feelings, we forget that not everyone does, and lash out at them. We fight so hard for people to be able to portray sex and romance, that we forget that people who don’t want to see it are also valid in that belief. There is a difference between “I do not want to see sex” and “I do not want to see sex in media.”

Some people just don’t feel those feelings. They can’t help it. Just like how you can’t help that you can.

I would like to reveal what I was talking about at the beginning of this post. The fandom and ship that sparked this idea in my head.

The Cookie Run Kingdom fandom. Shadownilla.

I have recently been accused of being a puritan in a discussion I had recently. That I came off as “weird” because I pointed out that people tend to portray Pure Vanilla Cookie as either a child or a sex demon. (Give it up for woobification!)

When I said that, I did not mean that he could never be portrayed as some guy who likes sex. I meant that people do not know where to set the line. He is an adult with adult feelings. He has been around for, likely, a few millennia, and refers to himself as old. I meant that people hypersexualize him. They take these kinds of portrayals and bring them into spaces that they shouldn’t, such as spaces with minors, spaces that don’t allow NSFW, and serious discussions.

And when someone points it out, they are seen as the bad guy. Even though that person could be sex-positive. Even when that person is a leftist. When that person does not agree with the idea that sex should never be portrayed.

Because of allo culture.

[drivestraight]

mini explanation of why the crowd were like that and why sincaraz in general are so interesting if you’re interested!

basically everybody loves carlos because not only is he really really really good, he’s very charming and generally has got a very fun personality, interacts with the crowd + cameras + fans a lot etc. better on clay than pretty much anyone though. currently no2 ranked itw but more titles than sinner.

a lot of people don’t really fw sinner because while he is really really really good, he’s a bit calm which people find boring and robotic so there isn’t the same adoration from fans that carlos gets (also everyone loves an underdog which is not exactly sinner right because he has been pretty dominant, especially against the best of the active players) currently ranked no1 itw but less titles than alcaraz

the rhetoric seems to be that while sinner can beat everyone easily except for alcaraz. even though alcaraz generally loses to other people more than sinner does. very different styles of play but brilliant to watch because it means they have a great dynamic and are very well matched. and both are ridiculously good ofc

nodding at your sage wisdom. Also re sinner do you think that's why oscar wants to fuck him so badly

also "sinner can beat everyone easily except for alcaraz" is sooo hot i love that

[nihongoseito]

【音韻論コーナー】 syllabification in japanese vs. english!

buckle in, it's time for another episode of 音韻論 (phonology) 101 with sasha!! this time, i was inspired by a brief conversation i had with my bf where he set off my linguist alarms without meaning to (this happens frequently lol). actually, we were talking about zelda, the video games! here's how the conversation went:

bf: *yada yada yada* zelda. zeruda! me: うん、ゼルダ。 bf: how do you say the title in japanese again? me: ゼルダの伝説。でん、せ、つ。 bf: den-set-su.

two things are important here. first: i've clearly highlighted the slow, syllabified pronunciations of 伝説 that each of us produced, so please remember them. second: my bf is a native english speaker who doesn't speak any japanese! he was just trying to parrot me.

with the stage set, let's get into the weeds!!

what is "syllabification"?

it's exactly what it says on the tin: syllabification is the linguistic term for analyzing* strings of sounds as syllables. so, of course, this begs the question...

what the sweet hell is a "syllable"???

ah, the humble syllable *wipes tear*. she's a flighty little bastard honestly. but the good news is, we don't need a sterling scientific definition here today, we just need the basics.

try this exercise, which (depending on your L1) you might recall from grade school: say "syllable" out loud while clapping in rhythm with the word. it should turn out like this:

sy -lla -ble clap-clap-clap

this is a tried-and-true method for ascertaining the number of syllables in a word, and it's very hard to get wrong in your native language.** so, we say syllable has three syllables.

but, oh, of course we aren't done—do you notice where i've drawn the syllable boundaries (hyphens) above? what can we say about each of my proposed syllables...?

let's say this: each syllable (as i've drawn them) contains a vowel. (please read the letter y in syllable as a vowel.) from this observation, we can make a rudimentary theory: a syllable is one vowel plus its surrounding consonants (if any).***

aaaaaand this is where we descend into madness. what counts as "surrounding consonants"? in the middle of a word, how do you know which consonant belongs to which vowel? what if there are multiple consonants all in a cluster? are all consonants counted the same way? and also, what if the vowel is a long vowel or a diphthong? and what if—*panicked screeching*

ok ok ok, let's calm down. again, we don't need to solve linguistics today, we just need a working theory. so, going forward in this post, i humbly ask that we assume the syllable boundaries i draw are correct! i'm happy to discuss the particulars of syllabification in greater detail if you send me a message :)

*of course, this term can literally mean analyzing, like linguists do, but it can also refer to what speakers naturally assume their language to be doing. so if we say two speakers "analyze" the syllabification of a word differently, that refers to a subconscious judgment on the part of those speakers, not an actual scientific theory.

**just to cover all my bases: not every language uses the syllable as its primary unit of counting sound, though all languages have syllables (probably). for example, tokyo and kansai japanese count by mora (although kagoshima japanese counts by syllable!).

***yes, some languages (including english!) can use liquids as nuclei! don't worry about it here though!!!

what is syllabification like in japanese?

if you know anything about japanese phonology (which i honestly believe a lot of you do), you know we're always talking about the mora in japanese linguistics. like the syllable, the mora is a unit of counting sound. today, let's ignore the mora.

wait, what?! ignore the mora?! *i am burned at the stake for linguistics crimes*

alright, no, but seriously—please don't worry about moras today! all we need to worry about is syllables. i'll offer this rule of thumb: when counting syllables in japanese, analyze long vowels, diphthongs, little っ, and ん as belonging to the vowel directly in front of them.

let's see an example of each. again, we are NOT(!!) counting moras!!

long vowels: お-かあ-さん = three syllables (お母さん）

diphthongs: てい-ど = two syllables (程度)

little っ: けっ-か = two syllables (結果)*

ん: さん-ぽ = two syllables (散歩)

this way, we can see how quirks of japanese phonology fit in with our one-vowel-per definition of a syllable. for example, it seems like diphthongs and long vowels count as "one vowel" in japanese (if we take my syllabifications to be true).

make sense? japanese syllabification is actually wicked simple comparatively speaking, so these are the only tricky things to worry about. (for those of you still thinking about the moras, feel free to draw your own conclusions about how they're affecting our syllabifications here...!)

with that, we're ready to move onto a much messier syllabification system: english's.

*in rōmaji, this syllabification would be written kek-ka.

what is syllabification like in english?

let me be brief: it's complicated.

let me be slightly less brief: english loves consonants, and clusters of consonants, and clusters of consonants in phonologically inconvenient places. just to illustrate it, i'll give an example of an english syllabification i love:

stre[ng]-[th]e-ni[ng] = three syllables (strengthening)

ok, what the hell is going on here. first, the consonants in [brackets] are single consonants represented in english spelling with multiple letters (i.e., [th] is actually one single sound phonetically). second, we can see plenty of consonants are touching each other, like str and [ng][th], which happens in japanese way less frequently. so the differences are great and many!

but, what about the similarities? please recall our rudimentary definition: a syllable is one vowel plus its surrounding consonants (if any). does that seem to hold in the strengthening case...? why, yes, it does! if we set aside the lurid consonant nightmare, we can clearly see that each syllable in strengthening has one and only one vowel. so at the very least, our definition of a syllable holds across languages. that's what makes it helpful as a definition, of course!

hey, do you guys remember how like an hour ago i was talking about ゼルダの伝説 on this post...? let's finally get back to that!!

the syllabification of 伝説!

woohoo, time for the main event!! let me copy the conversation from earlier in the post here, and abridge it slightly:

bf: how do you say [legend] in japanese? me: 伝説。でん、せ、つ。 bf: den-set-su.

we're ready to tackle this syllabification puzzle now. but before we do, let me ask: can you see the puzzle? (hint: it's in the english!)

you may have an idea, but let me make it even more obvious. i'm going to convert the japanese syllabification into rōmaji:

me: 伝説。 den-se-[ts]u. bf: den-set-su.

aha, [ts] is a single phonetic sound in japanese! do you see it now? when parroting my japanese, my boyfriend broke the [ts] in half with a syllable boundary!!* why the heck did he do that??? let's discuss this problem in two parts: phonetics and phonology.

first, the phonetics: [ts], while very common in japanese, is not a common sound in english. specifically, [ts] does not occur at the beginning of syllables in english. for native english speakers, think of all the times you ever said tsunami (in english)—did you actually say [ts]unami? or did you say something more like sunami?

spoiler alert: i'm almost positive you said sunami. while we can get [ts] in other places (e.g., i[ts], ca[ts], etc.), we can't get it at the beginning of syllables. therefore, the japanese syllable [ts]u is not technically pronounceable in english. faced with an unpronounceable syllable, my bf had to find a way to make it pronounceable, and his strategy was to turn [ts]u into su, just like in sunami.

now, the way he turned [ts]u into su is where the phonology comes in! in the japanese, the syllable boundary (if we take my word for it) comes in front of -[ts]u, but as we've seen, that's a no-go in english. one option would be to completely delete the [t] from the original word, since he can clearly hear it's there; but it seems in this case, deletion was not preferable to getting in there with a shovel, hacking [ts] in half,** and actually moving the syllable boundary between the two halves. so doing, he both kept [t] from being deleted and kept [ts] from appearing at the beginning of a syllable. that way, he protected the original components of the compound consonant while still obeying the rules of english phonetics in his brain. wow, efficient!

so, we can summarize the new, english-ified syllabification as a kind of process:

original: den-se-[ts]u ! -[ts]u is unpronounceable → rejected

alternative: delete [t]: den-se-su ! salient sound is missing → rejected***

alternative: interpose syllable boundary: den-set-su ✓ no unpronounceable -[ts]u ✓ no salient sounds are missing → winner!

does this process make sense to you? well, i hope it does, since i'm the one trying to explain it...but if you think you've got it, then let me say, congratulations! you just did "optimality theory", a prevalent method of modern phonological analysis. go tell everyone you know!

so yeah, that's how my boyfriend (probably) got from my syllabification (and pronunciation) of 伝説 to his. all that work for one silly letter?! that's phonology, baby!

*how do i know for sure that he did this? well, it was clear to me from his enunciation, which was very slow and cleanly segmented. while that wouldn't fly as a valid method in a scientific experiment, i'll ask that you please trust my experience here!

**does this actually qualify as cutting the affricate (compound consonant) in half? some people would argue it's actually a two-step process of deletion and (re)insertion. i'm not an expert on that, so i'll admit i don't know for sure, i just picked the simpler one to explain in the post!

***are you wondering why deleting [t] is ok in sunami, but not here? it's probably because with [ts]unami, there is no earlier syllable to shunt the [t] into, and it can't float out there on its own, so it gets deleted. that's just my guess though :)

so, what did we learn?

we learned the syllable can be a fickle and garish beast, and yet at her most basic, she is consistent across languages! if you try counting syllables in the other languages you know, i hope you'll find our rule about one-vowel-per-syllable to continue to hold. of course, there are always exceptions or puzzles, so keep an eye out for those too—they're fun!!

wow, and to think—all that just because my bf wanted to talk about zelda. before i sign off, here's a final brain teaser for all you mora freaks out there: assuming i don't speak kagoshima japanese (i don't), why did i present the word 伝説 to my bf syllable-by-syllable rather than mora-by-mora? by all accounts, the mora is the unit of counting in all major varieties of japanese.

this is just speculation, but probably there are two reasons. first, english is my native language, and english counts by syllables; syllables are more salient to me than moras. personally, the only place i ever feel the moras in english is in poetry or songs, so in a regular conversation where we were otherwise using entirely english, my brain was in syllable mode.

second, ん, the moraic nasal, tends to be pronounced differently in isolation versus in context. in 伝説, it's probably realized as a nasal vowel, but if i had actually said 「で、ん、せ、つ」 to my bf, that ん would have come out as a velar (or somewhere back there) nasal. to a non-japanese speaker, that would be majorly confusing, and he probably wouldn't have been able to parrot it at all. i wanted him to understand, so i made it easier! (wow, true love~)

anyways, that's the linguistics du jour, i hope you enjoyed it :) as always, お疲れ様でした and see you next time!!

[mahou-furbies]

First impressions on Ichi the Witch

The requirements of what qualifies mahou enough for this blog have been getting more and more loose lately, but I think this is the furthest we've been from the magical girl genre so far. But it does have witches in it so let's go!

Back in January I came across Ichi's excellent witch design and wanted to get in on it, and for some reason I thought this would be a seinen series. But no, it's shounen, and in Shounen Jump of all things, which immediately drained most of the excitement. It's funny how I can't exactly put in words how Jump is different from say, Shounen Sunday or Shounen Magazine, but when it ambushes you like this you just know what you're in for. But anyway, at the time Undead Unluck was about to end so I figured I now might have room for a new Jump series in my heart. So I read a few chapters, forgot about it, and didn't catch up until now.

In this world there are magical creatures that witches can capture and summon for fights, like some kind of evil pokemon, though only women can use magic. However (stay with me this is going to be a stupefying turn of events) as the title suggests, our boy hero Ichi also manages to become one, much to the shock of all. Can you imagine it, a boy gets to join the action in a Jump action manga! This is truly a monumental moment for gender equality!

I wouldn't be dwelling on this if the manga wasn't so damn committed to making this its main topic. We go over this so many times, every new character has to be introduced commenting on it. The council of witches is suspicious about a man being a witch, and the general populace is also surprised about it! Men can't use even magic tools, except Ichi can! Also Ichi learns so fast, he's super good at witch stuff right away and can easily prove doubters wrong! Like geez I get it, can we move on please?

Also even aside from the gender stuff, Ichi's not really a character I particularly like. He's like this book dumb but street smart chaotic and impulsive feral hunter who is always on top of the situation isn't fazed by anything. Very little boy power fantasy type, imagine if you could just confidently do what you want despite rules and prove everyone who tries to stop you wrong! Couple this with the "Women Are Wiser" trope, where it's not uncommon for an idiot shounen hero to be paired with a more sensible female lead, whose job is to be the nagging buzzkill who futilely tries to keep the MC-kun in check. And here the female lead, Dessacras, suffers from this to some extent too and is often used to point out how wacky Ichi is.

Regardless I do like Dessacras and she's the best character so far. She's super smug in a really fun way and always has this perpetual frown on her face. And she is actually a weird slacker herself and causes ire to her witch colleagues, it's just that she's often contrasted with Ichi which forces her in the straight man role. Like Ichi she also has an S-tier character design, which is of course a big deal. Look at that hair! And eventually she gets to show that she can actually live up to her boasts of being "Everyone's Favorite Uber-Talented Badass", when Ichi finally bites more than he can swallow and needs rescuing. And lastly she is responsible for the most touching moments of the manga so far when we get past the initial introductory chapters and she and Ichi start to bond more. I see potential in their relationship and am eager to see where this goes, it is fresh for a Jump series for the female lead to be the older mentor figure rather than a potential love interest (I hope).

Ultimately I did end up adding this to my reading list. I like Dessacras and even Ichi has grown on me somewhat after getting some more depth, and now that the story has found its plot (prophecy that demands a sacrifice from Ichi) after the episodic beginning I am interested in seeing how it plays out. And longer arcs should also mean that every chapter won't introduce a new character to gawk at the male witch thing. Also the character designs are overall great and surprisingly the female characters are all dressed appropriately (meanwhile it's the dudes who strip, albeit not in a sexy scene). Special applause to Ichi's witch outfit which drew me in in the first place; it's rare to see a fun fantasy design like this on a male character. I don't think you should get your hopes up on the story doing anything meaningful with the gender stuff though, right now to me it seems like just a way to make the main character special and an underdog, and include a lot of waifus.

[fastcardotmp3]

hey!! okay so i'm finally here with the new version of the series cover and honestly it's been a ride. like. trying to turn 78k words of emotional damage and healing and growth into one little box?? come on now 😭

figuring out what to include without spoiling anything (especially the stuff that's not canon-canon 👀) and yet not miss anything important was Actual Brain Gymnastics™ but omg i had so much fun trying to make it all fit. this one lives very close to my heart, so yes i am gonna ramble a little because every detail was very thought through.

so without spoiling anything (not for you lol, I tried to keep it vague enough for everyone else’s sake), this one’s different. the structure is different. there's a reason Eddie's part crosses over to Buck's side and there's definitely more than one kid reaching out to him in this one. i mean even the color works because someone painted their walls and i just. GAH. it starts in destruction and it ends with the Diaz siblings on a stump okay that's all i have to say 🙈

this installment might actually be my favorite one so far, which feels illegal to say because they're all amazing, but something about season 5 Eddie Diaz just hits different iguess... 💙

i'm INCONSOLABLE !!!!!

there really is so much going on in this one and i am sooooo impressed with how succinctly you've visually represented all of it here i mean the very title being the thing they're putting back together???? hi???

i can't remember if it was you or someone else who said it in the comments, but even the buck interlude in this one is still All About Eddie, and seeing that spill over onto buck's side of the equation here too works so well.... more than one kid reaching out to him can i have a second to breathe??? and the diaz twins!!! 😭

also must be said i love that both 4 & 6 deal with a return home and they both have matching little houses :(((

s5 eddie hits different in every universe and i am just overjoyed you liked my take on it. this thing you're making is like unbearably cool and i'm so grateful you're sharing your talent with my little universe so thank you friend 🩵

[chirpsythismorning]

Yeah a teaser dropping on ST day would be cool. But can we agree that a DNA board reveal would be infinitely better?

[random-autie-fangirl]

I drew another Chara- living with the Dreemurrs edition

"The King and Queen treated the human child as their own. The underground was filled with hope."

I don't like this as much as the last one but oh well... I ended up rambling a huge amount in the tag, so if you want details and headcanons about the actual drawing again, you'll have to look pretty far down this time, sorry (Also, I ran out of tags after a while. Tumblr is tired of me, lol. I might reblog this more tags later if I remember what I was going to say.)

[mantisgodsdomain]

More notes for Roach conlanging. Roach has grammatical gender, in which only Male, Female, and Object are grammatical genders, whereas Worker uses feminine grammar, Queen and King use a slight variant on feminine grammar, and Drone, and Queen-Alate use masculine grammar. This is because King is derived from Queen, due to their similar positions in a colony, and Queen-Alate is derived from Drone, as both are forms of alate.

Queen is an alteration of feminine grammar that functionally just adds a handful of extra syllables to it, and King is an offsprout of Queen that uses the same grammar with different pronouns. Queen-Alate, despite the name, is derived from Drone, as they are both for referring to different types of alate ant.

Most Roach dialects are intelligible to speakers of Snakemouth Den Cordyceps Roach, but Snakemouth Den Cordyceps Roach is not entirely intelligable to speakers of Roach dialects due to a mix of the excessively specialized vocabulary caused by the specific needs of its speakers, the fact that its speakers do not necessarily have Roach mouthparts and thus may not pronounce syllables in a similar way, and due to the fact that Inanimate Object is a full grammatical gender that does not exist in any other dialect of roach and replaces a decent chunk of terminology for things that previously had Other Words For Them.

[bigcats-birds-and-books]

Books of 2025: February Wrap-Up.

As it turns out: Rereading your own novel manuscript twice (once for the original NaNo and once for the most-current-frankendraft) dramatically slows down the Reading Published Books train, which is fine! I had fun on all fronts! And I did a bunch of knitting, too, and everything I read this month was Good, Actually :D

Photos and/or reviews linked below:

THE LANGUAGE OF THE NIGHT - ★★★★★ Essays on writing, science fiction, and fantasy! Wound up loving this, per my Le Guin Usual, had to bust out the flaggies to mark passages. My favorite chapters were "Introduction to City of Illusions" (which I must track down a copy of immediately), "Talking about Writing," "The Stalin in the Soul," and "The Stone Ax and the Muskoxen."

METAL FROM HEAVEN - ★★★★★ Y'all this was SO FUCKING GOOD. It's pitched as for fans of Gideon the Ninth and The Princess Bride, because it's about messy lesbians and one in particular's quest for revenge against the industrialist who had her entire striking family killed. Personally, I'd also throw an Arcane comp in there for the class warfare and aesthetics and weird magical substance. Significant review linked, PLEASE go check this out, it was very excellent.

ODD THOMAS - ★★★★ Reread, to go with my own manuscript-rereading (this book was an Inspiration for my project, as was WtNV). I still love Odd so much. Fucked up, weird, funny, tragic book--if you've ever been curious about Koontz, try this one.

WHEN WOMEN WERE BIRDS - ★★★½ Received this in my nature writing subscription box, started it without meaning to on a random Tuesday, accidentally read the first three chapters because it sucked me in. Parts of this REALLY hit right for me and parts of it were just Meh--definitely depended on the particular Variation on Voice. The opening chapter is the author receiving her mother's journals, collected over a lifetime, and they're all blank. If you like memoirs, and feminism, and environmentalism, and birds, and writing, and Mormonism, or any combination thereof, check this out! Short little book, does neat stuff with white space.

Under the Cut: A Note About ~*★Stars★*~

Historically, I have been Very Bad™ about assigning things Star Ratings, because it's so Vibes Heavy for me and therefore Contingent Upon my Whims. (Example: I don't like that stars are Odd, because that makes three the midpoint and things are rarely so truly mid for me)(I have hacked my way around this with a ½, which is really only applicable for me at ★★★ and up). Here is, generally, how I conceptualize stars:

★ - This was Bad. I would actively recommend that you do NOT read this one, no redeeming qualities whatsoever, not worth the slog. Save Yourself, It's Too Late For Me. Book goes in the garbage (donate bin).

★★ - This was Not Good. I would not recommend it, but it wasn't a total waste or wash--something in here held my interest/kept my attention/sparked some joy. I will not be rereading this ever. Save Yourself (Or Join Me In Suffering, That Seems Like A Cool Bonding Activity).

★★★ - This was Good/Fine/Okay/Meh. I don't care about this enough to recommend it one way or another. Perfectly serviceable book, held my interest, I probably enjoyed myself (or at least didn't actively loathe the reading). I don't have especially strong feelings. You probably don't need to save yourself from this one--if it sounds like your jam, give it a shot! Just didn't resonate with me particularly powerfully. I probably won't reread this unless I'm after something in particular.

★★★½ - I liked this! I'll probably recommend it if I know it matches someone's vibes or specific requests, but I didn't commit to a star rating on Goodreads. More likely to reread, but not guaranteed.

★★★★ - I really enjoyed this!! I would recommend it (sometimes with caveats about content warnings or such--I tend to like weird fucked up funny shit, and I don't have many hard readerly NO's). Not a perfect book for me by any means, but Very Good. This is something I would reread! Join me!!

★★★★★ - I LOVED THE SHIT OUT OF THIS, IT REWIRED MY BRAIN, WILL RECOMMEND TO ANYONE AND EVERYONE AT THE SLIGHTEST PROVOCATION (content warning caveats still apply--see 4-star disclaimer). Excellent book, I'll reread it regularly, I'll buy copies for all my friends, I'll try to convince all of Booklr to read it, PLEASE join me!!

[shreddits-less-popular-opinions]

Real pretentious for rusties to call themselves burgundy…you don’t see any other caste arguing about what they’re called :////

}:0|

[toxicrevolver]

2024 K-Pop Wrapped Tag Game

Tagged by @onlyoneofsideblogtrashheep thanks for the tag 💚💚

Regardless of Spotify stats, share your personal k-pop favorites of the year. Of the k-pop content that was released in 2024, post:

Favorite Group Album: DREAM()SCAPE - NCT DREAM

Favorite Solo Album: Depth - Yuta (of course. The way I will never be over this sweeping my October receiptify. NCT solo albums are the best thing ever to me.)

Favorite Title Track: Work - Ateez (this bitch was number 2 for my Spotify wrapped top 5 songs if that tells you anything.)

Favorite B-Side: BOX - NCT DREAM (from the album DREAM()SCAPE) honorable mention to Flamin’ Hot Lemon - Jaehyun

Favorite Music Video: Liar - BUS

Favorite Collab Track: Hush-Hush - BE:FIRST featuring Ateez

Tagging (no pressure): @we-survive-endlessly @smushedmuffin @skinzchoerim and anyone else who wants to participate can blame me

My ramblings bcs me tags started being excessive:

The way I had to fully think and google what fucking albums came out this year is insane. 2023 and 2024 have just blurred together for me. What do you mean Fact Check came out in 2023 but Ten’s solo album was 2024. Whot. I deadass could NOT think what group albums came out this year that I actually listened to. I’m so behind on releases it’s ridiculous. I’m still not over most of 2023s music. How am I gonna cope in 2025. I ended up picking dream()scape purely bcs I clearly remember looping it several times at work or while playing video games and not skipping any songs.

The way Jaehyun’s solo music has had me in a CHOKEHOLD. UNCONDITIONAL WAS MY NUMBER 4 TOP SONG ON MY SPOTIFY WRAPPED. IT CAME OUT OCTOBER 24th. SPOTIFY STOPS TRACKING ON LIKE NOVEMBER 21st. I HAVE A PROBLEM. HIS ALBUM THREW ME FOR A LOOP BCS IM NOT TYPICALLY AN R&B FAN BUT GOOD GOD THIS SHIT SLAPPED. THERE IS NO WAY THAT MAN IS BITCHLESS.

Also. 3 NCT related things making the list. On brand. If NCT was just one giant lumped together Spotify group I swear they woulda been in my top 5 artists. But no. They’re separated bcs subunits and I gotta somehow divide my time or only pick certain subunits to make my chart. A hate crime.

[hausofanya]

i have to ask because ive seen the name spelled with and without the accent- is it cléo or cleo?

it’s cléo! and omg okay i actually had a written thing for this back when i was first setting my girl up but it’s lost in the void now…….. so her maternal grandmother grew up in france and was named anya right. huge huge pianist during her time. and it’s bc of her grandmother that cléo’s mom kemi grew up to be a child of the industry herself (MORE ON THAT LATER!) but kemi wanted to honor anya with her own daughter + just really liked the name cleo (which means to ‘make famous’ btw…) so: cléo anya! the accent is just there for decoration tbh i think it just makes it look prettier LMFAOOO

[moe-broey]

GIRL......................... suspension of disbelief I know but.

Obviously you can pick out a BUNCH of the dragons as that Is an ongoing trope (dragons aging differently than humans, so they can look younger than they "actually are") (also while I did try to avoid including them to make them more comparable to Nino, I think Flayn can fit in either category for the purposes of The Context -- esp cause her dragon blood is meant to be secret)

Not only do we have Heroes skewing younger (a lot fitting into another trope of What If There Was A Baby Sister) we also have Baby Banner. Where the whole point is they are baby.

LIKE....... maybe I'm speaking way too soon and maybe the whole point IS this will backfire LMFAO, but it IS absurd to be presented with her art (which, def still looks youthful!) and having her say yeah I can pass as a kidnapped child. Which COULD be true! But also what do you mean no one is going to know you're a part of the Heroes. Why is no one fighting her on this. Not even including the dragons there are like a handful of Heroes who fit into her exact vibe. Some even MORE baby than her.

[sqlmn]

Seeing as the person who drew this for me and listens to me yell about these two and Rudyard is currently Illegal For Tumblr, I have been given permission to post this!

So a huge thank you I'm crying @ gunhorse ;0; my kids look great and I wuv them... I'm sobbing.

(And for those wondering, the agent named Bravo encounters Katale a fair amount though completely intentional from her. He thinks that she's just a very nice woman who got mixed up in the wrong crowd and she doesn't seem to wish him hard and he doesn't wish her harm so in the end when he sees her he's putting his gun away into a shoulder holster because he's a Good Boy.)