#which os not true but oh it is internalized

[vicsuragi]

i don't feel like i can id as ace bc i could see myself having a sexual relationship at some point, but i also know i could live without having sex again. it'd be nice to have sex with a man once before i die but i've (technically. very technically) had it already and i don't necessarily desire it. i get all that i need from reading books and fanfiction.

[the-rogue-that-goes-stab]

SSC Nymph

Oh goodness it's sure has been a long time and I have made so many mechs

Conceptualized but not completed before the Derrima, the SSC Nymph is an otherworldly anathema to SSC principles; rather than expensive, high maintenance, and hand crafted, the Nymph is mass produced and disposable.

Named after the Nymphidae genus of (Split-footed) Lacewings, the SSC Nymph statistically is pretty standard for a SSC mech with a notable 2 Repair Cap (it's loosely based on Atlas because same size but it's states are like barely better on the tech side). The gimmick of the Nymph proper has two aspects. The first is its Disposable trait, which allows it to return to functionality at the end of a scene (regardless if it's wreck is destroyed or not) as long as it has repair points. The second is a trait maxed out its repairs whenever a non-grunt character within sensors loses a structure. This allows for a more liberal use of repair points but also an incentive to not burn through them too quickly (this will come up in the rest of the license). I also kind of tacked on a little nothing burger of an ability that I love too much; when is destroyed, it's wreck becomes an outer hardsuit for its pilot, allowing them to walk with extra protection while waiting for their mech to come back via Disposable.

The justification for Disposable working even when the mech's wreck is ash is the true power of Nymph, it uses alternate worlds. Yeah so I may have mashed Lich and Echo Knight from 5e together. The actual lore of Nymph is that it kind of just teleported in a SSC exotic materials research facility without warning. It's SSC tech for sure but it just feels off (wrong dates, untraditional file names for the OS, and evidence of being worked on by an intern from the Bella Ciao line) and so they kind of just kept it. Thanks to "leaks" by "3rd parties" Nymph and its licenses were made accessible for testing.

This alternate universe mumbo jumbo is the reason for its core passive, a mix between Soul Vessel and Echo Knights ghost friend; so at the start of Nymph's turns it puts an inanimate copy of itself with 1 HP on its space and can teleport to a copy as a quick action. Its core active allows the Nymph to spend its movement to shuffle the temporal clones around and make them not be obliterated by a sneeze.

Oh it also has fragile and no way of stopping itself from being body blocked by every enemy character.

Woah license time:

1) Restoration Mod <mod>, Splitter Drone <system>

2) frame, Panel Cannon <weapon>, Auxiliary Paneling <system>

3) Phantom Weapon <system>, JANUS Fragment <ai>

Restoration Mod

Made in the middle of the Nymph's creation, this mod is pretty simple but also a good bit powerful. It's a SP 2 mod that basically auto repairs your weapon at the start of every fight. Honestly could add unique to it based on how much it keeps you in the fight by not needing to spend repairs on your primary.

Splitter Drone

Original made around the time that Tarrasque was made, it was an exotic until I thought of putting it in Nymph. Lore wise imagine a giant slime you can grab with your mech to act as a bullet sponge. Also if it does it splits into 2 Splittest Drones which have less HP but can be formed back into a Splitter at the end of a fight. Wow, how very disposable

Panel Cannon

This is THE weapon for Nymph imo. It's a lower damaging main cannon at base but it forces you to mulch 1 to 3 repairs (oh would you look at that, those are really easy to spend on a Nymph) to add extra damage and reliable. The weapon also has indestructible because it basically stapling magnets underneath your mechs hull plating. Also I accidentally made the best violence weapon for a Lancaster who doesn't care 1 bit about their 10 Repairs but we will ignore that.

Auxiliary Paneling

This system might need to get nerfed in the future but it basically allows you to, at the cost of 2 repair points, remove the consequences of brace. Likely not a good deal for most mechs but will likely make Nymph annoying as fuck.

Phantom Weapon

Oh hey, another alternate world power.

Okay so this system is 3 SP and it allows you to use a quick action to summon a temporal copy of your mech with its own weapon that 1) fits on your mounts and 2) you are licensed for. Not particularly useful on Nymph but is just good for literally every mech in the game. Free mount is good stuff. But also if you break a weapon, this system automatically eats the break.

JANUS Fragment

Oh boy, time for the fun one.

Okay so JANUS is a pretty bad AI for more reasons. It isn't sentient nor even take the wheel like other AIs but at least it doesn't cascade right?

Well the main benefit of eating your AI slot for a broken consciousness that's barely lucid is the action it gives you. It's basically Mourning Cloak passive but not gambling (only up to your speed but at least it doesn't send you to Brazil if you fail the luck check). However it also have the peculiar effect of causing all characters not within your LoS to, if they want to, move over by 1 space. (Also like enemies might be differently painted or your allies might have slightly different scratch marks but I'm sure it's your imagination).

All in all, I'm really happy about Nymph, I think the concept while over done was decently implemented in a fun way. I will not however that at the time of its creation, I hadn't invested anytime at all thinking about Lich besides the basics haha funny time wizard, so I'm mildly frustrated at the Nymph for allying so closely to the Lich. I guess you could interrupt it as an alt license of it, less controller and more tanky but idk

It probably does need to be toned down but none of my players are using it so it's not that much of an issue.

Nymph was made in late April, god my back log is crazy

[halfetirosie]

ཐིཋྀ ALL ROADS LEAD BACK TO PHILOSOPHICAL DISCUSSION, NO ONE CAN ESCAPE IT ཐིཋྀ

(Elysium 08-09 React-os!)

1) This is the CREEPIEST peer-pressure scene I have ever seen...

( ⊙ _ ⊙ )

I CALL BULLSHIT!!!!

(This part of Vampire Bitch's creepy speech kinda reminds me of the sermon Olivine was giving at the beginning of this event. It acts as a sort of dark reflection of the message Olivine was trying to give then, I think...

In his sermon, if I remember correctly, Olivine said that everyone has "shortcomings," and that people should accept them and still try to do the right thing. On the other hand, the so-called Master of Elysium is saying people should indulge in all of their desires, regardless of the consequences.

I don't know if it was intended, but this feels like a twisted parallel to me. 🤷‍♀️)

I CALL BULLSHIT!!!! x2

Say it with me, now: If something seems too good to be true, then it probably is!

2) Bro accidentally made the most effective ANTI-drug PSA of all time:

"Here, take this drug! Then you, too, can be a pasty, skeletal drug dealer that ignores others' human rights!"

Gee, how very persuasive...

(◔_◔)

3) PFFFFFT!!! 😂

Eiden over here hiding behind Kuya like he's his big brother--

😂😂😂

4) Damnnnnn, Kuya calling Vampire Bitch out on his Bullshit!!!!!

Lemme tell you, it feels WEIRD AF to actually side with Kuya on something.

Like, I know in my last post I talked about how Kuya is more reasonable when it comes to large-scale issues. But seeing him actively scold someone for harming others? All of this ★ Responsible Kuya ★??? WEIRD.

It's like going to a high school reunion, and seeing the Deadbeat Stoner Kid™ wearing a suit and talking about their corporate job---I mean, hell yeah, good for them, but I do not know this person anymore :D

5) Eh, idk man. I'm having so many THOUGHTS.

First of all, I think it's definitely debatable whether this has "anything to do with Mr. Kuya." Yes, people always make their own decisions in the end---by their own will---but you can't ignore the reality that others have the power to influence their decisions.

It's the second part of this exchange, where Kuya talks about how our decisions make us who we are, that feels strange to me.

I assume that this statement, along with the insistence that Olivine take the "Trial of Choice" (whatever the hell that is), is Kuya's weird-ass Tsundere Bullshit™ way of helping Olivine? As in, he sees Olivine having an internal struggle with himself, and this is his way of helping him be decisive??? 🤔

Or maybe Kuya just wanted to find a non-violent way to get Vampire Bitch to let him leave (+ leave him alone in the future)?

I just don't know, man.... Why does every goddamn thing the fox say have to be so cryptic???

(╯◉ _ ◉)╯︵ ┻━┻

6) Yeah, I agree with Eiden---

Just what the FUCK is this Trial for it to be such a big deal??? I trust NOTHING that has "Trial" in its name---

Although, I wonder; was the flashback we saw at the very beginning of this event from a past Trial of Choice? 🤔

7) BRUH. What kind of drug keeps you high for MULTIPLE DAYS??? After only one pill?????

Eiden's talking as if it's expected for him to still act loopy all these days later----

Oh shit, Was my theory from my first event post correct??? That this drug's effects last a really fuckin long time, which is why "occasional" use is enough to fuck up a person's body chemistry quickly???

That just makes me wonder even more; was the pill Kuya gave him really fake, or does it just not have much effect on someone with a ton of essence?

8) SEE, THIS IS WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!!!!

Ignoring others' influence on one's (in this case, Olivine's) decisions is stupid!!!! 😡😡😡

Peer pressure wouldn't be possible if that wasn't a truth of life!!!

And in this case, where Olivine was literally being threatened, suggesting that he alone is fully responsible for his temptation is, respectfully, bullshit. ♡

Fuck, man, Olivine is always way too hard on himself....

( • ᴖ • )

9) (⊙ᗣ⊙)

KUYA, WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK????

I know this might be an urban legend, but honestly, it sounds like the sort of thing Past Kuya would do... The dude literally tore out the eyes of someone because they checked him out, after all....

Current Kuya has changed a lot, so I don't think something that grisly would be appealing to him, but.... the very idea that he once like that sort of thing is upsetting....

I also still strongly suspect that the "one survivor of the Trial" was the Master of Elysium....

A ton of weird vibes around this.

ཐིཋྀ End of report! ཐིཋྀ

[accio-victuuri]

ybo sdc rehearsal vlog sweets 🍬🧁

first of all, it’s so cute that ybo acknowledged the people who did dance covers @ douyin. i wish someday yibo himself will be a stereotypical tiktok boy and do a dance routine lol.

this post is mainly to point out the fact that xzs and ybo are dating. hahahahaha! atleast their social media manager of sorts or video editors are. or maybe their bosses. who knows.

· • —– ٠ ✤ ٠ —– • ·

Most turtles were probably thinking yesterday when xzs released their vlog if the 24 hour rule will apply. It doesn’t have to be a long video too, it can just be a photo set because ybo does post stock photos too. But no, it was more than we expected. ybo responded with a long form rehearsal vlog of their own. Not really a kadian but look at how close the posting time is. Lol. It’s okay it they both did it at 16:00 but YBO had to post earlier so it won’t be too obvious 😏

The start of both videos showed a supercut of what you will see for the rest of the vlog and both starts at around 0:03 🤍

What are the chances that they have the same style in starting a long form vlog that was published a day apart?

we also have Web showing off his apple watch. Yes dude we know. XZ was also doing the same in his vlog even if we know you’re both endorsing other watches. Also as we CPNd yesterday, XZS was probably hiding GG’s bottled joy container. Compared to Bobo, it’s in there. Lol. Of course, he is their endorser so that’s okay.

+ both using drawings to give more effect to the video.

i see some comments that say if one of them was a girl and with all these coincidences, most blogs will probably be saying they are real. het couples can have the barest similar things months and years apart and people will hold that as more credible. anyway, at least, this kind of thinking keeps them safe because it’s only turtles who pay attention and see this unless it is too obvious and so/os notice too. lol.

and oh! spotted that lone yellow light ⭐️

· • —– ٠ ✤ ٠ —– • ·

Now let’s talk about more sensitive matters, because as much as I wanna scream and shout when things like this happen we also gotta be careful. You may be seeing posts that say they are both in Shanghai. allegedly. Treat it as a fake rumor. Bobo is, but we don’t know about GG. Again, what is important is their privacy and safety. If they don’t wanna be found then we shouldn’t make it hard for them. I saw some comments that a “fan” tried to take a photo of Web and yanyan warned them off. We already know how yibo absolutely hates it when fans follow him around. Airport is probably fine like outside which is a public space and as long as people don’t delay flights and crowd. But he doesn’t like it when fans go to his hotel or whatever. They are real people and deserve to have their own time. The things we pick up and possibly future same events together should be enough.

To those who are going to the BJYX ST, you also might see “burn after reading” comments. The gist of what is going around is this:

GG got picked up from Hangzhou by a vehicle with a Shanghai license plate. His hotel stay in HZ was also refunded. There are also allegedly 4 photos but you can’t find it now.

I cannot confirm who this is from or how reliable. even if they were, it’s pretty dodgy how someone can have this information even if it feeds the CPN machine. Imagine someone stalking GG or Yibo at their hotel and looking at where they go. It’s a clear invasion of privacy even if you just see it in passing is still 50-50 to me. So i’m just putting it here to archive this incident. Again, this is going around BXG circles in weibo. There is no “insider”, especially in international platforms that can confirm this as 100% true. I am labeling this as fake rumor and fan fiction. 👀

-END.

[kittyandco]

Any f/o advice/encouragement when you constantly feel inadequate? For when it seems like no matter what you do it’s never good enough? For taking the initiative to be proactive and go after the things you want but not getting it anyway so you wonder why you even bother trying? Feeling ironically juxtaposed to this cheery time of year.

hey anon! warning to you & anyone reading that this is going to be long. i'm offering a couple of approaches here (under a keep reading!):

firstly, thank you for reaching out when you feel lost; that in itself can be difficult.

secondly, i used to feel the same way all the time. it's taken work & time for me to be confident in myself, in my ships, etc. of course, i still struggle with inadequacy, impostor syndrome, and other internal issues, but i'm better equipped to handle them now. so take this from someone who was where you were and still are sometimes.

here's one way to look at it: why regret not trying? would you rather say "oh, i didn't get this, but maybe next time" or "why didn't i do that?" if you continually deny yourself the things you want, you will inevitably believe that you don't deserve anything at all. it sounds like the Just Be Happy Sweetie mantras, but your mindset is really important. nihilism is a scourge on this earth because it forces you to not care, not try, not receive because you don't believe you deserve anything, which causes you not to try anymore.

here's another way: who says you "aren't getting it anyway"? what, something didn't go your way a couple of times? yeah, so? you got a whole life ahead of you. like why not! would you rather do something to occupy your mind or dwell on the fact that you're doing nothing? what's it gonna hurt that you try? maybe your feelings if you fail, yeah, but what if you don't? won't you feel on top of the world? chase that feeling, not more insulation. never be on the inside looking out.

here's something that worked for me. change a couple of little things in your life/routine, even if they seemingly have nothing to do with the things you intend to achieve. it may just work. what you essentially do is re-evaluate what may or may not be working in regard to your goals, but inadvertently, so you don't overthink it. it means that you are taking the time to invest in your actions and wellbeing, no matter how small. and these little instances of saying "yes, i care about myself enough to try, etc." can manifest in unwitting ways.

in terms of ships - although this can apply to your real life, your real self-image - write about yourself from your f/o's perspective or a third-person perspective. look at yourself from someone else's eyes. what are you good at? what do you like? dislike? even the "bad parts" of you are what make you yourself and are always up for improvement. that's something to strive for... not perfection, but someone whole.

find ways to connect with your f/os; find similarities between them and yourself. look at the characteristics they have that you love. do you share those traits?

if a more cynical idea works for you: it's just fiction. they're fake people. you can make them feel about you however you want. so. just do it.

in all, it really comes down to you realizing that you're not the villain. you're not the loser. you aren't nearly as bad of a person as you think you are - far from it. i don't know you personally, but i guarantee. you have more to offer than you think, and people may not have told you that, but it is true. you would never speak to someone else this way.

sometimes you are all you have. cherish and nourish that. because when the time comes that you convene with someone else in any context, you will be the best you can be.

[osorcanine]

Just out of curiosity if youre okay with answering, what was the process of figuring out that you’re OS like? Do your relationships with objects mirror those with humans in terms of fulfillment?

Add-on for the previous ask, I am not OS but I find the orientation fascinating and I just want to learn more! :)

I love that you’re curious and kind! I am happy to share.

About... a year or so ago I was browsing through the MOGAI tags (I didn’t ID as MOGAI at the time, I just found the entire community interesting and I liked looking at their content). I stumbled across a user who had received asks about objectum sexuality. At first I simply looked it up because I was curious, and then realized “oh this sounds like me!”

I’ve always had deep connections with objects; due to a combination of things I’ve always considered them to have some degree of ‘life’ (although this is not needed to be OSOR) and have always tried to be kind to my object friends. I didn’t communicate much with objects yet, or believe as strongly as I do in the ‘life’ thing, but the basis for those things was already there, so to speak. Coming to terms with being OSOR made me feel comfortable exploring those things!

After seeing the asks about OSOR I did a lot of research— I looked at Objectum Sexuality International’s page, I looked through the tags here and at old blogs (@os-positive helped a lot!), and I even read the few scientific articles/studies there’s been on OSOR folks. I thought ‘wow, I wish I was OSOR’... spoiler alert: if you find yourself wishing you were x, you probably are, and that’s what turned out to be true for me.

Adopting the orientation label made me more thoughtful and deliberate in my interactions with my object friends, and that has made our relationships and interactions even more fulfilling. I wouldn’t say they’re exact replicas of relationships with humans, but like you mention in your question, they do mirror quite well — I feel very fulfilled by them, and I feel a deep sense of duty to give my friends a good life.

I know my object friends are not people, and that they experience ‘life’ in a way that can’t be directly translated to how humans experience life, but it’s all similar enough that it can be generally understood by me, a human, through a human lens.

But honestly, the appeal of objects Is they are not people, and that they have their own unique way of experiencing life and consciousness (if you believe in that, which you don’t have to - some OSOR folks simply love their objects while feeling the objects are little more then inanimate things, which is fine and valid! Reciprocity is also not essential— some people don’t feel their objects love them back, because the objects are objects, and that’s a real and valid way of being OSOR too.)

I hope this isn’t too much of a impromptu essay Anon, and I hope it helps you understand us OSOR folk a little more. Grain of salt though - a lot of this is just my experience, and I’m not some guru or figurehead; I’m just your average objectlover lol.

If you’d like to read an amazing study, and I say amazing because I’m biased and this is my favorite study someone has done, this paper is by Dr. Amy Marsh who’s a big OS advocate, and I think it gives a good look into the various ways OSOR people experience their love. The now defunct but still informative blog @os-positive has some good info as well.

Thanks for being kind in your ask - I’m happy to talk about this all day, as long as people are genuinely interested and are nice about it.

[thedreammweaver]

Call of the Magpie part 1 (Nygmobblepot angst, trans!pregnant!Oswald)

Part 2

Warnings: emetophobia tw, pica, self harm via ingestion of harmful materials, relationship strain, dysphoria, poor mental health, spiraling, ptsd, childhood trauma

“Are you alright?” Ed asked, turning over in bed to place a hand on Ozzie’s shoulder. The shorter man had suffered some embarrassment at a meeting earlier, though he wouldn’t disclose details. Ed guessed it had something to do with him being pregnant and recently beginning to show. Oswald had been losing respect from his peers the moment news of his pregnancy had spread.

Oswald just moved away from Ed.

“If you aren’t you can talk to me-“

“Leave me alone, Edward.”

Ed retreated into himself “O-Okay.”

He was feeling a lot of pressure to be a good partner. He and Oswald had sort of rushed getting into a more serious and official relationship when they found out about the baby. They still weren’t quite used to living together like they were. Ed was determined to make this work, if his parents had taught him anything it was that never making your partner angry no matter what was the way to keep a good relationship...even if it meant suppressing one’s own feelings and being a doormat.

    Oswald still felt groggy while trying to do his makeup the next day. While he was internally cursing his increased hormones for making his skin break out as he found acne to be way worse than freckles he noticed a place on the wall next to his vanity where the paint was peeling off. Before he could think to tell Olga to have it fixed he was overcome with an urge to...eat it. He’d dealt with pica due to malnutrition during his teen years and childhood, he’d thought he’d long since kicked the habit but here were those urges again. Gertrud had told him stories of weird cravings from when she was pregnant with him so he’d heard of things like this happening before. He absently picked at the wall, there was no harm in this happening a few times right? It would make a funny story like the ones Gertrud had told him, he thought as some of the paint flaked into his hand.

  The dining room was unbearably quiet as Ed and Oswald ate. It was making Ed feel pressure to say the thing that’d been rattling in his mind.

“Do I make you happy?”

Oswald was so caught off guard he almost choked.

“What??”

“Do I make you happy?” Ed felt his voice shaking though he didn’t know why.

Oswald rolled his eyes “Yes, Edward. Why would you ask me that?”

“I don’t know. Things were...rushed, and I just want to make sure I’m not doing anything wron-“

Ed was cut off by Oswald’s phone ringing and the other man excusing himself from the table.

    Ed was struggling to quiet his mind as he laid in bed staring at the ceiling. What if he and Oswald weren’t ready for this? He felt like he was becoming his mother, not that Oswald was anything like his father...was he?

No, he wasn’t.

Ed turned over as he recalled studies he’d seen that said children of abuse are likely to end up with abusive partners, what if that was happening now? No, it wasn’t, it couldn’t be. Paranoia was creeping into Ed’s mind and distorting what he knew to be true. Oswald loved him, he would never hurt him like his father did, so why couldn’t he let himself feel safe? Why couldn’t he let himself believe it? His thoughts were interrupted by Oswald getting up and running to the bathroom followed by the sounds of retching.

“I could make you something else.” Ed offered as he helped Oswald get cleaned up. “No, no, it’s fine. I’ll do it myself.” Oswald mumbled, getting off of the counter and walking out of the bathroom. Ed turned around to a spot by the toilet where Oswald had missed. Inspecting a partner’s vomit would be weird, Ed was just going to clean up so Os didn’t have to worry about it. But there was something weird, it looked like paint chips? Ed shook it off. Inspecting was weird, just clean.

Oswald had intended to make actual food but was distracted by papers on his desk in the study, he’d meant to throw them away earlier. He padded into his office and picked up one of the papers. He bit his lip as the thought to eat it came into his mind. He shouldn’t, he really shouldn’t but..he did.

    “You’re quiet today.” Lee commented as she finished checking up on Oswald.

“I’m allowed to be quiet, aren’t I?”

“Yes, but quiet isn’t your usual state, I associate you more with screaming.” She chuckled before turning to a more serious tone “Are you okay, Oswald? You can tell me if you aren’t. Pregnancy is hard enough I can’t imagine how much harder it is coupled with being trans-”

“Yes.” Oswald said sharply “I’m fine. I just had a question...”

“Of course, what is it?”

“I...is it normal for..is it normal during pregnancy to want to eat things? I mean..inedible things?”

Lee’s brow furrowed “Are you-“

“Oh, no, I’m not asking for me. My mom- she told me about wanting to eat clay while she was pregnant with me,” Oswald chuckled “I’ve just been wondering about that lately..”

“Uhh, well, pica during pregnancy isn’t unheard of. I’m not an expert on this but the most common...uncommon cravings I’ve heard are like you said clay, rocks, dirt, ice..I think chalk was one. Anyways, I wouldn’t jump to thinking something’s horribly wrong if you start feeling those cravings, but maybe consult me before you put any rocks or dirt in your mouth.” She joked.

“Thank you, Lee.” Oswald said absently.

       Lee hadn’t said anything about consulting her before eating glue which is what he was currently sneaking once Ed and Olga were asleep. He was starting to not feel good but he didn’t feel good because of something he had control over, instead of stupid embarrassing things the pregnancy was causing. He was completely and totally in control.. or so he hoped.

[aciieerr]

POVERTY

Poverty is everybody's problem.  Everybody in a sense that boy or girl, young or old, even rich or poor, that is one of their problems. Almost all of the Filipinos are experiencing poverty and it's so sad that the innocent children are the one who affected too much.

At their very young age, they are taught how to earn for a living, just for their own selves and for their family as well.

As a student i learned to appreciate the little things that my parents provided for me just lik when we have food, they always say to us that, "don't waste your food because they are children out there who haven't eaten yet. Be thankful everyday because you can eat three times a day."

My parents always telling me that the only way to overcome poverty is 'education'. They always reminding me and my siblings to study hard so that we don't experience that kind of life because it's so hard and sad. They always teach us to be 'generous'. They want us to finish our study so that we can get a great job in the future so we are able to provide fo family needs and for other people who need help. So, I study hard to become a successful so i can help other people.

We can change not only ourselves, but also the whole world if we can beat poverty.  Dream big and believe in your own self, and it's up to us on how to develop it.   After all, success will come on your way.

#dream big #we can beat poverty #education is important #better world

FLASH FICTION

I stepped outside into a gorgeous summer day. The sun made everything look bright and cheerful. It would have been an ideal day for a picnic—if I still had a special someone to picnic with.

Nobody would have suspected the thunderstorm going on inside my heart. Lightnings illuminated hidden emotions briefly, followed by a clasp of crushed hopes. Droplets of internal tears poured down, washing off what remained of my romantic dreams.

I sat at the bus stop with a book, reading the same paragraph for the fifth time and trying to look indifferent to my internal weather patterns. Sunglasses masked my puffy eyes and returned the reflection of a nearby flower. I will never love again. Love is just an illusion leading nowhere.

I was so absorbed in my thoughts, I didn't notice the man taking a seat beside me.

"Excuse me, Miss, but I couldn't help noticing that you're reading O. Henry. He's my favorite author."

His deep voice startled me. His friendly smile warmed up my damp heart and blew away some of the storm clouds.

"He's my favorite as well." I tried to return his smile.

We spent the next fifteen minutes talking about literature and its influence in today's culture. The bus came and went. We pretended not to notice.

"By the way, my name is Mark." As his warm hand shook mine, an electric current coursed through me.

"Do you care to join me for lunch?" he added, ignoring my blushing cheeks. "Let's start all over again, shall we? I'm sorry about this morning."

A rainbow appeared, leading the way to a heart of gold. I followed it.

COMEDY DRAMA

"What the heck! Look what you did to my dress? You are so idiotlt! Where's your manager, I will talk to him.

"Manager immediately? You don't want to talk to me ma'am?"

"Ha! You even have the guts to laugh at me! You are so annoying"

Then the manager came. "Hi what's going on here? What's this mess?" He scanned the dress of the lady.

Oh! Are you the manager? Your waitress is so idiot, look what she did to my dress, it so dirty. You know this is so expensive.

"Is it true? You did that to her?" He look at Klare. "Sir, i didn't mean to do that. Is it my fault that she does not looking where she go?"

"Look your waitress is so aaghh!! annoying me so much!" Then she made a face.

"I'm apologizing in behalf of her ma'am, shes just new her so that she's still learning. I'm so sorry ma'am."

"Okay! because I'm late with my meeting, I will forgive her but make sure that this will not happen again." Then she's ready to leave the coffee shop.

"Yes ma'am, I'm so sorry again."

He asked Klare to sit. "Klare next time ba careful with your action so that it does not gonna happen again."

"Yes Sir! Sorry Sir! I will do better next time."

"Okay good. That lady is so loud and her dress os not that good hmmp!"

"Hahaha! It's true sir it was so cheap fashion."

"Okay stop haha go back to work."

HAIKU

SUNSETS

As another day fades

After thousands of sunsets

You give me wonders

TANAGA

SUNSETS

I have always loved sunsets

The way the sun makes love with

The horizon giving birth

To a warm and golden sky

ACROSTIC

Father you are

Always there for me

In my weakness and darkness days you were

There for me, You

Help me

CRAFT ESSAY

Within weeks of his inauguration as president of the Philippines in June 2016, Rodrigo R. Duterte became the most internationally known Filipino leader since Ferdinand Marcos, the country’s infamous dictator, and Corazon Aquino, the iconic housewife-turned-president who championed the restoration of democracy in 1986. A great deal of media attention has been paid to Duterte’s murderous war on drugs as well as to his often crass and controversial statements. His embrace of China and his visceral disdain for the United States has garnered additional attention in foreign policy circles, and he frequently is included in media reports and scholarly articles on the rise of populism globally.

Although the attention to Duterte and his brutal drug war is warranted, much less attention has been paid to his administration’s broader policy agenda, its approach to politics and governance, and its broader impact on democratic institutions and norms. As a candidate, Duterte promised that he would produce real and rapid improvements in the lives of Filipinos, particularly by aggressively addressing crime and corruption. Two and a half years into his presidency, it is both warranted and possible to assess what has and has not changed under Duterte. The picture is a mixed one, with elements of change, continuity, and regression.

The Duterte government’s track record regarding human rights and democracy is undoubtedly disturbing. It has run roughshod over human rights, its political opponents, and the country’s democratic institutions. The combination of the Philippines’ powerful presidency and the malleability of most of its political institutions is resulting in significant democratic backsliding. But to focus only on Duterte fails to appreciate two other important elements: the extent to which this degradation has happened through nominally legal means, and the limited pushback to date by groups and institutions opposed to strongman rule. This working paper takes an in-depth look at the complex dynamics contributing to democratic backsliding in the Philippines.

[sides-of-demigods]

Emile and Remy

EMILE PICANI (20)

Oracle of Delphi

The Oracle of Delphi is a mortal with the sight that Apollo blessed with the gift of prophecy, specifically making them the vessel of the spirit of Delphi.

I know, I know, plenty of problems with that, but we'll get to those later I swear, just wanna get through the basic stuff.

Emile is influenced by the spirit of Delphi, giving him visions and occasionally possessing him to provide prophecies.

The visions can happen in dreams or when awake and are not always helpful. Sometimes they're full-on visions, but often they're symbolic or just short flashes or don't make sense with no context.

So, you know how in the PJO books, Rachel Dare painted her visions? Emile writes them.

And not in an "Oh this is what happened" like he's taking notes, he writes them like a story to get down every detail possible.

As for prophecies, well there's a risk that every time he's asked a question the spirit of Delphi will take control and give an entire freaking prophecy, but usually she only does that when the person actually needs a prophecy.

Sometimes it will come completely unprompted though, he'll just go into Prophecy Mode for like no reason and confuse everyone.

He doesn't do a lot of fighting and prefers to talk his way through things, but he does have a dagger that Roman and Logan helped teach him to use just in case.

Emile has dirty blonde hair, so dark that sometimes it can pass as a really light brown.

His eyes are bright blue, but when he's having a vision or giving a prophecy they'll glow an eerie sickly green color.

As for height, he's just taller than Patton, but comfortable at 5'9" (175 cm).

Besides, his boyfriend is way taller, and he actually quite enjoys the height difference.

Since he doesn't actually train with everyone, he isn't as well built, but he can hold his own.

Sort of.

Now for the question I'm sure you're asking: "Hey, Sara, why the fuck is Emile the Oracle of Delphi. She's supposed to be a woman. Is your head broken?"

Well here's the thing...he was.

That's right y'all, Emile Picani is transgender.

He became the Oracle of Delphi and arrived at camp around 4 years ago when he was sixteen.

It wasn't until a year later that he realized shit...he was a boy.

Cue internal freakout for a MULTITUDE of reasons.

He knew that only a woman was supposed to be the Oracle of Delphi, and without the spirit of Delphi he was just a random mortal who for some reason could see through the mist.

He wouldn't be able to stay at Camp.

He didn't want to do that!

He had friends, and he just loved Camp.

He and Remy had just said "I love you" a few months ago, and he'd already made arrangements with Chiron to take up permanent residence once he graduated high school.

Should he just deal with it? Should he really just risk all that just because he felt a little dysphoric everytime someone called him Amelia?

Thankfully Remy noticed something was up and the two talked all through the night about what to do, names, and things like that.

Technically Remy was supposed to go back to his cabin, but Chiron let him stay.

The next day, during announcements at dinner, Emile went up and announced that he was a boy and that he'd be going by Emile now.

Almost the entire camp cheered.

Remy announced that anyone who had a problem with it would have to deal with him.

Suddenly everyone was clapping.

Apollo showed up a few days later to sort everything out.

Apparently, you were the Oracle of Delphi until death, so Emile got to stay at Camp and everything was perfect.

Back to his powers for a second.

His powers have an effect on his body.

When having a vision, Emile will stop whatever he's doing or saying and just stand there, his eyes glowing.

Afterward, he'd feel lightheaded, dizzy, and dazed, which was where Remy came in.

Usually Emile would stumble a bit and Remy would be there to catch him every single time without fail. He'd take the shorter boy somewhere to sit down for a minute while he recovered and Emile would write down what he saw.

As for prophecies, those were worse.

Emile wouldn't be able to stand so Remy would grab one of the stools they keep at key places around camp just for this purpose and situate him on it.

Emile would seize up and speak in a voice that wasn't his. Green smoke would seem to appear from nowhere and his eyes would glow.

Immediately afterward he'd completely pass out sometimes for a few minutes, sometimes for hours.

Remy would immediately scoop him up and carry him to his room in the Big House and stay with him until he woke up.

Fun Fact: Emile is a permanent resident of Camp with a room in the Big House ever since he graduated high school. He is taking online classes for a Degree in Psychology in his free time

REMY DORMIR (19)

Son of Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty

Remy has very very basic charmspeak. He can do very basic commands and can really only give people a push.

But however, he is really good with illusions. Not magic in general like the Hecate kids, just illusions and especially glamors.

In his words, the Mist is his bitch.

Remy actually has two signature weapons, because why not? He never adhered to tradition before so why start now?

The first is a stave/staff that the now Head Counselor of Hecate Camden Foote made for him. Not only does it help him focus his spells and control it more but it gives him an extra reserve to draw from other than himself.

His second is a spear but with the way he uses it it's basically a pointy bo staff.

Literally the only reason it has a spearhead is because you can’t kill monsters with a stick.

The staff is made of aspen wood with a black and silver grip, and the top resembles branches with a bright white light in the middle when Remy is using it.

The spear however is ebony with the usual celestial bronze spearhead and a simple black leather grip. Other than that, it’s not really anything special or extravagant.

Remy is a tall boi, he’s the same height as Logan, which means he’s six feet (182 cm)

His hair is jet black, like “holy crap how is it possible for hair to be that dark” black.

His eyes are gray but somehow they aren’t dull and instead intriguing

Emile is so lucky because his boyfriend is hot as hell

Okay moving on before I forget that I’m a lesbian today

Remy is one of those kids who literally had no idea he was a demigod but once he found out everything in his life suddenly made so much sense.

Like, for instance, the fact that girls were always all over him and people always seemed to want to hang out with him even though they had never met before.

He came to camp for his first summer at 11 years old, so about 8 years ago and the same year Thomas came to camp.

Since then he’s been coming every summer and switched to year-round literally like the second he graduated High School at 17.

No literally, like he changed out of his cap and gown and then drove to camp.

Then all of a sudden he was living there.

As for his family…

His family was stupid rich, and he still had full access to the money as long as he didn't do anything stupid.

He and his dad weren’t estranged and they definitely cared about each other but they just weren’t that close, and Remy was even more distant from his stepdad.

No mortal siblings or friends, but Remy didn’t really need them either.

He and Emile met for the first time when Remy was on a quest. It wasn’t anything major, in fact, it was just him and Thomas hunting down a rogue monster.

The two cornered the thing in an alley and managed to kill it but not before Emile witnessed the whole thing.

And it wasn’t the boys beating up a homeless dude or something, like the Mist should have made Emile see, but he saw everything, from the monster to Remy’s staff.

Remy managed to calm the freaked out mortal and explained the situation as best he could.

The two kept in touch and when it was announced that a search would begin for a new host for the Oracle Remy knew exactly who to call.

The rest was history.

The weird thing for Remy was that he found himself with a crush on Emile, or Amelia at the time, which was beyond confusing because he could have sworn he was gay. But who knew, maybe he was homoflexible.

What he did know was that he REALLY liked Emile. He confessed this soon after Emile took on the spirit of the Oracle and the two started dating

Remy is scary.

When you meet him or talk to him he seems so laid-back and cool and friendly.

But anyone who’s ever seen him fight can tell you that he is NOT someone you should mess with.

The way he moves and fights and even does magic is so fluid and quick it seems effortless.

It’s not just physical though.

Maybe it’s because he’s a child of Aphrodite or maybe it’s just the way he is, but if he wanted to he could easily verbally eviscerate someone.

He has this uncanny ability to be able to tell what your flaws and insecurities and exactly how to exploit them.

And not to mention that he os like the DEFINITION of protective.

Basically everyone is low-key scared of him and they should be.

Fun fact: Thanks to Remy literally always having Starbucks with him, there’s a rumor around camp hat Children of Aphrodite have the ability to summon Starbucks at any time. This obviously isn’t true but none of the Aphrodite kids are denying it. Honestly, half the time the Starbucks isn’t even real, it’s an illusion.

[saluzozette]

TAGrewatch

I am so excited by this rewatch y’all have no idea ! I remember when I first was introduced to the thunderbirds, I was around twelve years old and it was the 2004 movie. I liked it, but as a young french girl, I had no idea there was more to it. Then, when I was nineteen, I visited my mom’s friend in new-zealand and it was dumb luck we ever talked about it. Then he told me there was a show ! And THEN I realised there was going to be a remake ! It was insane ! I was so happy ?!!

I really like that show. It has everything I need, except maybe a lack of everyday life on tracy island but well.

So, as I was watching it the first time around, I wanted to write a series of ficlet. The idea was to write a OS for every episode and take the moment were everything could have gone wrong and well... make everything go wrong ^^’ I really love angst, ok ? 

I only managed to write something for the first seven or something episodes, and then I stoped, but I would be happy to share my writing with you today !

Enjoy !

More under the cut

What could have gone wrong

Episode 1, Ring of fire part 1

Gordon’s POV :

“Ok, folks, I'm almost there.”

Now that I got that weird device which, I’m almost certain, is causing those sea quakes, I can finally focus on what I really came here for in the first place. The rescue. I know I shouldn’t have ooze away like that, but… for a second… For a second I thought I had found my dad. I know I should have focus on the rescue, and then go back and check the device, but I couldn’t… I just couldn’t.

Anyway, now I have that thing, and I’m back into business! Lab’s crew, get ready to be rescued.

“Good news, Thunderbird Four.” Virgil says through the radio, and I can hear the reassurance he’s not telling in his words. He knows how I feel. Hell, they all know. My dad is their dad after all. John and Scott stay silent but even then, it comforts me.

There it is. I can see the lab, the nose of which is seriously pointing down. I’m late. I will have to make it quick.

“Make it quick.” Virgil says as if he could read my mind. “I'm not sure how much longer we can hold on.”

Don’t worry big bro. I’m one of the fastest swimmer on hearth, remember?

“International Rescue!” Comes the lab’s director’s voice. “The control room is flooding! Just get us out of here!”

The panic is clear in the way his words are striving to came out all at once. I have to save those people. I have to.

I’m approaching the lab. Half its legs have fall off. The only thing that is stopping it from going away in the abyss underneath are Thunderbird One and Two’s cables. And by the way the lab is still heading down inch by inch, I can guess that Virgil and Scott are in trouble up there. Only my baby can make it under water. There is no way on hearth her two BIG big sisters could do it. It would ruin their engines.

“Leave the planet for a few hours and the whole world falls apart!”

“Hey, at least it has TV.”

I can’t help but grin at that, half mocking, half relieved. Just hearing my little brother et my sister’s complaints feels good. Alan and Kayo are back on hearth, and safe at home. I know I’m being stupid. I know I’m being overprotective, but I can’t help it. Alan sure is a Hell of an astronaut. He can even be the best, right next to John, for all I know, but I will never ever stop worrying when he and Kayo are up there, out of the atmosphere, out of the planet’s gravity, way out of my reach. I can’t stop worrying. It’s a big brother prerogative. Even if Kayo is in fact older than me.

Ok, Gordon, focus! Those people still need help, Alan don’t. What is up with you today? I come closer. Deployment of the movable arms, check; stabilization of the ‘bird, check. How am I going to get the crew to the surface? Thunderbird Four is a two-passenger’s ‘bird only. I can’t take them all with me. I will have to use the dry tubes.

“All right, here's the plan.” I call into my radio. “I'm cutting my way in from underneath, I'll evacuate the crew in dry tubes. Thunderbird Five, have the crew prepared for immediate evacuation. Everyone cool?”

John silence has always meant “yes”, and Virgil and Scott don’t complain. That makes me smile. I like it when nobody contests my plans. It means that even Mister Bossy and Mister I-always-have-something-to-say above water know that down there, I make the rules. Down there, there is no big or little brother, only me. I’m the Godfather of the oceans.

“Ok, then.” I say, unable to hide the satisfaction in my voice. “Here we go.”

It takes me less than a minute to laser a way in. Now, shall the exciting part begin. Even though I love my ‘bird, I rather be directly into the water. I don’t have a flying ‘bird, it is true. And if I had to fly one of those all by myself, I’m not sure I could do it without entirely destroying it on the way. But it doesn’t matter. Because when I’m diving, I’m flying anyway. Without wings, without engines, and without metal. I’m totally free! Except for the air bottles, ok. But those don’t count.

“Ok, I'm inside.” I say, heading for the entirely over flooded stairs. “Making my way to the crew compartment.”

One, two, three knocks and they open the door. Woah… It’s crowded in here! There are only three crewmen, but there is a whole bunch of stuff floating everywhere. And the erratic movements of the lab are not helping.

“I'm inside the control room.” I call while trying to calm down the crew’s panic. “All hands accounting for. I'll take them out, one at the time.”

“Good news, Thunderbird Four.” Virgil answers, a little stress escaping from his tone. “But hurry. We're hanging on by a thread here.”

I can feel the lab going down and down. Thunderbirds One and Two mustn’t have much room left to fly. The scientists’ director pushes a young lady into my arms. He wants me to help her first. Very well. I lead her down the stairs and through the door. For god’s sake, does she even know how to swim?! I know I’m a good swimmer but why does everybody else have to be bad ones?!

Eventually, I get her aboard my ‘bird and put her into a dry tube. I don’t have much more time.

“You're gonna be ok.” I tell her when she looks at me worryingly. I can’t afford to reassure her further, so I close the tube and send it to the surface. “First dry tube is away.”

Oh, crud… The lab is already half above the abyss. It’s a matter of second now. I don’t lose time saying anything to my brothers and go get another crew member right away. My heart is racing. The cables won’t stand a lot longer.

“One more to go.” I say when the second dry tube is ejected. “I'm going back in.”

Yeah, right, easy to say, much more difficult to do. Everything is moving! How am I supposed to swim faster if heavy metal things I can’t even give a name to are trying to kill me every second?

“The lab is shifting.” I tell my brothers when I reach the control room for the third time. “It's gonna flip any second!”

Honestly, I would have prefered that. Because I’m only able to share a look with the director, when a huge, heavy metal thing (of course!) pounds me against the wall. You know how you used to think that stuff get a lot lighter when you put it underwater? Yes? Well heavy metal things do not do that. They stay heavy. And they crush you.

That thing crushes me. The shock makes my lungs empty, and I just have the time to realize it is water that I am now breathing, before I start drowning. My air bottles have exploded!

***

Scott was having troubles with stabilizing his ‘bird. The lab was falling, and whatever Gordon was doing down there was taking too long.

“The lab's too heavy. It's pulling us both under!” He called to make his brother hurry.

Nobody answered. First, Scott felt irritation. Then, after more than ten very long and very silent seconds, worry started to kick in. What the Hell was Gordon doing?!

“Thunderbird Four, can you read me?” Virgil asked, way more scared than anything else.

Nobody answered.

“Gordon, do you read me?” He repeated.

Nobody answered.

“Gordon!”

And then…

The cables of Thunderbird Two broke. The lab fell even further and Thunderbird One came way too close from the ocean. Scott had no choice. If he kept holding on, he would go underwater. So he let it go. Without seeing it, the two brothers could tell, voices inaudible, and words unspeakable, that the lab had fall all the way into the abyss, along with the last scientist, Thunderbird Four, and Gordon.

“I’m not picking up any sign of life.” John’s voice came through the radio, low and broken. “The lab has exploded, Thunderbird Four as well… There are no survivors.”

Somewhere in the distance, coming from home, they could hear quiet sobs. Alan was crying, fear and despair drowning him, like water had just drown their fallen brother.

OoOoOoOoOoO

Episode 2, Ring of fire part 2

Scott’s POV:

“We have to destroy this dish. I need options, Brains. Fast.”

It's not that I start to feel pressured, but I sure start to feel pressured. If this mission is a failure it isn’t two or three lives that we are going to lose – although it would already be way too much – but possibly more than a hundred! By the Hood’s hands. We can’t allow that. We can’t let this city burn. To tell the truth, failure is not an option.

“Yeah!” My friend answers, showing me a modelization of the solar collector through my 3D projection device. “The primary support arm. Remove that and the entire dish will detach. I'm sending you coordinates now.”

Think fast, Scott. Do you have any other option to save everyone? Forget the electronical way, it doesn’t work. Virgil can’t move the dish manually either, because it would crush the control room. Oh, and those people still need to get out of here by the way. Ok, looks like you have no choice, after all.

“Virgil, get the engineers out.” I call through the radio, already heading for the ladder. “I'm taking out the dish.”

“Are you sure about this?” My brother asks.

He doesn’t like this plan any more than I do. If I cut the dish, not only will my life be in danger, but so will his and the engineers’. But we have no choice, and I know he knows it. The sun is rising, already causing damages to the city. We can’t risk several hundred existences just for the safety of our owns. Not even for the safety of three other people. The city comes first. Besides, I have another argument he can’t complain against.

“It's what Dad would have done.”

Silence in the radio. I’m not sure Virgil agrees with me on this, but at least, he doesn’t say anything. He must know how much I need to be sure I’m doing the right thing. I don’t care if it means putting my own life in danger.

I’m outside again. I don’t lose any more time and start climbing the primary support arm. Somewhere in the background, I can hear Thunderbird Two getting closer to the control room. Once I’m at the base of the dish, I start lazering.

“Virgil, I'm cutting my way through.” I tell my brother, praying for him to be already out with the engineers.

I can hear him talking to them through the radio, but I have no idea where he is. Let’s just hope he has finished rescuing them. The last metal bar gives away. I just have the time to grab the dish before it starts falling.

Ok, now I really need to get out of here. I can finally see my brother. He is hanging on Thunderbird Two’s rescuing seats, next to the three engineers. I knew he could do it! Damn, this thing is falling fast! Come on, Scott, stop thinking or you will be the one needing a rescue. You just have to make this fucking jet pack works.

It doesn’t work…

“The heat must have fried my jet pack!”

***

Virgil was securing his hold on the cable and making sure that the engineers could not fall when he heard his older brother’s cry. His heart froze. What did he mean by “fried jet pack”? Almost too scared to check, the young man took a look anyway. What he saw made him chocked.

“Scott!” He cried to his sibling who could not heard him. “Scott!”

The oldest Tracy was ridiculously small on the dish, compared to the giant Virgil was seeing in his mind. Scott was the oldest of his siblings, but also the strongest, the wisest, the anything-est! He was indestructible! Nothing could happen to him, right?

The dish fell all the way down the hill and Virgil followed it with Thunderbird Two. He didn’t care about the engineers anymore. The only thing he cared about was his brother.

“Scott, do you read me?!” He yelled into his radio when everything subsided.

He didn’t get an answer, but he didn’t really need one, because as soon as he had cried, he had seen what he was looking for. Scott was there, stuck under a huge metal bar, and even without checking, Virgil could tell he was dead. His big brother was dead.

[fatrainbowmermaidunicorn]

PROMPT GAME #2

"You two really looked great together," another older couple beams at both Y/N and Taehyung after giving their greetings. The two smile and nodded, like they usually do for the millionth time at this kind of parties.

"And there goes another one, saying how great we look," Taehyung chuckled, passing her a glass of wine. Y/N just nodded and, smile, gulping down her drink. At the rate this party is going, she will be needing way more than just a glass for sure. "Aunties and uncles alert," Taehyung whisper and nudge her with his elbow and the two immediately puts on a smile at the two impecabbly dressed couple hewded their way.

"Taehyung, Y/N, you two look wonderful today. Taehyung, handsome as always," Y/N's auntie, her father's oldest sister smile and beams at the young man, and Taehyung flashed his charming smile, making the older lady blush.

"Thanks Aunt May. You look gorgeous as always too,"

"But not as pretty as Y/N here right?" She winks. "So, when are you two ever going to make it official? You wont have a secret engagement or anything right?"

"Aunt May!" Y/N os horrified. Why cant family members just be normal?

"What? Did I say something wrong?" Aunt May feign innocent, strongly believe that the two is a couple although theu have denied it too many times.

"Its definitely wrong! You know we are just friends!" Y/N protests. "We are just... friends," she repeated again, softly this time and sighed and Taehyung chuckled softly besides her at her flustered reaction.

"Young people these days. Is it so hard to woo a girl? Just take her out on a date and pop the question!" Uncle Kent gives out a booming laugh, making Y/N wants to face palmed herself. Thabk god Taehyung is calm and a good sport.

"It cant be that simple Uncle, its not easy to win Y/N's heart, I have to make up some super deliberate plan to woo her before she would ever say yes to me," Taehyung plays along and grab Y/N's hand, holding it tighr, causing her heartbeat to race.

"Well, then I wish you the best of luck son," Uncle Kent tapped his back and make their way to greet some other people. Y/N pulled back her hand the moment they left and pouts.

"What the hell is that Tae? Why are you giving them expectations? You know I dont like that. Now they will be telling asking my parents when we are getting married and the my parents will be asking me and when I tell then its a joke they will nag me about being single and say I'm waiting for a prince to fall down from the sky again!" Y/N grumbles.

"Are you?" Taehyung turns to look at her, smiling that stupid smile that makes Y/N goes crazy. "Waiting for a prince to fall down from the sky?"

"No. Of course not!" I am just waiting for you Kim Taehyung. Y/N wished she can just say it out loud. Oh if only she have that courage. But that will never happen. They have been friends for too long for her to ruined it. Too long. In fact, since the day they were born. Both born as the heir to the wealthiest empire in the country, their parents being close friends and business partners, they are bound to be best friends. Growing up with a silver spoon in their mouth together, some are even convinced that they will marry each other. Well, until Taehyung hits puberty and grew into his looks and turned into the number one romeo in the country. Making appearances at all the parties in town, having one night stands with girls he cant remember the name of and charming everybody socks off while Y/N, who although also grew into her beauty hides behind books and classical music, poetru and arts. Despite their differencesz at the end of the day, Y/N and Taehyung still turns to each other, which is why everybody thinks they are a couple, or want them to be.

Especially at a party hosted by Y/N's parents, filled with cloae relatives and friends.

"Well, you have been single for as long as I have known you Y/N. Which is.. hmmm... let me see... since forever?" Taehyung eyes her carefully. "I wonder who is it you are waiting for?" He smirks. "Is it by any chance, me?"

Y/N chokes on her water.

Taehyung laughs, sipping his drink while watching her closely.

"Ewww. No. Never! Never ever!"

"Oh come on. I am not so bad. What? You have never thought about us? We do make a great couple you know," he winks.

"W-well... I uh," Y/N wrecks her brain, trying to find an answer to this wkward question. Yes, Taehyung teased her a lot, thats what they do, teased each other, but the topic is never this. Never about her wanting him. Because to be honest, there is nothing in this world she rather want than him. "I would! If you are not the number one international player!" Sheaughs nervously, trying to pass it off as a joke, although deep inside it hurts to know how true that statement is. Taehyung will never see her like that. Not when he is surrounded by any girl he could possibly want.

"Really now?" Taehyung smiles and take a step forward, still holding her hand tight, squeezing it while the other cups her chin slowly do her eyes met his. "Then why are your hand sweating so much Y/N?" Taehyung smile, eyes never leaving hers. "You have never imagine us? Together? You have never..." he leans in closer lips only an inch from her, his breath warm on her face. Y/N can smell his intoxicating scent and her eyes flutter close, heartbeat racing like crazy. "Imagine me kissing you? My lips... on yours?" He rubs his thumb on her soft lips, slowly grazing it. Taehyung inched closer, almost closing the tiny gap between them ehen Y/N snapped into reality, realizing what she is about to do and who shes about to do it with. Her eyes opens immediately and Y/N shoved Taehyung away, hard, making him stumbled back in surprised and ran out to the enormous garden.

What is wrong with me? You know Taehyung is just playing. Stupid Y/N, stupid stupid, stupid!

Tears are already running down her face, cascading down her cheeks like endless waterfall. She can hear soft footsteps approaching. Footsteps that she can recognized anywhere.

Taehyung.

How can she forget. Taehyung knows this garden, her garden, as much as she does. He knows exactly where Y/N would hide herself away everytime she wanted some peace and quiet from all her troubles. Taehyung knows her more than she knows herself, so why dont he know how in lovr she is with him?

So in love. Definitely more than friends. Is she really not worthy in his eyes?

"Y/N?" Taehyung took a seat beside her on the cold stone bench, the air immediately turned wuiet as both trying to think of what to say. They have seen each other uoset beforex and Taehyung always seems to know what to say to put a smile back on her face. But not this time. This time, something feels off.

Did he say something wrong earlier?

"Hey Y/N... can you please look at me?" Taehyung whisper softly.

"Can you just please go away Tae? I have never asked you for anything, but just this once, please leave me alone," Y/N sobs.

"No. You need me Y/N..." Taehyung's voice is still soft and calm. "Just like I need you,"

"There you go again!" Y/N snapped and raised her face, eyes filled with anger like Taehyung never has seen before, her whole face dampen with tears. "You just say whatever you want dont you?! Without thinking about anyone elses feelings!"

"Y/N.. what are you talking about. I dont understand. Why are you so mad at me for?" Taehyung is utterly confused at all this anger directed towards him.

"You need me. Just like I need you! You have never imagined us together? You have neevr imagined me kissing you?" She mocked. "What the hell Taehyubg? You think feelings are some kind of a joke?!" Y/N screamed, no longer cared. Patience are running thin when her feelings are this vulnerable.

"You are angry at me because of that?" Taehyung looks at her in disbelief. "I am sorry if you think I crossed the line, but this angry?" Taehyung stands up and paced around. "Do you hate me that much that even the thoughts of being with me makes you want to scream in anger? Make you this upset? Am I that unworthy to you Y/N?"

Y/N was surprised. How can he thinks that way? For what its worth, its the other way around. She will never be good enough for the great Kim Taehyung, best friend or not.

"No Tae.. its not like that..." her voice softens at his sudden outburst.

"Then what is it? I am not good enough for you? Do you despise who I am to the point ot makes you cry? Do I-"

"Its because I love you!"

Taehyung stopped mid-sentence, turning around to face her, mouth slightly open.

"Got your answer now? Its because I fucking love you Tae. Deeply, sincerely in love with you. Has been for years," she laughed through her tears. "But you will never see me that way do you? I am just the bestfriend. The nerd, goody two shoes bestfriend. I understand, how can you even look at me that way with all the girls flocking you. You can have anyone and anyone is licky ro have you,"

"Y/N-"

"Let me finish!" Y/N raised a hand to stop him. It took me years to finally find this courage to say all this, so let me finish,"

Taehyung kept quiet, obliging to her demands.

"I love you Tae. Always have, always will. But I know we will never be. And i am fine with that. I have made my peace with that. But please stop humoring me by saying things about us together. I know its a joke to you but its like a bullet to my fragile heart. Atleast stop until I get over you,"Y/N sighed. "Its funny right? And pathetic. Not to mentioned cliche. Bestfriends falling for the other," she lets out a humorless laugh. "I just need to know one thing Tae. One thing and I promiaed we wont talk about this evee again,"

"What is it Y/N?" Taehyung took a steo and sits back down beside her on the bench.

"What do they have that I dont?" Y/N looks him straight in the eye. "All those firls you have been with, night after night, what do they have that I dont? Why wont you ever look at me Tae?"

Taehyung's heart breaks when Y/N aaked the question. The way her lips quiver, the way her eyes shines with tears, the look in her eyes thay shows him how she really believed that shes never going to be enough for him.

"Do you really want to know the answer? Are you ready for it?" Taehyung looks at her, unblinking and Y/N nodded, already bracing herself for an answer that will break her heart forever. "Then I am going to tell ypu what they dont have instead.."

Taehyung's face is serious as he takes her hand and places it in his.

"Well, for one... they dont have my heart. This heart that just automatically surrenders to you ever since I understand what love is," he smiles, his beautiful, charming smile.

"T-tae. W-what are you-"

"Shhh. I am not done," he puts a finger on her lips to quiet her down. "You talk to much, its my turn noe. Second, they dont have the permission of your parents to marry you..." he smile wider. "And third, they dont have this ring," he took out a diamond ring from his pocket and kneels down in front of her, making Y/N speechless. "That I have been carrying around for weeks, trying to find the right time to do this,"

"T-tae?"

"Y/N... baby," he grins. "Will you make me the happiest man alive by not just being my best friend for life, but also become the love of my life, my wife, my everything?"

"I-i..."

"I can help you with that. Yes would be great," he flashed her another one of his charming smile. The same smike that has made Y/N's heart race for years, but now she knows it fully belongs to her.

"Yes. Kim Taehyung. Yes. Definitely yes

[yordibarnhoorn-blog1]

How To Give Yourself A Using Veet - Hair Removel Cream

Tips and tricks for pubic hair cream

Depilatory creams have quickly become a popular choice for many people when it comes to removing unwanted facial and body hair. This is probably because it is a very inexpensive, super fast and super easy way to get rid of hair, not to mention that they are the most painless way to do it if you do not have very sensitive skin.

Nevertheless, despite its popularity, there are still those who do not know how to use the cream for hair removal, especially in the "private parts". This is probably due to the fact that the pubic region is considered one of the most sensitive parts of the body, so people use chemicals more carefully there.

To give you more confidence and safety, here are a few steps on how to use depilatory cream in private places:

Find a suitable pubic depilation cream.

Since the genital area is more sensitive than other parts of the body, you can choose a product specifically designed for this skin type and area.

If you cannot find a solution designed specifically for the pubic area, it is best to choose a brand of depilation cream that is suitable for sensitive skin, as it is usually safer for sensitive areas such as the genital area.

Try the cream in a small place on the top line of the bikini. An important tip on how to use depilatory cream on individual parts of the body or on any part of your body is to try it first. It would be better if you tested it on a small section of the bikini top line to see if you have an allergic reaction.

The upper part of the bikini is better because it has about the same skin texture as the pubic region. Leave for several hours and be careful with itching, burning, redness, or pain.

Take a warm bath or shower.

Applying the cream after bathing helps the cream do its magic, as wet hair is generally softer and easier to remove than dry hair, which can be more difficult to break. You can do this at the end of one of your regular baths or showers, or you can deliberately take a shower or wash your personal cabinet before applying hair removal cream.

Wait at least 3 days after shaving before applying the cream. This is because shaving can cause cuts or scratches on the skin, leaving it open and more sensitive if it comes in contact with chemicals such as those found in depilatory creams.

If you have open cuts on your skin, no matter how small they are, you may experience an allergic reaction to the cream after applying it, as the product will fall on an open surface. It can be quite painful if this happens, and you may see redness and swelling or a rash in the area.

Apply cream only to the external pubic area.

Make sure that the cream does not get into the most sensitive internal areas, which can cause a burning sensation and some damage to the skin. You can evenly apply it with a spatula, which is usually supplied with the product.

A spatula will protect the cream from the hands to prevent accidents such as accidentally rubbing it into other areas such as the face or eyes. A spatula can also help you apply the product more evenly.

Wait ten minutes.

Usually you experience a slight tingling sensation, and the smell can be a little unpleasant, as chemical reactions act on the melting of the hair. A slight tingling should not burn or hurt.

Wipe clean with a damp cloth. Once you clean the cream, the hair should come off with it. It usually takes a few strokes before the entire cream with the hair is completely removed. Be sure to wash the washcloth every few strokes to get a clean washcloth.

Wash thoroughly

After cleaning the entire cream, you still need to thoroughly rinse the remaining product to make sure that there are no chemicals left on the skin that can irritate it. Also, make sure that you no longer apply anything in the area within the next 24 hours. This may include soaps, lotions, creams, or perfumes. Allow your skin to breathe and do not leave any products for at least one day.

Use tweezers to remove any remaining hairs.

For people with thicker and thicker hair, some naughty hair may remain. There should be very few of them, so it won't take long to tear them one by one until you reach clean, smooth skin in the pubic area.

We hope that the tips and steps listed above will clarify any questions about how to use the depilation cream on private parts.

How much hair can you remove with Veet?

Would you like to go beyond what the word “bikini line” means? Do you really know what the word “bikini line” means? Then go crazy. Make an incision so that you can easily spread the cream, and then boldly write your name if you like your boat / fleet (well, so it can be quite difficult, but of course I can sculpt). For everyone who is concerned about the appearance of the wax chassis, I like it all and the small runway, otherwise my vagina looks incredibly shocked, cold and faithful, and I never experienced any irritation or problems. At most, you pinched some homeless boys (read: hair). At best, you are ready to go.

How bad is the new growth with depilation cream?

Although, it’s true, he comes back in a few days, it’s much better than shaving, it doesn’t mean any serious growth rash, and the result is much smoother when the Emery Board period is over. Oh, have you not heard of EBP? It lasts about 12 hours and makes sex uncomfortable and fun, and also almost impossible if you do not lubricate the entire crotch. On the other hand, if you have cabinets or baseboards that require grinding, this is more of a blessing than a nuisance, and the time has come when your OS will fall on you, because if he (or she) does something else, then an opportunity eroding them like the white cliffs of Dover.

How often can you do this?

Since it is so fast and much less cumbersome than shaving, you can repeat the process after several days of regeneration, because now there are veterinarians who are suitable for shorter hair. Did he ever catch you shortly before night, when you were hairier than you would like, but not enough to shave in an emergency, because what the hell does it hurt? Welcome to the Veet town, fill your vagina. And my vagina And, perhaps, several other vaginas, otherwise they would not have done just as well in the sales department.

Also...

This is ridiculous! You melt the hair of your vagina! Much more fun than having wax (too professional and normal) or shaving (too impractical). This probably should not be the main topic of this article, but if you are just like me and sometimes imitate a tan as a personal joke on yourself, then this is a good reason to get a Veet-ing.

For more Information

Credit : https://beautyshuffle.com

[journeysintowebcomics]

Worm Liveblog #114

UPDATE 114: Simpler Times

Last time the Undersiders had managed to defeat Coil, and took over Brockton Bay as a result. Dinah is now safe, and all is well...until forty-five minutes later, when they found out Noelle has escaped her vault. Tattletale says that’s very bad. So let’s continue!

Ah, the arc ended, and it seems what follows isn’t an interlude, but a new arc. I’m surprised – while I thought it was possible the arc would continue for maybe one chapter more, I didn’t think this would go straight into the next one. Alright! So, the new arc is called Migration.

Oh, nevermind, this is an interlude, similar to the one with the Wards ages ago, I imagine. There’s a guy called Francis, who is getting scolded for leaving when family is coming over. This Francis person is making money with something his mother doesn’t approve, and he argues they’re on the verge of getting a sponsorship. Oh boy. ‘On the verge’ means it’s not certain. I hope this Francis guy isn’t gambling much on the possibility of a sponsorship. Given how he’s arguing with this as his cornerstone, he’ll be doomed if he doesn’t get the sponsorship.

It’s even worse when it’s revealed this Francis guy isn’t officially in the group yet. Oh dang, he really is gambling a lot. I for one hope it all works well, because otherwise he’s going to get a full serving of ‘I told you so’ from his mother.

That seems to be all. Having placated his mom, Francis walks with his luggage and gets on a bus, giddy he’s possibly annoying other people, and feels smugly superior to other people. Well that’s not an endearing character trait, is it. Still, someone having a bad trait is good, as long as it’s balanced with good traits! But yeah, who is this Francis guy, anyway?

Her face lit up as she saw him. He, in turn, snapped a smart salute. “Captain Noelle, ma’am!”

Oh, I see! I see now! So that’s Noelle...hmm...if Noelle is part of this gaming group, then that’d mean the Travelers are the members of this group. In which case this Francis is either Trickster or Ballistic. Most likely Trickster, I’d say. Alright!

Noelle doesn’t appreciate the playful greetings, coyly telling him to stop, and mentions they’re ‘probationary boyfriend and girlfriend’. So they’re a couple! I see. That’s why Trickster is so invested in Coil helping Noelle. I can sympathize with that, yep. During these outrageously saccharine public displays of affection, Marissa arrives. Mars. Sundancer, no?

I wonder if by now they all had their powers. Maybe they gathered as a gaming group because of their powers. Not that I can think of how they can use their powers. Making miniature suns sure isn’t going to help your gaming skills, unless you use that sun to melt the opponents’ systems, haha

There’s Luke, there’s Jess. Hmmm...by process of elimination, those must be Ballistic and Genesis – supposing Francis really is Trickster. They’re all together. Say, wasn’t there some guy named Oliver, who stayed in the headquarters while everyone else went and fought? I think there was someone with that name. That person hasn’t appeared yet here in this meeting.

Now that they’re all gathered, they can start their discussion for real. Noelle is in charge. Does that mean Trickster – leader of the Travelers – was the second in command, and had to take charge since Noelle can’t?

Apparently they have been discussing about kicking an average player out of the group, because he’s boring and doesn’t have as many fans. Francis, on the other hand, has so many fans – fans I imagine would be upset if he’s kicked out or something. If they’re a new team, then they’ll need as many fans as they can. Pragmatism dictates the person named Cody is kicked out. The emotional factor, though, is what’s giving them trouble. Cody is their friend and this will hurt him a lot.

Noelle nodded.  “Say what you will about Krouse, like how he’s crap when it comes to calling shots-”

“Hey.”

“Or even the fact that he’s prone to ignoring orders if he thinks it’ll help us.  Um, he’s right so long as it’s just him operating solo, but yeah… The thing is, if we’re talking about the big picture, international recognition and going head to head with the best in the world… Krouse has the natural ability to change things up, so we can adapt our strategies to whatever they’re able to pull off.”

Okay, that definitely is Trickster. Trickster’s pretty crap at calling shots, and adapts well enough during the fights. The main character point of view is Trickster’s.

To try to convince them he’s the right person to keep, Francis argues on his behalf, saying this Cody person can’t improve any further, while he can still play better and better. They can’t wait for Cody to improve; they have to act now.

“If you fuck this up for us, you know we’ll never let you live it down,” Luke said.

It’s not like they’ll lose a local tournament. If Francis screws up, they’ll lose boatloads of money and lucrative contracts. Many would think that warrants a little more than ‘never let you live it down’, hah.

Either way, Francis’ arguments were successful. Pretty much everyone agrees to kick Cody out and keep Francis. This can’t be easy to tell Cody, who will do it? Having decided it needed to be done now, they all walk towards the place Cody is at, and it’s decided Francis won’t be right there when Cody is given the boot. Yeah, good idea. It sure would hurt to be replaced and see the guy replacing you sitting right there.

Jess and Francis ride the elevator afterwards, Genesis noting Francis is rather nervous right now.

“The more overconfident you act, the more nervous you are.  And when you’re feeling down, you poke at people, provoke them.  I think you get some validation out of it, like, if you can test people and they’re still your friends after, you can feel confident in that friendship.”

Well, there’s also that Francis enjoys annoying people, apparently. I guess a lot of his behavior is all about needling and annoying other people.

I’m a bit baffled they keep saying Marissa can be a megabitch. She sure seemed like the person least likely to be abrasive towards other people. Maybe she’s the kind who yells into the voice chat.

As expected, Cody didn’t take it very well. They barely got off the elevator when they started hearing the yelling, Cody is accusing Francis of being a conniving prick who started dating Noelle after she was named captain. Hm. I don’t know, I don’t think he’d be that slimy. Francis is a hella unpleasant person, but is he that much of a jerk? I don’t think so.

There’s two people named Oliver and Chris. Ah, there’s Oliver. What’s Oliver’s role in all this? It doesn’t seem like he’s part of the gaming team, so...is he just a friend who tagged along? Is he with them all because he had a power and therefore fit in the Travelers, while Cody and Chris didn’t take part in that villain team because of the lack of powers? Or perhaps...perhaps Cody and Chris are dead? There’s not that many options as to what happened to them. For all I know, they just were left behind while the Travelers...traveled. It doesn’t have to be a sinister deal.

“Cody,” Noelle started, “We talked it over-”

“Without me!”

“Because we knew you’d react like this, and we wanted to be sure we all agreed before we moved ahead.”

“And I bet Krouse was there, wasn’t he?”

“He was.”

“Real fair.”

“He kept his mouth shut,” Noelle said.

Not exactly true, Krouse thought.

He’s got a point there, that wasn’t exactly fair. Francis got the chance to argue on his behalf, Cody didn’t get that courtesy. I don’t know, seems to me like they all had already strongly considered accepting Francis into the team, before the meeting started.

As expected, Cody is furious to see Francis here. He really shouldn’t have come. A few lines later, I’m proven wrong, he should be here. So, what’s happening is that they’re going to have one session right now. If Francis does awful, then he’s out and Cody stays. Obviously Cody wants to see Francis crash and burn. I think it’s a given what the result of this all will be.

“Here, Noelle,” Krouse said.  He set his luggage flat on the ground and unzipped it.  There were computers inside, each half the size of a regular desktop, wrapped in layers of towels and plastic sheeting.

“Thanks for the loan.  Don’t trust mine with the sheer amount of crap my cousin downloaded onto it.”

“Actually…” He trailed off, sticking his hands in his pockets.  “I took my old machine, I replaced the power supply, formatted it, installed a clean OS and done all my usual tricks for clearing out the crap that we’ll never use and optimizing it.  You can consider it an early Christmas present.”

Say, doing this right in front of Cody’s not going to make him stop thinking Francis is trying hard to get on Noelle’s good side to get the spot in the team.

What follows is largely paragraphs of stuff I’m not sure what to think about, because it’s them discussing their strategies to play the game. The only thing I can comment about is that Chris and Oliver are like the reserves, although neither of them are very good. Francis used to be one of them.

The strategizing stops when the building rumbles, and a blackout happens. They barely have time to wonder what’s going on and complain about the blackout when there’s a moment of weightlessness.

A heartbeat later, the windows were directly overhead, and he was falling.  He started to scream, but he managed only a monosyllabic, “Ah!” before he fell onto the side of the dining room table, tumbled to one side and slammed into the chairs, the wind knocked out of him.

It sounds like the room turned 90 degrees all of a sudden, fast enough for his body to not even feel how the floor tilts and everything goes topsy-turvy. Perhaps it’s the work of a villain?

Francis was lucky enough to be able to look around and get away from immediate danger, Noelle wasn’t so lucky. She crashed onto a chair, and then the computers fell on her. That’s got to hurt, those aren’t soft objects at all. There’s no word on how the rest are like, but they must currently be being pelted by objects. I hope they’re protecting their heads, but I’m kind of expecting a fracture or two.

Noelle is so hurt she’s bleeding from the nose and mouth, that sounds kind of like a concussion. I wonder if that affected anything in the present. But hey, you know what? All that’s happening right now is a good chance for trigger events, especially because soon it’s revealed Chris is dead. What about Cody, he okay?

Since the apartment has turned ninety degrees, leaving to a safe place is going to be rather difficult. Is this apartment the only thing that rotated? What’ll they see if they manage to get to the entrance door? Hmmm...also, what caused this? There’s a mention of a constant female scream. If it’s not one of the gals who are still awake and conscious, is it the parahuman who caused this to happen?

It takes a few minutes to be able to reunite with the rest, thanks to a knotted sheet. Francis manages to climb it even though he’s carrying Noelle, reaching the place with the rest. Chris had quite the gruesome death, but at least it sounds like it may have been instant. Everyone except Marissa is trying very hard not to look at it.

“We need a way out of here first.” Luke looked up at the windows, ten feet above their heads.  Neither the floor nor the ceiling offered anything to grip.

Since it’s a window that’s on what’s now the ceiling, and it seems like this apartment was on the top floor, it’d give them access to the very top of the building, no? Hm...that’d be almost impossible to go down from, unless what turned ninety degrees was the entire building – which isn’t that unlikely, but I imagine it’d cause quite the commotion outside, enough for them to hear screams and panic.

It takes some effort, but they manage to get up there. It’s pretty cold, which is bad when you’re already injured and in shock. With some luck they’ll find a safe place, but yeah, they have to get help as soon as possible.

He stared out at the city around him. Snow had been stirred into clouds, and half a dozen buildings had obviously been knocked down, judging by the remaining wreckage.  Luke’s apartment building had toppled.  How did it not collapse in on our heads?

Oh! Alright, the entire building did fall down! I know this is a rough situation, but given how suddenly and quickly it happened the people inside didn’t even have time to notice everything was tilting, I keep imagining the building just...turned ninety degrees in the blink of an eye. It’s such a cartoonish mental image.

The state of the building is the least of their concerns, anyway. They have to do something to survive the current problem. The constant scream isn’t helping. Soon they find the source of the song, and here is when I get giddy. There she is!

“The Simurgh,” Jess corrected, her voice small.  “What is she doing here?  Why is she here?”

Oh boy, that makes two Endbringers seen in the story. No, the Simurgh interfering with Dragon’s communications didn’t count, that was too brief. Only one is left! Knowing Mr. Wildbow, it’s bound to happen at some point!

Francis’ suggestion is to run, which although is a sensible reaction and definitely what anyone should do, I don’t think it’ll be of much help. Good thing it’s guaranteed most of the people here will survive to be the Travelers. I suppose the city will be destroyed and, having nothing left and no family to go back to – ouch – they turn into their nomadic lifestyle? Also, Cody is so dead. I suppose something the Simurgh does will lead to his demise.

This is a bit of a short update, but I have to end it here.

Next time: next update

[yinzhengs]

I would love your favorite excerpt of the OS novel. Also, more noodling about presenting Lu Li's POV vs. presenting CZ's.

wow okay the OS novel is Very Long and also i haven’t properly finished it (i’ve read around half of it and also skipped around to read certain scenes, eg. the ending) but hmm… i’ll translate the ending scene, for starters, since it plays out Very Differently in the novel in a separate post (while it’s not my favorite scene per se, it’s a very interesting one and i think it deserves a post to itself), and i’ll talk a little about chi zhen vs lu li here, hehe.

i think one interesting thing that tends to happen with people writing lu li is that they take a very exterior perspective — rather than following his internal thoughts and feelings, they describe his external reactions: “the impatience sharp in his gaze,” the way he clenches his hands into fists, “nails digging into the edge of the table.” a lot of his pov is told through cut-and-dry facts that he absorbs and then reacts to, and it’s left to us as the reader to interpret that. in chinese, a language where most third person narratives like this are told from a much more detached / omniscient perspective than the english language sometimes allows, it’s difficult to keep the tone for these kinds of passages from getting too impersonal / dry, in my opinion, especially when it’s put side-by-side with cz’s pov.

with cz, authors tend to have a lot more fun. he’s not just “tired,” his “soul’s been sucked out of him” — he doesn’t just “shuffle home,” he “drags his exhausted body home.” the looser, cz-style narration comes through in the third person narration itself, which makes it much more amenable to your traditional informal fic narration (compared to ll’s pov parts, which often to me come across like i’m trying to write some serious novel content instead). whereas ll pov tends to tell you directly as the reader what ll’s feeling, cz pov conveys it with the words and tone of the narration itself.

of course, a lot of these differences are also due to just (i imagine) the universal difficulty of writing ll’s pov, because he seems so much harder to crack than cz, who tends to be allowed so much more interiority in fic / even in the novel. where my translation is concerned, there’s often many stumbling points where i translate ll’s parts very literally before taking a step back and going, “hm, nobody in their right mind would actually say this in english. oh no.”

but quite honestly, i think the dryness / awkwardness is almost a hallmark difficulty of trying to translate any kind of fiction from chinese — it’s just that the looser tone of chi zhen’s pov’s lends itself to more creative phrasing compared to the straightforward narration of ll’s pov, which leaves me less wiggle-room to rephrase and reword.

while i’m here complaining about rephrasing and rewording, can i just vent about my love-hate relationship with 成语? they’re essentially four-character chinese idioms, a lot of which are associated with some story or history or something, and using them makes you sound very fancy and educated but also they are a pain in the ass to translate 90% of the time, especially because they often convey such a specific meaning in a very small package. 

eg. take this quote from the previous chapter of “by my side:” 

Pursuing justice without a second thought, Chi Zhen thought, dryly. Maybe I’m cut out to be a cop, after all.

what was the original for that first part, you may ask? well, it was 义无反顾. literally translated, it’d be something like “righteousness without looking back” — more figuratively, it’d be said off-handedly to mean something like “honor does not allow one to glance back,” or it can be used as a descriptive phrase to mean “duty-bound not to turn back.” 

in this case, chi zhen uses it to say something very literally translated as “this style of these 义无反顾 actions [i’m doing] are actually really suited to being a police officer,” which was then rendered into the quote above. 

tl;dr translation is fun and also brain-numbingly difficult sometimes, but having a character whose pov is looser to begin with is a great help when you’re trying to rephrase something in a way that is true to their voice, even across the language barrier. (it’s something i also had to think about a lot while subbing OS itself — chi zhen is witty and clever and an eternal smartass, and it was tough to try to find a voice that would fit that in english…)

[huffletiika]

About late studying sessions and presumably haunted corridors.

Ok, peeps, I have decided to take part of this year’s Lutteo ficweek… even if I have no time, or whatsoever. I might skip some days, tho, as there are some prompts that didn’t inspired me #tja. Anyway, I hope you like this one.

Anyway, just some info before you start reading: this OS is at the same universe as my Gastina multi-chapter “Hello, stranger.” So, if anyone is interested on reading it before (or after) getting into this, I will leave you the link RIGHT HERE. But, don’t worry, there’s no need to read it to understand the OS, as this is a prequel that takes place way before the events of my multi-chapter. However, there might be a little wink for those who read it.  

Words count: 2.4K.

DAY 1 – “it’s 3 am and I’m still in the library studying for finals and I’m losing my grip on reality and I think I just saw a ghost”.

Finals are going to be the death of her.

Seriously, it’s like no matter how much she tries to keep her studying schedule going, she will just not gonna make it, not even with the very well done graphics an diagrams her best friend made for her. Days doesn’t have enough hours for her to have enough time to learn all she has for her exams, and at the same time training for the skating competition, and going to all those social events her grandfather told her she must go in order to keep the Benson’s inversions safe and sound.

She can’t wait for summer vacations.

The next day (correction, that day, as it’s already three in the morning) she has one of the most important exams for her career, and she really need a high grade on this one in order to pass.

She tried studying in her dormitory, she really did, but she gave up at 10pm as the girls from the dormitory next to hers and Nina’s had decided to throw a party for the end of the semester, and the music was so loud she thought the walls would break at any moment. So, she had to walk all her way to the library in order to find a quiet place, internally grateful for living in a dorm inside the campus. Her parents would kill her if they find out about her having to walk down the street in the middle of the night.

Since the finals started, the library has remained 24hrs open as an incentive for students to use it to prepare for their exams instead of the many outdoor places on campus, as the benches outside the buildings, or the dark gardens. It might sound crazy, but just a week ago they found a student sleeping in a picnic mat outside the engineering faculty, hugging his advanced calculus book, mumbling something about going late for his exam while on his sleep. There were memes with his picture all over the campus app, it got viral.

The library has become the second home for many.

Surprisingly, that day the library doesn’t seem to be as popular. Well, there were many students when she arrived but, as midnight arrived, she noticed she was the only one at that specific section, and that the rest of them were practically empty. That’s just so great. She tried to focus on the words from her text book, on solving the problems, on getting all that info into her head, but as it started getting later her eyes started to burn, and the words became blurry, so she finally realized that what she didn’t learn in the whole semester, she wouldn’t learn in those five hours she had left before having to go comply her death sentence. Come what may, her father is always telling her, and she believes him.

She is so gonna fail.

When she stands to leave the study cubicle she notices it’s darker than she expected. There are some light spots, of course, but many of these seem to have gotten damaged. She walks toward the shelves to put the books back at the place they belong, and as she gets deeper at those dark aisles, she starts to have the feeling that she is not alone.

She looks around, but there’s nothing either on her left or her right, and she tells herself that it’s just her head playing games. She has never believed in ghosts, even after her biological parents appeared in her dreams, and she wouldn’t start doing so now.

She leaves the last book at the right shelf, having to get on her tiptoes for that hard mission, and then sighs looking at the time on her phone’s screen. If she leaves now she will be at home at 3:40, and so she would have a couple of hours to sleep. A sound coming from her left calls her attention, putting her on alert. But there’s nothing. There’s no such thing as ghosts, she reminds herself, you are just tired from studying, and it’s all in your head.  But there were stories, many indeed, of a student that died in the library years ago, crushed by a shelf that fell on her as she tried to reach a book that was on the top, and other who took his life on the 90s after losing all his finals.

Those are just stories, she reminds herself as she tries to breathe in and breathe out to calm herself, and get her backpack from the floor, but as soon as she gets up she finds someone standing right in front of her.

She screams.

Someone from the distance shushes.

Throwing her backpack at the mysterious figure she tries to run away, but it grabs her wrist, and she is not able to get away from its grip no matter how hard she tries.  

Her heart is racing inside her chest, she is scared, much more than after waking up from one of those terrible nightmares about the fire where her biological parents died. Her mind isn’t thinking in other thing than running away, than getting into her room and hiding under her blankets, maybe hugging the very cute teddy bear her grandpa gave her when they found out she was the granddaughter he thought he had lost years ago.

“Calm down, Chica Delivery. It’s me,” a male voice she knows pretty well gets into her ears, calming her down, throwing all fear away from her body. She looks back at him, stopping her intends to scape, and as soon as their eyes meet, she manages to let go of his grip with a swipe.

“Are you crazy, Matteo?! You scared me to death!” she claims, wishing to have something to throw at his stupid face when she sees him grinning. He’s just- Ugh! She can’t stand him, or his stupid smile, or his perfect eyes, or that hair of him where she wants to dig her hands in, and…

Enough.

“Ouch, I didn’t know I was that ugly,” he teases, and then bends down to pick up the backpack, and then offers it back to her. “Let’s make it a tie. I mean, you almost killed me with this,” he adds, as she gets her belongings back.

“I didn’t meant to… it was your fault for scaring me,” she fires back.

“Oh right, keep blaming me,” he rolls his eyes and crosses his arms over his chest. Oh shit, she thinks, he’s wearing one of those stupid vests that look way too good on him. Her sanity decides to submit her resignation, there’s no way she could handle him. “What are you doing here at these hours, anyway?” he asks. “I thought your roommate was the kind of person who would be okay with you studying in your room no matter what time.” She has to look away when he carelessly supports his side on the shelf.

How does he always looks so good?

“She is,” she defends her, frowning at him. Nina is one of the few people she has met in Buenos Aires that she can confidently call a true friend. “But our neighbors finished their finals today, and threw a party to celebrate,” she explains, with a shrug.

He puts a grimace.

“Whoa, that sucks,” he says, and for once he agrees with him.

“Tell me about it!” she replies, and another shush comes from an undetermined place in the library. She lowers her voice. “And you? What are you doing here at this hour? I thought you had a fancy flat with enough space to study, even if you have the loudest roommate, which you don’t,” she asks, and his stupidly attractive grin gets wider.

“Can I ask how you know that?” he rises his eyebrows, and she swears under her breath. She can’t tell him that her roommate has a crush on his roommate, that’s practically breaking all the rules of friendship.

She goes for a better excuse.

“You seem to forget that your ex-girlfriend is my cousin.”

“And it seems like you have paid too much attention to what she says about me,” he fires back with a cocky smile. His fresa attitude drives her insane. “But, don’t worry, it’s normal to want to know more about me, you are not the only girl who does that at the campus.” She rolls her eyes.

“Whoa, Chico Fresa, I thought your ego couldn’t grow bigger,” she replies, sarcastically. Then reminds him:  “You still haven’t answered my question.” He shrugs.

“This is just a really nice puns-free environment to study,” he briefly answers, looking away as if something has ashamed him. How come? She frowns, and he changes his attitude in a click. “Anyway, are you going back at your dorm now? I can give you a ride.” She’s about to reject his offer, but he interrupts her. “I know you live inside the campus, but it’s still dangerous to walk there alone at this hour, so please let me take you there.” How could she refuse his offer after those words? She ends up accepting.

----

His car seat is the most comfortable thing she has ever sit on, she thinks, as she closes her eyes and lets the sound of the engine, and the delicious smell of his cologne (the one that seems to dominate the place) lull her, to the point of even falling asleep for a few seconds.

She hears him chuckle.

“What’s so funny?” she asks, her eyes still closed.

“Nothing,” his response comes quickly, but then it seems like he gives up. “It’s just… you almost look inoffensive right now.” She sticks her tongue out at him, and he giggles.

Then they stay silent for a couple of minutes, in whose she nervously drums with her fingers.

“So, I went to the Jam & Roller last night and saw the Roller Band playing,” he casually says, as if taking those words out of his mouth wouldn’t have cost all of his courage. “Your boyfriend and his bandmates are really good,” he adds, as he parks in front of her building.

“Yeah, they ar… wait, boyfriend?” She looks at him, confused.

“Yes, the guitarist is your boyfriend. Isn’t him?” he frowns.

He saw them being very affectionate with each other some weeks ago, at the skating rink, and that restrained his attempts to get closer to her, to let her know how much he likes her. Gastón wouldn’t leave him alone since then, of course, bugging him about how an idiot he was for letting those assumptions stop him from getting the girl, as if he wasn’t MATTEO BALSANO, the king of the rink, the one who always gets everything he wants, and throwing bad puns and references about Luna at any given opportunity.

“No, we are not,” she replies. “He’s my best friend, I know him since I lived in Cancun, why would you think we are dating?” She asks, and he glances away, looking kind of ashamed.

“I just supposed it as you seem to be so close,” he answers, with a shrug. Internally, he is dancing la Macarena, and opening a bottle of tequila. He might indeed do that as soon as he gets to his flat.

Luna and Simon aren’t a couple.

He has a chance.

He needs to make a plan, and fast, step up his game and get a date before she leaves the car. He isn’t going to miss any more time, not after the disaster the past month has been.

“But I guess I was wrong,” he adds, turning off the engine of the car. She makes an overacted face of surprise, and takes her hand to his forehead, as she’s testing if he has fever.

“Are you ok, Chico Fresa?” she asks, her really bad acting making him smile. “You just admitted you were wrong about something, so this is either you dying from some sickness or a miracle,” she teases, and he cackles.

“Ha-ha, Very funny, Chica Delivery,” he takes her hand out of his forehead, even if he would have wanted it to stay there for a little longer. He casually forgets to release it, tho. “Then, if he is not your boyfriend, I guess there wouldn’t be a problem if I invite you out for a milkshake one of these days… like, for example, tonight?” he suggests, knowing he’s risking a lot with this proposal. He slowly releases her hand. After her response he will have either a date with the girl he fancies since they met, or the biggest rejection of his whole life. The only one that would have mattered. “I mean, I owe you that for scaring you today.” Yes, he thought, make it sound as casual as possible.

She frowns.

“I thought we were even after I almost killed you with my backpack,” she replies, and he’s almost sure she will say no, he could feel it in his bones, or maybe those were just his insecurities kicking in. Since he met her, he knows how it feels to be afraid of not being enough for someone, of being rejected. She takes what seems like an eternity to consider his offer. “But, who am I to refuse such an invitation?” He felt his own smile growing on his face, as the cloud of doubt fades away. “Tonight is perfect, I will need lots of sweet after failing my exam,” she confesses.

“You won’t fail it, Chica Delivery. Stop being so negative,” he tries to cheer her up, bopping on her nose, making her wrinkle it. “I’ll pick you up around seven, is it okay for you?” he asks, and she nods with a bright smile.

“It’s a dat…” she interrupts herself, getting as red as a tomato. “I mean, it’s a… a deal,” she stutters and then bites her lower lip. He laughs and nods, but in his mind he is the one doing it.

“It’s a deal,” he agrees, and then both of them say goodbye. He might have intentionally missed her cheek while kissing her goodbye, touching the corner of her lips instead.

“Hey,” she tells him, putting half of her body through the window after closing the door, as her height wouldn’t help her much. “Send me a message when you get home, ok?” she asks him, and he couldn’t help but smile back at her and nod. If he wasn’t before, now he is sure that he is deeply in love with her.

 You (sent 3:40am)

I’m home, Chica Delivery.

ChicaDelivery (sent 9:31am)

I’m so sorry, I fell asleep.

And I’m running late for my final!

Thanks for not forgetting about the message.

See you tonight?

You (sent 9:38am)

It’s ok. I hope you get there on time.

And I’m glad you didn’t forget about our deal.

See you tonight, Chica Delivery ;)!

[fantroll-purgatory]

Lalnah Dearth - Hopeless Romantic

@chaoticevilfantrolls

(Breaking the streak of Teals I had going, here’s my Main Boy)

I gotta say, you’ve hit another one out of the park. I really love this boy from the get-go.

Planet: Alternia. Same AU as Lycosa and Vapula (age of conscription is 10 sweeps, minor social changes, etc.)

Name:Lalnah Dearth

Lalnah: Comes from Lana or Svetlana, a name which typically means Light, or Gift to the World, depending on the source. Also, in a more blunt and lowbrow manner, it’s a pun on ‘lol, no’.

Dearth: Meaning ‘a lack of’. A lack of light, of prospects, and of hope. It primarily ties into his dreary nature, and the fact that he is meant to be a void player at his core.

I’m tempted not to use Dearth if only because it Is straight up a highly recognizable word. I like it a lot thematically, though. Hrm… Maybe if we just translate it? Duurte, meaning dearth, scarcity… Lalnah Duurte. 

I do have to point out here that void isn’t about a lack of prospects or hope so much as an empty space… which I do really like for him. It’s the unexplored, the unknown, the blank canvas, the vastness, the beginning, that which isn’t but can become… Which can be really overwhelming and oppressing and lonely. But it’s not hopeless, even if it can feel that way in the beginning. Which I think ties beautifully into the title ideas you discussed, but we’ll get to that at the appropriate time.

Age:Typically 9-12 sweeps. He’s a little older than the rest of his friend group.

Strife Specibus: shotgunKind. It’s a reference to the original instance of Chekhov’s Gun, in which a shotgun over the mantle piece, mentioned off-hand in one of the earlier chapters of a story, was used as a murder weapon in the climax. It’s an important literary concept (not adding superfluous details unless they become relevant later), which ties into his writing theme as well as his plotline in the session he’s from.

I Love That Thanks. I was going to make a pen/sword joke here but I can’t when the Chekhov’s Gun reference is already perfect.

Fetch Modus:Hangman Modus. Lalnah needs to play hangman to retrieve the item from his sylladex. The phrase or word is always based on the item itself, becoming more complex the more powerful or important the item is. If he loses, the item is locked for a five hour period. 

Blood color:Burgundy. His particular brand of down-trodden resignation fits really well in the lower castes, I believe. Plus, burgundy is the name of a kind of wine, which fits extra well with his alcoholic author theme.

I definitely think so. It puts him in a really vulnerable social position that amplifies that ease of manipulation you mention later. I think it’s also an interesting assignation for an author because of the rust leaning towards adventure. I like the idea of him exploring more internally, through his art. 

Symbol and meaning:The Dele. It’s a symbol used to mark something for deletion in editing manuscripts. Primarily ties into his status as a void player, as well as his extensive writing theme. Also, when drawn a certain way, it resembles a bat.

Oh I just love this… I might have to adjust it a little to account for rust language, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Trolltag: transientTechnicality

Transient: Something or someone who is temporary. Can be used to describe someone who is homeless or nomadic.

Technicality: A small detail in a set of rules. In Lalnah’s mind, a technicality is something that is easily overlooked, but can be used to win major battles in both law and war.

Quirk:He starts all of his statements with an arrow pointing to his words, as if drawing attention he can to what he’s saying. (->)

He capitalizes his Os, and his v’s become >’s, but otherwise types entirely in lowercase. This is primarily to show his manner of speaking (very empty and almost monotonous, with a bit of a lisp around the sound of V). He uses punctuation within statements, but does not use apostrophes or periods as ending punctuation. 

He has a tendency towards long, elaborate statements, spliced with commas and filled with florid and bloated prose. Expect a lot of ‘woe is me’ shit.

When he does use emoticons, he typically uses -w- for just about every emotion possible, using it to represent a bat’s face. Sometimes he’ll add carats before and after to represent perked ears (and curiosity), sometimes he’ll add an apostrophe as a sweat drop of exhaustion or weariness. (^-w-^ or -w-’)

“TT: -> cwm fjOrd bank glyphs >ext quiz” “TT: -> if yOu need a better translatiOn, the wOrds amOunt tO sOmething meaning, cOllOquially, symbOls car>ed On the mOuntain hOllOw irritate an eccentric” “TT: -> yOu, ah, wanted tO see every letter, thOugh… -w-”

I Adore All Of This. It’s interesting that you’ve given him the arrows drawing attention to his text when he’s themed around void/light. Maybe when he’s feeling particularly small and lacking in confidence and when he’s especially afraid of bringing attention to himself, he drops the arrows.

Special Abilities: Lalnah used to have a decent, if not exceptional, talent for photokinesis and photogenesis, which he could use to control and create light. Primarily he would use this for non-combat things like making reading lights and faerie lights or changing the intensity of light around him, although when pushed to it he would use the light to disorient foes so that he could escape. His drinking has severely dulled these powers, though, to the point he almost can’t use them at all.

Additionally, Lalnah hears the horrorterrors of the furthest ring, primarily manifesting as a dull mental static which he cannot pick out the meaning to. He hears them through his dreamself, which is sleepwalking in perpetuity, except while he himself sleeps. Because of this, he doesn’t necessarily have nightmares while he sleeps outside of sopor, and he’s more resistant to mind-control and telepathic psionics, if only for the barrier that makes it painful to dig too far into his pan. It doesn’t help much, because his timid nature makes it easy enough to control him in other, more mundane means.

Although not psychically based at all, Lalnah is also capable of using echolocation, thanks to his big ol’ sensitive batty ears. 

I love all of this, too! I keep saying that but god I really do adore all the little clever details about him. He’s so well-crafted. His photogenesis would be so handy. He could cast light however he wanted while writing a scene to better figure out how to describe it… I wonder why he started hearing the horrorterrors, though? Do they just have a particular fondness for him? Something about his aspect bleeding before the bounds of sburb and into his consciousness? 

Or did he dig a little too deep while doing some research for a book? Dip a little too much into the unknown and unlock something in himself he maybe shouldn’t have? The blankness of a page can be dangerous in that way.

Lusus: A fruit bat approximately the size of a house cat. Lalnah’s lusus is rather sickly and frail, and has been most of his life. In fact, by the time of the session, his lusus is typically dead of some illness. His lusus is a fruit bat primarily for the fact of Lalnah’s nearly vampiric appearance, the concept of being ‘blind as a bat’ (which Lalnah most certainly is), and an artifact reference to cannibalism (not nearly as relevant anymore, but Lalnah as a character is about 4 years old and I still haven’t weeded out all of the lingering teenage angst).

I do like the cannibalism reference objectively because he is, still, in some ways, self-cannibalizing. On a more emotional and identity level but still.

Personality: By all means, Lalnah is about as timid and self-pitying as a troll can get without it bordering on the obscenely pale-pornographic. He lets others speak over him, letting them form their opinions on him without so much as a whimper of protest. He has a(n earned) reputation as drunkard and a hopeless fool of a romantic, which he no longer attempts to protest. He’s been caught using his horns as a bottle opener. There’s no recovering your reputation after that.

In reality, Lalnah is incredibly talented, with strong skill in games of strategy and forethought, as well as proficiency with playing violin and piano. He avoids bringing attention to these things in fear that they will be used as a reason to manipulate him and take what little agency he has. This fear isn’t unfounded, but rather borne of his relationship with his ex-moirail, a blueblood who used his talents to make herself look more favorable, using recordings of him playing instruments as her own and forcing him to fit some visual ideal that she thought was fitting. 

He has the tendency to fall in deep, profound love with trolls who show him the smallest scrap of kindness despite his failings, opening up to them and showing only them his real talent and potential, no matter how much he comes to regret it later.

He tends to wrestle with perfectionism in addition to his need for passive mediocrity. His drinking, unfortunately, is the only way he knows to bridge between the two. Using his drinking as an excuse for his failures soothes the savage beast of perfectionism without forcing him to give up his sense of safety in being unremarkable.

I like the idea of him kind of idolizing the people he’s in love with. And then true to Aries-aligned form experiencing these cycles of disappointment when they don’t meet these expectations. But he keeps on loving anyways, clinging because of his self-pity. Maybe having a fear that if he loses This person he’ll never find love again. Wants to have a perfect love but he can’t stand up for himself in relationships or dedicate himself to even trying to change people. 

The drinking is also very fitting. We have seen pretty often that addiction is a very light/void phenomenon. Roxy’s and Rose’s own alcoholism, and Equius and Vriska’s addiction to breaking specific objects… An unfortunately realistic way that people attempt to cope with these internal conflicts. 

Interests: Lalnah’s primary interest lies in writing. Be it prose or poetry, political essays or pining exposes, he writes whatever he happens to be in the mood for, and with great proficiency. Even in his trademark stupor (which he no-doubt exaggerates), he writes. 

He has an interest in cooking as well, treating it as an art-form as high as any other. It’s one of the only things he’s willingly held on to since his moirailegence with the blueblood, besides perhaps his fashion sense. He absolutely has made a romantic dinner for his moirail out of instant noodles, and his habit of making the most of nothing really shines through in that.

Otherwise? He’s shoved aside most of his other interests. He doesn’t enjoy playing the piano or violin anymore, and his smaller hobbies that were discouraged or ignored fell to the wayside when he started hitting the bottle with some regularity. 

)^: I want to save him.

Title: I’ve been struggling with this a little bit, but for a very specific reason.

Part of me is drawn to making Lalnah a Mage or Seer of Void, for his deep understanding of nothingness and mediocrity, his greater-than-average knowledge of the horrorterrors and the way they work (if marginal), as well as smaller things like his use of echolocation and the fact that he’s nearly blind thanks to his shitty eye sight. 

Part of me is drawn to making him an Heir of Light, who spends most of the session in an unhealthy state of inversion, who then reverts to his proper classpect at a key moment, forcing himself to take on and handle the talent and relevance he’s been denying. 

I do like the idea of him being an Heir of Light a lot. A Lot. He can easily start and spend a large part of the session inverted to Mage of Void. He hears the voices of the horror terrors and understands the unknown and the blank, or at least Believes he does. As he starts to come into himself and his role, he gets to learn to understand himself and information and the nature of infinity far better than he ever believed he did. 

He takes on the relevance he’s been denying and that he has earned and would passively be able to manipulate and change information, the known, the present, as well as luck. And he would learn to actively comprehend the boundlessness of the void. He’d take all this passive change and this light inside himself and use it to understand that emptiness is not a dead end but instead a chance to fill it up with beautiful things. 

Land: Land of Echoes and Haze

His land is a sprawling port town, worn down and rusting, the air thick with salt and haze. Think Innsmouth from the H.P. Lovecraft Mythos. His consorts are salamanders, dull grey in color, and are surprisingly hostile to him, although not aggressive. They speak endlessly about the things that hide in the mists, urging him to leave the land and never come back.

Consorts begin disappearing as he continues on his quest, and it’s eventually revealed that the things in the mists are actually mutated consorts, ruined by the whims of his denizen, Dagon. Lalnah must complete some tasks to drive back the mist before bargaining with Dagon to turn the consorts back into the form they are meant to be in.

I love that because it really does imply him needing to take on the spot light, pick up the hero role, make a change passively, by convincing the Dagon. He’d probably have to do something with a fun loophole to bring in your Technicality trolltag. Make a contract and screw that denizen over, Lalnah. Overcome your base acquiescent nature. I believe in you.

Dream Planet:Derse. He’s a voidy boy, and has a lot of horrorterror influence to him. It’d be a waste of a good plot point.

Oh Yep it’s definitely the most thematically fitting And he has So much internal conflict it’s impossible not to consider him a derse player.

Design stuff!: 

Yeah I had pretty much almost nothing to add here. Like quite literally almost nothing. 

Teeth: We’ve only seen one rust with visible teeth and even then they were nubby teeth, so I took the points off his fangs. I think it also works better for his submissive and dulled behavior. 

Symbol: It needed to be symmetrical to meet the rust sign language, so I worked with the idea of it looking a bit like a bat and added two equally lengthed wing edges. I also wanted to use a lot of negative space because Themes. 

Shoes: I changed the outline to a lighter one because the dark outline looked a bit awkward. 

This is a really amazing and well-thought-out character! I hope I was able to provide even a little bit of useful help haha. Thank you for sharing!

-CD