#(but knowing a cursory amount of things makes it much better)

[quatregats]

I'm actually enjoying Forester's writing much more this second time around, because I think I'm comparing it much less to Patrick O'Brian. However I must say that any time that he says anything in a non-English language I am immediately weeping and begging for Patrick "actual French translator" O'Brian back again :')

[unhinged-comics-screaming]

⁺˚⋆｡°✩₊ Weekly Bravern Madness Post ₊✩°｡⋆˚⁺

Episode 11 Spoilers ahead, naturally

I'm actually on my second watch since we found out our water heater is leaking so that was a whole thing so not quite first impressions but that's literally me screencapping every scene and screaming so probably better this way

Okay important things about me to consider for my lens as I go through this

I think Isami is so so so cute. I'll probably make a cute Isami screencaps post as a separate thing. His gap moe is so cute. I love his stern face. I think Smith is great too but I love the focus reshifting to Isami. Anyway. He's so cute

In terms of Smith as Bravern I guess I view it as the reverse too? I don't really know how to explain it but I guess in Japanese there's tags for Smith + Isami (Sumiisa) and Bravern + Isami (Braisa?) and in my head it's all Sumiisa. Like he may look like a giant robot but he's still Smith, if that makes sense.

Second watch bonuses: realizing why she reacts this way at his mention ;-;

Right away, I guess I got my beach episode! I love that Isami and Lulu have Bravern brand summer clothes. I hope they come out as merch. It comes up rarely eg. the boxing shoes from ep 5 have the (Burn?) Bravern specific emblem on them and I just think it's so cute. Like yeah Bravern probably printed them just for these instances and I wish we got enough show to see it in action.

I actually got so emotional at the end of episode 9 when the OP starts playing without the lyrics and this showing up with the ED music is phenomenal. Extra delicious that it starts with part of the full version of the ED that's not in the normal ending.

I also love this because the other two emotional moments where it's like, starting something but not completing it are the after boxing scene and when Isami is crying into Lewis' shirt (okay this can easily be assumed to fill out as "I wanted the two of us to save the world together" but what else did you want to do with hiiiiim). The shipper mind wants to fill it in with some love confession and then!!!

After the like, back and forth name stuff (which parallels the Lulu + Superbia fusion) I was like, pre-emptively bracing for some kind of goofy baiting/played for laughs thing but no he goes for it!!

I actually have a collection of any instance of Isami with any amount of coloring on his cheeks and I've been lamenting that the only full blush moments are when he gets the asian flush drinking but aaaaah so cute. Also he looks so young here! He's 24 he should be falling in love!

Also I'm like, actually really impressed about this scene technically because It's just a really good looking turnaround animation. With Bravern he's 3D so whatever but isami looks good from every angle!

The artist who adds the extra effects like bloom and color tweaks on scenes occasionally tweets out their before and afters and I really hope we get this scene where they point out they added plush, kissable lips onto Bravern.

I reblogged a post about it but I do really love that Isami isn't like, disgusted or pushing him away or anything. Not even grateful Lulu interrupted it. Maybe he's actually disappointed she interrupted.

I know it sets ups the symbolic washing away of it but in case there was any ambiguity to the nature of this love:

There's some discussion across japanese twitter about how you're not supposed to do some line in the middle but based on some cursory stuff I'm not sure how common that thought process is. Also Bravern isn't that much of a pro in Japanese culture (even a lot of JP twitter was confused at his proud "This is OMIAI!").

If you aren't involved in Twitter, a comment people like to point out is that they specifically hired a Food Coordinator for this episode lol. I took a bunch of caps of it but between this and Isami's "we need to eat to be strong enough to save everyone" talk I need to do my Dunmeshi + Bravern food as strength and love post.

Anyway I'm obsessed with the fact that Bravern doesn't need to eat but actually has a mouth which reminds me of this tweet my sister brought to me

Naturally, his mouth is for kissing, Among other things.

Okay honestly the food bit is so weird I was kind of worried the entire first half of the episode turns out to be a dream sequence.

I need to set this as my desktop background or something. I think it's really cute that they added/implied that Isami and Bravern are now a cutesy couple rather than Isami being all weird about the love confession.

THIS! Is the point in the post I realize that watching while typing these up leads to me just doing a play by play which isn't really much of anything. I promise the rest of the post isn't just as long even though we're only halfway through the episode.

(Hey, timeskip OP here. This might be a lie)

Lulu + Superbia symbol! It's cute and has a really nice mix of being similar but opposite in it's own way.

I am obsessed with Segnitas being too lazy to fight and honestly I think he's so cute. The interrupting the fusion is kinda expected for a a show with every bit being in universe but it's still a good gag. I'm glad he is around to make commentary until his true death.

I kind of expected the Bravern + Superbia fight to be an episode 2 thing but I guess we won't have the time for that given the end of this episode. Triple shoutout to my Wednesday post by having the "You can get fulfillment from living!", seeing a callback to Lulu's kick and basically having an awesome fight.

Okay ending time. I have a lot of thoughts but one of the ones as I was watching was just.. He can't eat but he can bleed (and cry)? Actually considering that he explodes it's probably oil or something. Like obvs he isn't going to explode into purple triangles like everyone else but oofda. I am all sorts of sad about this but one thing that gets me is that Bravern doesn't even die fighting! It was a stealth attack!

There's some theories that Isami has a change of heart too fast and this might be another time loop, which I think would be on brand but man his reaction to Bravern dying is too much there's at least no way it's because of a Bravern dying bad end. Actually, I wonder if the damage to Bravern's core is worse than we can tell? Lulu bad end looks way worse though. Or maybe hypothetical Isami time travel route is -> they don't fight Superbia -> defeat one more death drive -> Superbia realizes he doesn't get his warrior death -> he takes on the last Deathdrive 1v1, dies -> remaining DD dies somehow but Superbia is still gone -> Isami goes back to save him for Lulu (they can't risk double time looping her?) -> doesn't ever experience Bravern dying so this is new and terrible.

In this case, Ira is acting unpredictably specifically because they do the no-kill route with Superbia. He's evidently super disgusted and I wonder if it's because its the peaceful resolution between the two? Otherwise I'm curious why else. Actually in general I'm curious why everyone is so personal with Bravern but I think we've all been asking that.

I think some people mentioned it on Twitter but Lulu very casually mentions her time travel lived experiences so it would be weird if they didn't know Bravern himself enabled it. Like I mentioned in my other post. He literally can't take on two giant mechs without Bravern and he knows for sure Superbia can't take on someone.

It's interesting that Bravern has different final words in this timeline than Lulu bad end but he also probably never had that stargazing scene in that route. Actually, you know what, I think Lulu bad end he does know it's Lulu because I don't think Isami was there for the specific curry scene we saw. He's still crying, naked in Bravern during that. Unless he just talks about Japanese curry all the time where we don't see.

Smith's last words are specifically "Brave Bang" (yuuki bakuhatsu) vs Bravern's "Brave Burn" and I'm basically Pepe Silvia-ing it up trying to figure out what it means. It's not really a direct confession about being Smith (because he's still a coward in that regard) but maybe it's a secret move/activation considering the moves are in English?

I think any kind of extra finale speculation requires its own post but that's my thoughts!

hm. Sorry. Maybe I should get into writing fanfic so you at least get something out of this

[kajtekmakesthings]

Building a better hi-viz vest:

I wear a hi-viz vest 5 days a week for something like 4 months every year. They're mandatory for the entirety of the Bard on the Beach build and strike, which means I live in the thing through rainy early spring, hot late spring/early summer, and the rapid shift from warm and dry September to rainy and cold October.

My first Bard season, I had a cheap mesh one. It was cool on hot days, but otherwise sucked. The two pockets were as perforated as the rest of it and barely usable because any weight in them stretched the whole vest uncomfortably. When I left it in my cubby with a snack wrapper in the pocket and a mouse chewed right through the fabric, I didn't even bother patching the hole. It wasn't worth the effort.

This past season, I picked up a sturdier surveyor's vest with a ton of pockets.

I loved the general layout, and having a heavier garment that could handle carrying a good amount of snacks, tools, and other essentials without becoming uncomfortable was worth sacrificing ventilation. I was really happy for the first month, and still liked it well enough by late fall.

Minor annoyances piled up over the season: the velcro in the small chest pockets scraped my hands raw if I had to reach into them too often; the radio pocket's strap was bulky and loose; the pen pocket had poorly-sized slots and I dropped things every time I leaned forward; the cheap, sloppy construction failed to hold up to hundreds of hours of outdoor wear. It was clear that this vest was a decent facsimile of a well-designed, well-made work vest, but what I actually wanted was the real thing.

So I've started making my own. I'm using the almost-good-enough surveyor's vest as a starting point, redesigning the features that don't work, and building the whole thing out of much better materials, with better techniques.

This is my first time self-drafting a pattern. I'm glad I started with an incredibly simple garment and an existing shape I could copy. It's been challenging and fun just getting the patterning done.

I started by copying the surveyor's vest's two main shapes (rear panel and front panel) onto some kraft paper I'd saved from a parcel.

The weird tabs on the side and the extra rectangles on the bottom are fold-over lining segments I'd planned to use to reinforce high-wear areas of the interior with the heavier exterior fabric. I'm currently leaning towards cutting them off and sewing them to the lining before sandwiching the layers together, as I suspect the cleaner fold-over seams aren't worth all the extra work. We'll see how they make it into the final product.

For fabric, I grabbed:

Black bull denim for the exterior (this is a new-to-me weave that uses a heavier 3-to-1 twill weave than regular denim, and is dyed a uniform colour instead of having a dyed warp and white weft)

Blue linen for the lining (I splurged on a 100% flax handkerchief linen, since at least some of the lining will be sitting against bare skin on really hot days)

Fluorescent yellow waterproof nylon for the fluorescent component of the hi-viz stripes (I don't care about the waterproofing, but this type of nylon is what you get in work rain pants and jackets, and it's generally easy to keep clean and has good abrasion resistance)

2" wide Iron-on 3M reflective striping for the retroreflective component of the hi-viz stripes

This is also the first time I've had to follow federal safety regulations while designing a project. I'm using this guide to make sure I'm getting the hi-viz components right:

I'm also generally sticking to the design on the original surveyor's vest, since I know it conforms to the relevant standards.

While I was buying fabric, I found a bunch of gridded freezer paper in the sale bin for $1/dozen sheets. I grabbed it after a cursory google turned up a bunch of folks talking about how great it is for pattern-making.

I transferred my original rough patterns from the kraft paper to the freezer paper, using the grid to tidy things up and make them symmetrical.

The cool thing about freezer paper (and butcher paper, which I'm pretty sure is the same thing) is that it has a plastic coating on one side. You can draw on the other side, cut out a pattern, and then place it plastic-side-down on your fabric and iron over it. The heat melts the plastic just enough to have it stick gently to your fabric.

This makes it much easier to cut pattern pieces out of the fabric, because the pattern can't shift around and you don't get the distortion that can come with pinning. I switched to using a rotary cutter to cut out patttern shapes earlier this year (thanks, quilting!), and that plays very well with the freezer paper because my quilting ruler lays flat over it without being thrown off my pins.

I was able to measure and cut a clean and even seam allowance all around the pattern and then peel off the freezer paper without leaving any residue behind. It's reusable (I've already used the front panel piece twice), and honestly feels like a magic trick.

I'm now using it to pattern all of the pockets for the two front panels.

That's the next big chunk of the project, with a planned 4 pockets on the left side and 3 on the right. I'll be lining all of them for comfort and durability, and incorporating the fluorescent and reflective stripes directly into their construction.

So far, this is a fun and challenging off-season project. I'm really glad I don't actually need to use it until mid-March. The lack of deadline means that I can let myself get fully absorbed in the process and all of the things I'm experimenting with as I slowly pull it together.

[ooc-miqojak]

The State of AAA Games in the Modern Era

"Before the internet became a core facet of gaming, if a studio dropped an unfinished game, that game stayed unfinished." "If a game launched in a poor state, that became the game's legacy."

And a quote from the video linked in #2 in my sources below: "This corporate mindset has encouraged studios to ship now, fix later, and exploit the wallets of players for years down the road. And oftentimes we do see some of the lead developers from these studios even brag about how to pull off this scheme at GDC conferences: [Quote from developer] 'Overdelivery is actually dangerous. With every release that you put out there, you're setting a pattern for your community and for your players. Because it's hard to tell a team, a team that has extra cycles and they have energy and they wanna do something amazing and know how to do it and it totally would be amazing and awesome for the game! Sometimes we have to tell them, like, we shouldn't ship this because it's an overdelivery. Beware of overdelivery, overdelivery is actually dangerous.' "

These are objective facts that people were ready to tear my throat out about during what I thought was a fact-based, adult debate earlier today. Instead, I just had people repeatedly say the same thing to me over and over: "But games still had bugs on console!" Which was something I never countered. I even agreed! My point, however, was that bugs in games were much rarer, and far less impactful to the overall experience of the game - and modern games are often released in a half-finished state, with bugs that massively impact gameplay - just look at Cyberpunk 2077. It's notorious for that very thing! And yet, more than one person was willing to twist my words, and take things out of context (repeatedly trying to nitpick things like Pokemon Gen 1 bugs - things that were not relevant to the discussion, as they were not bugs even remotely comparable to those in modern AAA games upon release) to desperately cling to some idea that console games were released in as bad of a state as modern games are? I don't know why, when console games would have literally killed consoles and gaming as a hobby, if they had been regularly released in as bad of a state as current digital/online only games currently are. It's a fact, and not an opinion that more games in the modern era release in a half-finished, buggy state that makes games unplayable upon release. That is not an opinion. Here's another article about it! (There's lots of videos/articles about this very thing, with just a cursory Google search.)

Yes, console games had bugs - and the ones notorious for those bugs that made story or gameplay basically impossible... bombed! A modern game, like Cyberpunk, that releases with massive bugs? Simply promises to keep patching the unfinished product, which you could not do on a physical product. This is a fact, and not an opinion. Someone claimed that console games would just make a better version, and re-release the game... which doesn't amount to much, because the game already has a bad rep, and no one will pay twice for the same thing (were your parents going to buy you the same $40-60 game a second time back then? Doubtful. No one in their right mind would.), nor would you trust that publisher a second time. That's not the same thing as releasing Cyberpunk in a half-made state, unplayable and bug-ridden and missing core/promised features, and just... finishing it over the next couple years after taking people's money for the half-baked product that wasn't what you promised. They're not asking you to pay for the game twice, they're just making you buy an unfinished product that won't be complete for another year or so (if it ever is). As the video states, there were two years of class action lawsuits - which I don't recall hearing about with console games, because you simply couldn't release only a partial part of a game you claimed was complete, and hope people stuck around for patches, because you couldn't just try and clean up your mess once a disc or cartridge was purchased. If there were incomplete textures, and you couldn't progress the story/engage in gameplay due to game-breaking bugs, that was it. You were screwed.

The modern era and advent of online-only products has led to AAA publishers releasing more and more unfinished products with game-breaking bugs because "we can fix it later"/it's cheaper to fix after launch/because executives simply don't care how it impacts the players, because they have pre-order money in their pockets already/they continue to mistreat the devs of the games, and force them to release unfinished products, and move on to the next cash-grab. These are facts. Not opinions.

Anyways, here's more fact-based sources. One

Two

Three...this video is even from five years ago! (And quotes someone from 8 years prior to that stating that: "The answer for us as publishers is to actually sell unfinished games..."

Four

Five

Next time you find yourself heated by facts that aren't opinions, don't attack the person dealing out the facts, and claim they said something they didn't say - especially if it's the exact opposite of something they said multiple times. Once you start taunting and being childish in a debate, it becomes clear you're not an adult, and shouldn't be partaking in serious, adult conversations - no matter the topic. Objective facts may make you mad, but hey - I'm mad that modern games release in a shitty state thanks to being fully online these days, and not releasing in a physical state that encourages Publishers to release a full, and mostly bug-free game (free of bugs that impact gameplay or story in a serious way, at least. The occasional NPC glitched into a wall or the sky isn't a huge deal, and a wacky texture here and there is mostly hilarious.) Anyways, Donald Trump simply attacks people who use facts in a debate! Don't be like Donald Trump. Don't choose to attack the other person, instead of using objective-based-facts to debate/discuss things. Debates shouldn't make you mad - they should be interesting, and enlightening, and you (or the other person, or all parties) should learn from them. And inevitably, in fact based discussions...someone is wrong! I'm often wrong. I like learning new things. But letting your emotions guide you in a fact based discussion that is very literal and not rooted in emotional appeals... just makes a mess.

[the-commonplace-book]

ok ok a real one: Seamus/Sinead obvs obvssss

Send me a ship for the ship bingo chart: Seamus O'Neill / Sinead Hanigan ( Original Characters )

Before anything else I'd like to say I fully intended for this art to be just a little sketch like I've been doing for these, but then I got carried away and whOOps! Art! (still forced myself not to do detail work)

Seamus and Sinead! They make me feel INSANE! I am in no way normal about them. 

For those who don’t know, Seamus and Sinead are two of the main characters of the scifi-fantasy series Beth and I are writing. They also have a modern AU continuity that we’re writing for funsies and will post on Ao3 eventually. And OH DO I HAVE A LOT TO SAY ABOUT THEM.

On paper, Seamus and Sinead are a recipe for disaster. A rich boy involved in politics with buckets of trauma, a screwed up family, commitment issues, and a laundry list of addictions. A driven, optimistic small town girl with a lot of prove, naive eagerness to trust, and a bit of a savior complex now and then. It’s a textbook dysfunctional romance novel situation at a cursory glance. 

But Sinead isn’t really so naive, she just likes to try and see the best in people. And Seamus, while a mess, is proactive in seeking out help in getting clean and processing his trauma. Sinead, while keen for authoritative approval, will never seek it out to the detriment of her morals. Seamus commitment issues? Turns out he’s the most loyal person on earth when he’s actually in a relationship; he just hasn’t been in one in a long time.  And the love that grows between them is born first out of friendship. They support each other and inspire each other to learn and grow and change for the better. They bring out the honest in each other, and through that bring out the best.

They bond over a love of poetry, music, art, and literature. Over empathy and curiosity. Over the macabre, the absurd, and the hopeful. Over the ways in which they seek to make the world a better place. Seamus is Sinead’s tether when she shoots for the stars, keeping her from flying off into space in her optimistic idealism. Sinead helps pull Seamus to his feet when his grounded, practical nature spirals into pessimistic nihilism. They have an insane amount of respect for each other and balance each other out beautifully. They are partners in the truest sense of the word. They aren’t each other’s sole reasons for growing and changing, but they are positive catalysts of change in each other’s lives, and they support each other through that ever evolving process.

Not to mention the themes of trauma recovery that are involved in their story for both of them. Learning what it is to trust and to feel safe and loved and secure in a relationship which is like candy to me. I love putting a little of that in my stories and so does Beth so it’s little surprise trauma recovery plays such a large role in this one.

And there’s the whole families aspect of things of inserting Sinead into the O’Neill mess which is just a delight because she’s a huge wrench in Seamus’ father’s plans. Sinead’s parents are wonderful (honestly another favorite ship) and adopt Seamus so fast. Sinead’s dad and Seamus have one of my favorite relationships in the story actually. 

I had to also grab the “I could make it SO fucked up” and “I could make it SO stupid” for them because we’ve written an insane number of AUs about these two and there’s one where we tried to see if we could screw up their relationshi, but somehow they worked their way back around to being healthy about it again and that continuity now inspired some of the narrative choices in the main canon.

Look I could talk about these two for ages. I mean, we’ve got entire books about them. They’re just so *chef’s kiss* 

Thanks for sending these two in! ugh I love them so much

[isledolon]

horsin' around || Chapter 5 Event

The days since Buttercup <3 shambled into your lives have been harrowing and bloody. With more of the living injured than not, the dearly departed’s newfound corporeality pushed to its limit, and no indication of the beast’s onslaught coming to an end anytime soon, things are feeling a bit dire, to say the least.

How much more of this can you take? Mentally. Physically.

How long until it’s too much?

How long until someone–

It’s a few days after the last major attack when you find a note. For the living, it’s slipped under your door, careful and discrete like it must be something important. For the dead, it’s… Handed to you in passing like it’s probably not, actually– and any illusion of importance is dispelled the moment you see all of the stickers (an assortment of stars, things that seem personalized to each of you, and… A grill?)

Upon reading, the note turns out to be an invitation.

Hi! We did some testing and figured out how to make a small horse free zone in a room, so we set it up for people to spend a night! It’s not a long-term solution since Eydis will probably ruin it as soon as they notice a loop-hole >:( but we thought it would be nice to have at least one night that we don’t have to worry about night-mares (lol) Just come to Mugen and Maria’s room later if you want to!! We have a spot set up for people to just sleep if they want (so wear something comfy!!) but we’ll have some snacks and other stuff :) I bought that candy bbq set from Oighrig so the ghosts can have some too!!

Well, that would explain the grill. There’s no signature on the invitation, but beyond the mention of what room to go to, the bottom of the paper boasts some cute little doodles of the original House Årud’s four occupants in Boppin’ Grillin’ aprons.

Those that decide to take them up on their offer in the evening will find the door to Mugen and Maria’s room ajar, and a look inside reveals…

…Maybe the most structurally sound blanket fort you’ve ever seen?

A number of chairs that have been commandeered from who knows where now act as support beams for sheets and blankets stretched across most of the room. The corners are tied down, and some weights from the sporting goods store sit in the chairs themselves to prevent any tipping. There’s what amounts to the blanket approximation of a tent flap at the front, but more impressively, a look inside reveals some honest to god blanket architecture separating one section from another with a heavy blanket that acts as both a wall and door. A piece of paper reading NAPTIME NOOK has been attached to it.

Aside from the fact that you have to crawl around on the floor to get inside, the rest of it is pretty spacious– for a blanket fort, anyway. You’re still going to be invading each other’s personal space in here, but it’s definitely better than it could b–

Is that the TV?

It is. How did they get that in here? The gnomebox is here too, ready to provide endless hours of entertainment alongside the few card and board games they’ve thought to grab. Most of the lighting in here is provided by some worm-on-a-string shaped string lights, and it also looks like there’s some sort of… Map of the area, maybe, sitting with the games? A cursory glance shows where certain paths have been drawn out in red, while some places have been marked with big checkmarks or Xs. Looks like this whole thing isn’t just for fun.

As for the promised snacks, there’s a collection of drinks and homemade goodies, currently sitting on one of the beds to not take up space inside the fort. Looks like Maria’s in charge of grabbing things for people in the Buttercup <3 zone.

Well.

It’s definitely a little silly for a bunch of grown adults to have a blanket fort slumber party, but after everything else you’ve been through–

Maybe a little silly is what you need.

[scholarlygaming]

Social Media as an Artist in 2025

Okay, it's time we have a preliminary talk about things. Including, well, why I'm here in the first place. This is gonna be long, as you can probably already tell...

As you may or may not know, I'm both a programmer and an artist, in the sense that I have put a lot of time into developing my skills in both places for their own merits.

The goal, of course, is to put them together, but suffice it to say, I am a person who's kinda split between two worlds who, well. Let's just say, have a "love-hate relationship" a lot of the time.

I want to use computer science and graphic design to create worlds, tell stories, and make the world better.

I don't think I've publicly said this? But the main character of the story I'm working on now, profile photo girl Katie, is very much in the LGBTQIA+ community. And, I am too, to an extent, as a cursory glance at my profile will reveal.

As an artist who, if we're being honest, doesn't have a super large following, I kinda need social media to exist. At the very least, "getting more people to know I do art things" is an important goal worth prioritizing.

So what am I supposed to do now?

Yeah, I need to at least consider the possibility that I will need to at some point vacate the two social media places I really rely on. But... I don't think I really can, yet.

I would like to not have to use Instagram, but there's really no alternative. For people who would tell me to apply to Pixelfed, yes I have, and I would like to try it out, but it doesn't do videos, and for someone who's literally taking two classes about animation, that's A Problem. Plus it's maybe a bit too categorized for how I'd want to use it. Cara doesn't support videos, either.

I would like to not have to use Twitter, but I'm kind of stuck with it. I see Bluesky as a valid alternative, but there are a lot of problems that there need to be solutions to before I can actually use it.

I think this is worth discussing in specifics, so:

1. The Discovery Feed is Unusable

Because of the way the site shows posts to you, the discovery tab is basically unusable unless you want to sift through a lot of posts about politics / random garbage.

I do care about politics stuff in other ways and other places, but when I'm scrolling through my main tab, I want to see rhythm game anime girl drawings, find people doing other drawings, learn about things occurring in the electronic music/rhythm game music community, and follow the people involved in the games/culture groups I care about. Or at least something related to my hobby-type interest. None of that is scrolling through 100 completely random people I have no personal attachment to going in and voicing their opinions on every single current political event they feel like.

I've tried the filters, I've tried the "show less like this," neither works, I've been hitting these buttons for hours to basically no change. I'm sure they stop a decent chunk of the posts I don't want to see, but some portion of posts are images (many being literally just text screenshots of other social media/news) or ones with a different word than usual/a misspelling, and the amount of people interacting with them means that they're going to be thrown to the top of the discovery feed for everyone.

If it's not politics, it's going to be completely random cat photos/other pop culture stuff that's not my thing, and Bluesky is equally resistant to stopping doing that too.

I believe the flamingo head-in-sand approach is unhealthy, yes. I'm not advocating that. I believe that the kind of stuff being talked about needs to be addressed. Honestly, for the people who read my description of "see 100 random people you probably generally agree with voice their opinions on current political events" and get excited, yeah, it's good that there's a pretty big community for that now. Again, I do care.

But for me, there's a point where seeing more of the exact same reaction to the exact same thing just is... well, meaningless, other than just being stressful to read.

It's important to be able to step up to politics, but it's also important to be able to step back. On Bluesky, you cannot do that without losing access to pretty important features, and it sucks.

Of course Twitter is going to have other, arguably more importantly worse issues with politics-related discourse, but I have to say: if you don't want that, at least you can actually control what the discovery algorithm gives you. I spent like maybe an hour kicking all the vaguely political things off my feed when I first made my account, and that got rid of nearly all of it. Now, it's been months since I've seen one.

My experience with Twitter is that I can see all the rhythm game stuff I care about, all the associated art I want, follow all the associated people, and learn about new events and creators. I just have to delegate the politics to somewhere else.

Simply put, Bluesky does not support that kind of space right now.

(As for suggestions on how to fix this? Make the discovery algorithm less based on just what gets the most reactions, and try to promote accounts related to ones you're following or accounts following who you're following more often. Change how filters work to allow you to block portions of a word. Ideally, have some way to use OCR to get text from images and apply filters to that to stop the "I will take a screenshot of the news I don't like to complain about it" posts. And, lastly, have a setting so that if the replies to a post overwhelmingly contain filtered words, to filter the post automatically too.)

2. Low Discovery In General

I guess I could consider going without a discovery feed and just going off followers, if I'm mainly going to use the account to post stuff myself. Issue is, that also means that as an artist with a comparatively small following, Bluesky probably just isn't going to go anywhere in terms of getting new people.

I'm certainly not the only person who's having these issues with finding communities I care about. If I'm having a hard time getting Bluesky to put posts on my feed from established public figures, then there is absolutely no way anyone's gonna find me on there without me getting really lucky I guess.

It doesn't help that "go without a discovery feed and just look at posts of people you're following / find other feeds" is usually the only real advice given to everyone who's having issues with their discovery feed. Which certainly helps the user experience, but then comes with the question of "well how do I get on those specialized feeds in the first place?"

There's also the fact that Bluesky still has less users in general, which is more than relevant enough.

Look, sometimes I've just gotta scream into the void even if it is a void (case in point this), and I'm not like trying to make perfect engagement posts. But in the end of the day, I am an artist, and I have limited time to do self-promotion things. Trying to keep up with another social media is a time investment, and I've got to pick and choose what's worth it.

3. The Community Isn't There

And lastly, to be blunt, the rhythm game community just hasn't moved over. Most rhythm game official accounts are only on Twitter. And most of the art and fandom is still only on Twitter / compartmentalized into Discords, actually. Same thing goes for the music community surrounding rhythm games.

And, well. As long as I'm spending a couple days a month repeatedly refreshing arcaea_en at 6 PM, I kinda need to keep the account that lets me do that.

(Why might this be the case? Well, the push to Bluesky is international, but America is really the origin. Right now (well, at least in November 2024), 52% of Bluesky's traffic is from America, compared to 7% from Japan. By comparison, Twitter has 100 million American users to 70 million Japanese users.

And it's impossible to ignore: there may be a lot of Western fans, but rhythm gaming is really an East Asia+Japan-led culture.

Some of the bigger artists are moving over/posting to Bluesky in addition to Twitter, such as Camellia, so I hope that this is something that'll happen eventually. But I get the feeling it's probably going to take a while.)

--

Again, none of this is an argument for me not using Bluesky at all. I think it's a good idea to have one to crosspost to, if nothing else for redundancy in case Twitter gets even worse and for people who still want to be able to follow without having to use a platform that they consider makes their lives worse. And, again, I would love to not have to use a platform that's causing people those kinds of problems-

-but I feel that at least for me, it's necessary. Not having a Twitter would essentially lock me out of the community I really rely on.

I feel the same way about Instagram, if not more so because I kinda already have decent numbers on there. In an ideal world I would have been building up the others too, but I didn't, so here we are. It also solves a lot of rough problems with the types of media I use. I guess I could go without, but that would be throwing away a decent step up at this point, which is certainly not ideal... (There's also the small fact that I kinda have to keep it for a class for points, too, which certainly makes the decision easier-)

Now, do I want to reduce my reliance on these platforms? 100% yes, I want to be able to drop them if things get from bad to worse very quickly. Ideally I'd want something more direct+personalized, like maybe a mailing list? I guess building one of those wouldn't be a bad idea-

Part of that involves using my other accounts more, so I will be trying to do that- though I can already tell, being consistent with these kinds of things this semester is going to be hard. All of my classes are doing the "constant pressure" class technique, and I've had basically no energy lately, so I am gonna need to push through both of those-

I guess all I'm saying is that my solution to "what am I supposed to do" is "well, what I can." And that's gonna be how I'm gonna have to get through all this.

Likewise, if you're looking at all of the things going on with social media and finding yourself in the same spot? I think what you really need to do is be honest with yourself and think about is "what can I do about this."

I think Bluesky is a great solution to many of people's problems with Twitter, but it's certainly not perfect and it comes with many of its own problems, and I think saying it's the only good solution for everyone is disingenuous. It's like Linux; sure, if you put the work in, it's probably gonna be better than Windows, yeah, but you are gonna have to do that work to get your basic functions back, and there are some use cases that it just will not be good for.

All of this is to say, I use Arch BTW :hikarii:

...Anyways, yeah I'm not sure how to end this other than "not a stupid joke" so yeah. I hope you found this interesting at least, because I felt I needed to say it. (Seriously, this post has been in my back pocket for like a month...)

[allthemusic]

Week ending: 10th April

It's April 1958, and apparently the record-buying public is in the mood for some brass. Like, a lot of brass, and not a lot of lyrics. That's this week. The instrumental brass week. Could be better, but could be a lot worse.

Mandy (La Panse) - Eddie Calvert (peaked at Number 9)

This is a fun, if rather random, throwback. We haven't had an Eddie Calvert number for ages, and this is everything I remember them being, a sort of instrumental bit of pleasantly jolly virtuoso trumpet, with this lovely warm, brassy sound to it, and some instruments underneath doing something mildly interesting. In this case, we've got backing singers going doo-wa, doo-wa, doo-wa, doo in a back-and-forth with the trumpet, and we've got chimes, too. The whole tone is kind of nostalgic - you could imagine it being used in a happy flashback in a film.

There are no lyrics in the whole thing, beyond the backing singers, and the title gives me very little to work off. I can't find any obvious information out about where this song came from, though Eddie's previous outings have all been covers, so I assume this is. Still, a cursory hunt for "Mandy (La Panse)" gives me only a smattering of results, all of them linked to Eddie's version of the song. So I've no idea where this came from.

The title's not very useful, either. Mandy's obviously a name, but then "La Panse" in brackets suggests to me that it's maybe a translation of a foreign song (French?) whose lyrics were changed entirely in translation. It wouldn't be the first time we've seen that - a surprising amount of European tracks seem to have made it big in translation in the 1950s - but in this case, I'm still a bit mystified, since the French word "panse" means a belly or a paunch. "The Belly" doesn't seem a likely title for the song, and also returns no results. It could be "la pansée" ("the bandaged one") but that would require a slightly different spelling, and wouldn't exactly be much less weird. Alternatively I've seen it as "Mandy (The Pansy)" which only makes a little bit more sense, especially since a pansy is a "pensée". So I asusme that's a mistranslation, as it only seems to appear in older versions of the track, and not even consistently then. So the title here remains a mystery.

You'll note that this is all I'm saying - I simply don't have much to say, here. We won't be seeing Eddie again, and I'm glad we got to say goodbye to him, but this track isn't doing much for me.

Tequila - The Champs (5)

Okay, this is more like it - a really well-known song. You may not thing you know this song, but you definitely do - if you don't get it when the sax comes in, you definitely will when you hit the vocals - or rather, the vocal, singular, as a rather raspy man growls the word "Tequila" at you, then drops out again. You get three "Tequilas" in the whole thing, and then the whole group shout it at the end, and that's that - it really is more of an instrumental thing.

The whole thing is well structured to show off the instruments, and the way that they work together. We start with just some guitar strumming, then we get hand claps, guitar, some drums, slightly more intensity in the guitars, and then this gritty, raspy saxophone, with a double bass backing it up, each instrument coming in and making the track that little bit more intense and complex. And then, just like that, they all gradually drop out, leaving you at the end with just the guitar and claps, ready for the final "Tequila!"

I have to say, the overall vibe for me is actually a little bit unsettling, for reasons I find hard to pin down. I don't know, I think the issue might be that the canonical version of this song, in my brain, is one that my high school swing band played. Except my high school swing band had a whole brass section. And so this version, with its single sax, isn't exactly quiet, but it feels a lot more laid back and sparse than I thought it would. The gravelly "Tequila" is almost menacing, in the middle, and something about the way that the song dies down until the final "Tequila" echoes away alarmingly quickly into nothing is also just a bit unnerving to me.

I fully recognise that this is a me issue, though, and I do think that whether or not it's creepy, it is a good song. Not least because it's different. There's undeniably something a bit surf-y in the bassline and guitar work, and the hand-claps, and there's also a very cool Latin vibe to the whole thing. It's supposedly based on a Cuban mambo song called Como Mi Ritmo No Hay Dos by Cachao, an artist who's known as a pioneer of mambo, and of so-called informal "descarga" jam sessions.

And this does give off "chill jam" vibes. The Champs were apparently session musicians who came together to support a rockabilly artist called Dave Burgess (also known as Dave Dupree) who was a little short on hits. One of them, Danny Flores (going by the excellent pen-name Chuck Rio) brough this tune along, and retroactively, when this song was a success, the group became known as the Champs. They don't seem to have had much success beyond this song, but they did release a follow-up song called Too Much Tequila, which is excellent.

Swingin' Shepherd Blues - Ted Heath & His Music (3)

And we're back on the trumpet. In many ways, Ted is a pretty similar proposition to Eddie - a British bandleader specialising in instrumental swing. And he does feel like a relic of the same era - like Eddie, it's worth noting that we won't be seeing Ted again in the top 10, though he released a cover of Tequila that got to Number 27, so he's not completely done, yet.

This tune is a straight-up jazz tune, originally written back in 1957 by one Moe Koffman and titled Blues a la Canadiana, before being renamed as Swingin' Shepherd Blues, in which guise Ted picked it up and ran with it. The reason for the slightly odd title becomes clear as you listen - after a bit of clarinet jolliness, ambling along rather amiably alongside some drums and piano, only to pick up a whole brass section, you get this jazzy quotation of Baa Baa Black Sheep! It's great, and it comes back at the end, as the rest of the istruments drop out and two clarinets play another version of the tune, now with a clever sort of counterpoint going on. It's all very classy stuff, very fun, but also pretty chill.

The list of people who have covered this is very long, and at some point lyrics do seem to have been written for it. They don't really concern us, here, since Ted's version is instrumental, but I wanted to mention them, because they're about a shepherd who sings the blues to bring his sheep home, and they describe the tune as "the oohviest, swinginest, grooviest thingy that we've ever done" and I think that that's worth a mention. Because "oohvy" is excellent, and also because the idea of Little Bo Peep just rocking out siging the blues tickles me.

I still have no idea why these instrumentals all happened in the same week, but actually, I quite liked them. They were chill, enjoyable, and a nice last hurrah for the sort of bandleader that we've periodically been seeing throughout this project, the Eddies and Teds and Ronnie Hiltons of the world. They were a big deal in the 1950s, with their swing covers of more popular American hits, but nothing can last forever, and when it comes to instrumental music, the Champs, with their guitar-driven surf sound, are simply more exciting, more energetic, more sexy. It's a sound we'll definitely be hearing more of, and I, for one, am looking forward to it. Instrumental rock, here we come!

Favourite song of the bunch: Tequila

[vipier-a]

you're not safe here. you shouldn't have come for me.

IT'S ENTIRELY TOO FUCKING HUMID ON THIS GODFORSAKEN PLANET. tristan has never minded hot weather particularly, but it's the humidity that gets him, wet and sticky and suffocating - not to mention god awful when one's making best efforts to treat open wounds. and cassian has many. more than he'd anticipated and certainly enough to confirm that his instincts were right, that following @k4ssa on this genuinely bantha shit mission to onderon was indeed the right call. they haven't seen each other since they fought about a week before, loudly enough to drive cassian's crew quietly from the ship. tristan departed yavin shortly after in a rage, setting his sights on the mid rim to blow off steam. he heard nothing from cassian or any of the other rebels until receiving a brief transmission from tinker with only two words and a set of coordinates. he knew what it meant.

they have similar tendencies when they clash, tristan has noticed, even though they manifest quite differently. cassian, like tristan, sinks into a foul temper - or so tris has heard amongst the crew, even if he doesn't witness his own fallout firsthand. then, usually, he does something stupid. reckless. something that never fails to make tristan more furious to hear about later. tristan, of course, has his own version, which typically includes copious amounts of cheap liquor, losing all of his money gambling irresponsibly, and picking fights with the most dangerous looking individuals he can find in the seediest corners of the galaxy. he sports the evidence of his own most recent stubborn idiocy in the form of a deep bruise across his left cheekbone, the result of a poorly conceived brawl with a particularly short-tempered bothan. it had been grounding - bracing, even - at the time, in the moment it occurred, but tris is fairly certain it left him concussed and the bruise itself is sure to get worse before it gets better. nothing compared to the state cassian's in, of course. at least he doesn't have to worry about his own shiner becoming infected under these conditions.

" yeah, well, you're not my fucking supervisor, are you, so I don't give a shit what you think I shouldn't have done. " tristan answers bitterly, as he rummages through the med kit he brought along. even half delusional, cassian manages to crawl his way under his skin, to say things tris is sure he knows will piss him off. all these years later and he still refuses to fucking get it, refuses to see that tristan will always come for him, even if it means his own life. glancing up, he notices that cass's sliced arm is hanging in the mud and he curses, shuffling around the makeshift tent for something to elevate it. the jungle rain has proven relentless and the most important thing to do with thier limited supplies was create shelter - but, unfortunately, utilizing his only tarp to protect them from the downfall left tristan scrambling for anything he can lay down in the ondoronian mud for cassian to rest on. he settles on using his own jacket, lifting cassian's shoulder to tuck it beneath his right side. " now, stop moving. if you get an infection, med bay doctor's gonna blame me. let me see. "

he'd already taken a cursory glance at the injuries littering cassian's upper body - blades, blasters, an unholy mess, some of which cass clearly attempted to sloppily address before tristan's arrival and others which must have occurred immediately before they managed to scramble to safety from the urban landscape of iziz to the treacherous jungle. as much as he realizes he needs to patch those at some point, however, his greater concern is the wound on cassian's thigh, which he turns his attention to now, frowning more deeply as he realizes how much blood there actually is, staining nearly black by now through cassian's pants. practiced fingers tear away the pant leg, followed by a strip of fabric from his own shirt. without wasting time, tris ties it tight around the captain's thigh above the wound before reaching for a bottle of liquor from his pack.

" drink, " he demands, cupping the back of cassian's head in his bloodied hand and tilting the bottle up to his lips. when he's confident his partner's had enough, he takes a generous swig himself before dumping some of the liquor onto the wound, half wincing when he gets a good look at just how deep it is. if they'd hit an artery, he'd be dead by now, he tells himself, forcing air through his lungs as he clings to his cold composure. his supplies are limited - they always are, based largely on what he can manage to pilfer from the alliance's stores. unauthorized, of course. he wipes his own sweaty brow with a half-trembling hand and reaches back into the medkit to fetch further disinfectant and a spray to slow the bleeding.

he uses each in turn, silent and focused, before packing the wound with gauze and wrapping a bandage firmly along the length of it. the rain continues to pelt the tarp above their heads and tristan feels the mud below him seeping into his pants and boots ; anything that could insulate him is currently packed beneath cassian in an effort to keep him as far away from the jungle floor as possible, to only marginal success. his gaze flickers to his lover's face, brow furrowing as he examines his ashen complexion, brushing his fingers along his forehead before pressing the back of his hand there to test the temperature. too warm. he has to keep him aware, awake, before things get worse.

" you're an idiot. and you're not safe here either. if you're so interested in my safety, don't get yourself in these fucking situations, genius. " it's a mostly unspoken truth between them that where cassian goes, he follows. even now, he doesn't outright admit it, but he knows the sentiment resonates, even if he knows cass is unlikely to ever truly accept that tristan has never really been interested in the rebellion on even the barest level. his eyes have gone stony as he stares at the spymaster, noting the beads of sweat on his brow, the paleness of his skin even as he attempts to keep his gaze sharp. it's nearly frustration alone that prompts him, after a few moments, to lean down, cup the back of cassian's head in one hand, and kiss him hard on his chapped mouth, once, twice, unyielding, unforgiving, furious, aching, loving. when he pulls back, he's glaring, shaking his head, yet leaning in again to press his lips to cass's damp forehead regardless, lingering, despite being half reclined in the mud. " who assigned the mission, cassian? I need to know who to have a friendly chat with when we get back. hey. fucking look at me. stay awake. crew's got our coordinates. they'll be here any minute and I'm sure they'll have plenty of their own words for you. now tell me who assigned it and why. in detail. "

[sofiadragon]

I accidentally posted instead of putting in a new heading, this next bit is magical theorycraft about repair spells and why people might have patched up clothes when Repairo is right there. Also a bit about clothing durability, fast fashion, and the cost of hand woven fabric.

We know magic can instantly repair things. We know many spells and enchantments don't survive their caster's death, and we know Grimmauld Place, despite having a house elf in residence, went from an opulent home decorated to impress visitors with ostentatious wealth to a molding old heap with carpets worn through in ten years or less of disuse depending on when exactly Sirius' parents died.

So, I suspect that while a simple charm might work in the short term, it doesn't work indefinitely. The thing isn't really fixed, it is just taking on the properties of something that has been fixed, and as additional wear and tear accumulates the damage eventually outstripps the cast spell. You could cast again, and perhaps some specific repair and Transfiguration spells will layer nicely. However, just like using glue to repeatedly repair my Grandmother's cookie jar as my kid handles the delicate porcelain "butterfly on a cat" shaped lid roughly in excitement, the layers start to build up and cause their own issues. The carpets in the Black townhouse were likely charmed to look perfect and to look like the latest fashion over and over. Layer upon layer of magic... and then all the family died or was in prison and it was left to unravel into it's natural state: a hundred years old and worn down to the floorboards.

For clothing specifically: It might distort or disfigure the garment to repair it too many times in a way worse than the apparent damage. At that point there is nothing for it: you have to dispell the magic and start fresh. Now, all those layers are undone at once, and it isn't a frayed seam it's got a great hole you can fit your fingers through. A patch of new fabric sewn onto the elbows and knees or other wear points will do the job, which takes time and materials.

The Materials

The wizarding world is not industrialized and seems to have limited international trade. I imagine you can only apperate with so much, ever-expanding bags must still be pulled along by one's magic, and the statute of secrecy makes large gatherings and large shipments difficult to do unnoticed. The Hogwarts Express implies a few things related to this. Some people just aren't good at long-distance teleportation or taking someone with side-along apperation in canon, and all methods of magical travel seem to be regulated somehow. All the students gather to take a train since they have to move not only children who can't travel alone but also luggage. Inconsistent details aside, some things don't take well to shrinking or improper storage either. I think it makes the most sense to say the Floo is newer than the tradition of gathering at set locations for portkeys or other travel methods (the train itself may be newer than the Floo Network, but gathering for a caravan of some kind likely isn't given even the most cursory look at a population density map.) These days with better travel options for individuals everyone leaves from London, but in the past I think students would join along the way. In modern day the Floo makes traveling with children and a small amount of goods so much easier that most parents take their kids along using it, but large amounts of imported goods are much, much less common than in the muggle world of cargo container ships.

This means that most things are made nearby, by hand (or by wand,) and the market prices of goods will reflect that. A full outfit of clothing used to be considerably more expensive before the advent of fast fashion and mass importation of goods made cheaply in other countries by slave labor. I have a very old fashioned off-white cotton sheath made of high quality (high weight) cotton fabric that I use to sleep in. I wear it like my great-great-grandmother might have: six days a week every week for two years. (☆cough cough autism texture ick solution hem hem☆) People in general did not have closets full of clothes. Just like Harry's first year list asks for him to get three uniforms, people tended to wear the same few items until they fell apart.

Fabrics these days are generally lower weight than they used to be - to the point that our foremothers would say very nasty things about the cheapskate weaver. You can't even buy sheets based on thread count anymore, the threads and the weave used to make fabrics are so thin and skimpy that companies have to cut and weigh a section to make sure they aren't being cheated. Thin = low durability. Fast fashion clothes are made a thin, cheap, and quickly as possible so you just can’t wear them too many times without them falling apart. Heck, sometimes they don't have the hems properly finished and you have to trim the trailing thread yourself. There are a lot of articles about this from a lot of sources. TL;DR: modern western culture includes a closet full of mostly cheaply made clothing you only wear a few times because if you wore them once a week or more they'd fall off you.

There is no indication that Magical Europe has the same kind of industry. Harry's school uniform is hemmed and finished on the spot: the clothing on the racks in Madam Malkins is likely unfinished with basted seams, and will be sewn to order based on the measurements of the patron.

Meanwhile, Remus Lupin is likely wearing a robe he got as a graduation present from James because with proper care a durable fabric really won't dissolve into gauze even after 200 days of wearing it. I have quality towels that are 10 years old, wedding gifts, that are not even fraying on the edge, but the cotton athletic clothes I bought last year are getting worn through already after two summers of use. The hand-spun, hand-woven, wand-stitched clothing Professor Snape is wearing every day, assuming he owns an extravagant five outfits (not including his gray nightshirt and sundries) due to the nature of his work with chemicals and athleticism (man outran a hippogriff, he's not the one skipping leg day) likely means he only buys one new robe once every couple years to keep looking well-dressed at a prestigious position. That robe likely costs a good portion of his annual salary, and Hermione really should have apologized for burning his cloak - an outerwear piece like a jacket one would likely expect to get more than half a decade of daily use from. Looking at the historical prices of day/work clothing it used to be a significant investment and the idea of buying an outfit that you would only wear once used to be a laughable thing even for the very rich who could afford such an extravagant and wasteful practice. Far more likely that a one-off outfit would have some adjustments made to it instead of it being discarded entirely.

So how do these expensive handmade clothes get repaired by Molly?

It is also possible that Snape and others who are desperatly scrambling up the social ladder out of poverty learned muggle mending techniques due to his upbringing, where Lupin or even someone like Molly Weasley (who were both born into well-off or middle class families) may not have learned such things or even think to learn them due to their upbringing. Knitting and embroidery, fiber crafts in general, can and do overlap with knowledge of sewing and mending, but they don't have to. I could easily see Molly sitting with one of Arthur's nicer robes, looking at a tear baby Charlie caused and using embroidery to cover it because it works and she doesn't know how to do it without making it obvious that there was a repair.

On the flip side, I was an accountant but when I finished my paperwork I'd often be found repairing the formal dresses we had in store that were damaged by customers. Yes, even with gentle handling those fancy formal dresses people try on in stores are getting completely ruined. Pulled seams, pulled threads, torn lace, damaged beading, and all sorts of damage gets done (especially during prom season.) I can't knit and have only just begun to crochet recently, but I can repair a damaged formal gown such that nobody can tell it was ever dirty or torn. Saved the business $100-$500 per repair by making those gowns saleable again. The skill is related, but not interchangeable.

That rip? Tree branch now. The burn from the twins having a snit over nap time including accidental magic? Pair of stars. It's incongruous and sometimes she'll use a circle cut out of something else to cover a hole before she embroiders over it but nobody told her you have to align the fabric grain, so people know they are patched. They go as long as they can between using mending spells so they don't layer badly, because once they go wrong you're stuck needing a patch or something newer.

🪡

So the people who know to use (likely proprietary) spells that work like a sewing machine, mechanically moving the needles around, are the ones doing real lasting repairs. The books are light on the sort of everyday jobs done by the lower classes, nearly everyone is a schoolchild or an academic or a member of the social elite. Bill Weasley's job as a cursebreaker comes the closest to the kind of maintenance-man trade that simply must exist in a functional society. A wizard who knows enough about crafting without magic to make and fix items permanently - meaning in a way that is real and not a transfiguration or charm. Spells that shape wood physically, that drive pipes into the ground to make a well, that cast iron and pewter into cauldrons, that fix malfunctioning magical objects... the information about that kind of trade skill type of employment is pretty much nonexistent in the books because Harry isn't interested in the trades, including tailoring, but it must exist for a functional economy.

And the thing about skilled trades is that they know their worth and charge by the job, not the hour.

Wizarding clothing and fashion

This meta/list of HCs has been sitting in my drafts for a while. But here is my meta about wizarding fashions. 

1.0 An insular culture with its own unique dress

No shade to people who enjoy seeing and drawing characters in muggle clothing, but I think that the majority of wizards and witches dress in wizarding clothing. 

Indeed, the fact that most wizards can’t dress as muggles and are quite conspicuous is mentioned in the first chapter of the series: 

“People in cloaks. Mr. Dursley couldn’t bear people who dressed in funny clothes — the getups you saw on young people! He supposed this was some stupid new fashion.” PS 

And then becomes a sort of running joke: 

“Both were dressed as Muggles, though very inexpertly: The man with the watch wore a tweed suit with thigh-length galoshes; his colleague, a kilt and a poncho” GoF

And in DH it is (partly) how Harry recognises that people are watching Grimmauld Place: 

“The lurkers were never the same two days running, although they all seemed to share a dislike for normal clothing. Most of the Londoners who passed them were used to eccentric dressers and took little notice, though occasionally one of them might glance back, wondering why anyone would wear such long cloaks in this heat.” DH

Side note: it is peak Londoner to barely take notice of something odd. And this also implies that robes and cloaks are all year wear and that wizards potentially don’t have seasonal clothing.

Given that wizarding culture is very insular (with its own economy, government, and education system), it would make sense that while it may occasionally borrow trends from the muggle world, wizarding fashion and clothing are unique. 

In fact, only the younger generation are seen in muggle dress, with Harry commenting: 

“Their children might don Muggle clothing during the holidays, but Mr. and Mrs. Weasley usually wore long robes in varying states of shabbiness.” GoF

2.0 Class and generational differences in dress

The previous quote demonstrates two things: much like in real life, there is generational and class stratification of dress. The condition and quality of wizarding clothing serves as a non-verbal cue about a character's economic status. This disparity is not just a background detail but is frequently brought into focus, such as through Draco Malfoy's derisive comments about Professor Lupin's tattered robes.

“ Malfoy gave Professor Lupin an insolent stare, which took in the patches on his robes and the delapidated suitcase.” PoA

“Look at the state of his robes,” Malfoy would say in a loud whisper as Professor Lupin passed. “He dresses like our old house-elf.” PoA

Even Harry comments on his robes and observes that: 

“Professor Lupin looked particularly shabby next to all the other teachers in their best robes”

The patched and frayed nature of both Lupins and Weasley’s robes seem to indicate that robe repairs can’t be done by an individual (or when it is done, it is really visible). Another example of this is when Ron removes the lace from his dress robes and leaves: 

“...the edges still looked depressingly frayed as the boys set off downstairs.” GoF

Additionally,  in Padfoot returns Sirius’s prison robes still appear tatty despite him having had a haircut and left the country. This indicates that he either can’t obtain new robes or can’t/hasn’t bothered repairing his Azkaban robes. 

This is interesting, given that Molly Weasley is able to make jumpers and scarves yet can’t seem to alter robes. While knitting and sewing are separate skills, it seems odd that there aren’t means of repairing robes. 

This suggests that robes can only be repaired and bought at official vendors such as Madam Malkins/Gladrags/Twifitt and Tattings. 

 It is also interesting that both Fred and George buy clothing when they become successful (also a parallel to the real world). They gift their mum:

“….a brand-new midnight blue witch’s hat glittering with what looked like tiny starlike diamonds, and a spectacular golden necklace.”  HBP

However, things being ‘frayed’ aren’t always an indication of poverty. Tonks is first introduced wearing an outfit that is a mix of muggle clothing but with something that is distinctly wizarding: 

“Tonks stood just behind him…. wearing heavily patched jeans and a bright purple T-shirt bearing the legend THE WEIRD SISTERS.” OoTP

This outfit is heavily reminiscent of Sirius and James in the Elvendork prequel: 

 “Both were dressed in T-shirts emblazoned with a large golden bird; the emblem, no doubt, of some deafening, tuneless rock band.”

3.0 The underwear question

Something that gets bought up a lot is whether wizards wear underwear. 

Harry (who was raised by muggles certainly seems to): 

“He was just piling underwear into his cauldron when Ron made a loud noise of disgust behind him.” GoF 

And:

“He was shivering now, his teeth chattering horribly, and yet he continued to strip off until at last he stood there in his underwear…”  DH

So does Neville (in the UK, Pants means underwear)

“He broke off as Neville entered the dormitory, bringing with him a strong smell of singed material, and began rummaging in his trunk for a fresh pair of pants.”

And infamously, so does Snape: 

“Snape was hanging upside down in the air, his robes falling over his head to reveal skinny, pallid legs and a pair of graying underpants.”

Also we get some information about witch’s underwear from Sirius’s very Freudian joke: 

“Sirius looked slightly disconcerted for a moment, then said, “I’ll look for him later, I expect I’ll find him upstairs crying his eyes out over my mother’s old bloomers.”

Bloomers are a type of historical, baggy underpants (think boy shorts, but make it victorian). 

In conclusion, Archie, who wanted a breeze around his privates, was probably an outlier.  

4.0 Materials and accesories

So what is wizarding clothing made of? 

For robes and cloaks the materials most mentioned are silk/satin and velvet: 

“ She was dressed from head to foot in black satin, and many magnificent opals gleamed at her throat and on her thick fingers.” GoF

Additionally in GoF, we learn that even witches and wizards from other countries wear robes and cloaks: 

“Now that they had removed their furs, the Durmstrang students were revealed to be wearing robes of a deep bloodred.” 

And 

“...Bulgarian minister loudly, who was wearing splendid robes of black velvet trimmed with gold.”

Other materials include Dragon hide which appears to be used to make practical gloves and boots but also fashionable jackets. 

“... followed by Fred and George, who were wearing jackets of black dragon skin.” HBP

Additionally, robes can be embroidered: 

“ The man’s scowling, slightly brutish face was somehow at odds with his magnificent, sweeping robes, which were embroidered with much gold thread” DH

“Harry glimpsed Slughorn at the head of the Slytherin column, wearing magnificent, long, emerald green robes embroidered with silver” HBP

“Madam Rosmerta scurrying down the dark street toward them on high-heeled, fluffy slippers, wearing a silk dressing gown embroidered with dragons.” HBP

Interestingly, both men and women appear to wear heels: 

Dumbledore: 

“He was wearing long robes, a purple cloak that swept the ground, and high-heeled, buckled boots” PS

Madame Maxine: 

“Then Harry saw a shining, high-heeled black shoe emerging from the inside of the carriage..” GoF

Monsiour Delacour: 

“However, he looked good-natured. Bouncing toward Mrs. Weasley on high-heeled boots, he kissed her twice on each cheek, leaving her flustered.” DH

Madame Rosmerta: 

“ Next he saw another pair of feet, wearing sparkly turquoise high heels,” POA

Furthermore, witches carry handbags: 

“Mrs. Weasley now came galloping into view, her handbag swinging wildly” COS

“ She was wearing a thick magenta cloak with a furry purple collar today, and her crocodile-skin handbag was over her arm.”  GoF

“Professor Umbridge pulled a small roll of pink parchment out of her handbag”  OoTP

“Ron was rummaging through the little witch’s handbag.” DH

5.0 My HCs

When I imagine what male robes look like, I imagine something akin to a Morrcan thobe or an Indian Sherwani.

I imagine robes to be enchanted to move and in my fic Pietas, I describe my OC Aeliana’s robes as follows: 

“She smiled slightly, smoothing the front of her dress, which was decorated with embroidered flowers and birds that had been enchanted to flutter their wings.”

I also HC some cultural variance in robes- with certain countries using different cloth or the skin of magical animals that are native to their countries. With hotter countries, having lighter robes and cooling/anti-perspiration charms.

[literaticat]

Graphic novel question! If a series is released in graphic novel form on a platform like Webtoon, would that make it more or less attractive to an agent to pitch to a bigger publisher? I’ve seen the insane success of those that are in Webtoon Originals that then are put into print, but it seems like some of the print runs are published under the Webtoon umbrella, so who knows if/when agents become part of those conversations.

I guess I’m just curious about whether an agent would be interested to see a series “beta tested” prior to accepting it, or if it’s better to create the series without posting online and pitch it that way. Thanks!

OK so I have literally no knowledge about this, so I did a little digging. However -- I didn't dig THAT much, so other people probably know more about it (and if you do, feel free to comment on this post and add things or correct me!)

My cursory understanding is, when you upload your work to Webtoon, you keep your IP rights (that's good) -- BUT, you do give them some sort of exclusivity with regards to posting that series - you can't just post it in multiple places. And if it is popular, they might elect to buy some of the IP from you and license it to another publisher (as happened with Lore Olympus, for example), or publish it as a book through their own publishing arm (which is fairly new.)

Now -- I have NO IDEA what their contracts look like, or what the terms are of uploading, or what they "own" or have "first dibs" on or whatever , how much they might pay you, or anything else. What it SEEMS like, is, if you are publishing on WebToons first, you are potentially going to have WebToons be a part of the conversation forever should the series really take off, OR, have to wait a certain number of years before you can do something else with it. According to this Reddit Thread, they have the exclusive rights to distribute digitally for three years, and they have the option to acquire a percentage of the IP for a pre-determined amount of money, which would likely mean that they are always going to "get their beak wet" when any deals are made for print books or whatever else. Maybe that's a great deal! I have no clue.

I don't THINK an agent would be involved though? (THOUGH I COULD BE WRONG????) -- because it feels like those deals are done THROUGH WebToon, whether or not WT publishes it through their own arm. (See the Reddit thread link above that includes the copyright page for Lore Olympus).

So, basically what I'm saying is, maybe publishing on WebToon first is a good bet -- if you are publishing the kind of thing the fans there love, and you are genuinely just INTO the idea of posting and getting immediate feedback and seeing fan reactions in real time etc -- and hey, if it really takes off, maybe your book will get published and you'll get some money, but really you are doing it because you love the community and all that stuff. (After all - compared to the sheer volume that is up on that site, while there ARE huge hits that become books - it's not like MOST things do. There's no guarantee of that.)

If, however, you want to do an original GN but aren't interested in all that stuff -- you'd probably have more freedom about the rights and such by NOT publishing it on WT first.

(One potential option - TRY doing a series on WT "for the people" -- why not?! -- But then create a totally separate GN that is just for you, and try to get an agent / sell THAT one to publishers. Because WT only has any rights to the series you are posting on there - not totally separate work you create. So maybe that's potentially best of both worlds - you're building your fan base on WT, and maybe that ends up being a book and maybe not -- but meanwhile, you are also getting another book out there in the world that WT has nothing to do with, but your WT fans might also buy!)

(Also that might be a dumb idea lol, IDK!!!)

[moririki]

⤷ A BLOODSTAINED CONFESSION

RENGOKU KYOJURO X READER -> 3.6K
you patch up your fellow hashira after the hardest fight of your lives

REQUEST -> ✰
CONTAINS -> MUGEN TRAIN SPOILERS like before the cut and everything, mentions of blood + gore, so kinda angsty but definitely a fluffy ass ending, reader is a hashira but it's left ambiguous as to what element you are👍, i watched the movie two months ago so my recollection of dialogue and plot may be *slightly* off, near-death experience, idk how to write combat so i just... didn’t, reader lowkey thirsts over rengoku's back muscles and shit because why tf not, idk how injuries work aaaa
MORI'S THOUGHTS -> rengoku my beloved,,, he deserves the world,, i think i should have made this less angsty im SORRY (i rlly heard "extra fluffy" and it just went 👩🏻➡️ straight through my head huh) also i bet you guys missed me and my late-ass posting <3 but here i am!! for now!! yeahhhh!! i feel like the writing in this got a little repetitive so i apologise for that

APPARENTLY, THE DESTRUCTION OF AN ENTIRE TRAIN wasn't enough to end this mission. even with one lower six demon defeated, another much stronger one had replaced it. the arrival of akaza was a significant turning point in the battle, and one that you cursed yourself for missing.

you should have known that this mission would he more dangerous than expected when both you and rengoku had been deployed to the train, alongside three rookies. you should have known better than to let rengoku convince you to stay back and help evacuate rather than let him handle it alone.

he had been so full of confidence- squeezing your hand firmly before rushing off, leaving you feeling slightly lightheaded from the brief contact of his warm palm. you should have wished him luck, told him to be careful, anything, but he was gone before you had the chance.

you made quick work of evacuating the passengers of the derailed train, making sure that they were all confirmed to be outside of the carriages before entrusting their safety to zenitsu and nezuko. it was around when you had carried out the last passenger that you felt the ground rumble beneath your feet, coming from the other side of the embankment that you were currently placed at. 

before you gave yourself time to really think things through, you were shouting instructions to the pair of demon slayers and dashing off towards the source of the noise, hand readily placed on your sword. that was the direction that rengoku ran is all that went through your mind.

the scene that you found yourself facing did little to quell your fears. you reached two bodies first, recognising them as the hapless figures of inosuke and tanjiro. from a glance you could see the extent of their injuries, with the latter laying on the ground barely conscious. the boar-headed one could only stare at the fight happening several metres away, his shoulders slumped in defeat and swords hanging by his sides.

“there’s no opening,” he only whispered, barely audible. that much was true. even you had difficulty keeping up with the movements of rengoku and the demon that he was fighting. the fact that it had already been several minutes and that there was no clear advantage concerned you, and you unsheathed your sword.

“you two stay put, and learn what it means to be a hashira, alright?” you tried offering a brilliant smile, much like you had seen the flame hashira do so many times, but you hoped that yours didn't fall flat. from the slight relief shown on tanjiro’s worn face, though, you took that as a good sign.

without wasting another second, you rushed towards rengoku and the demon, assessing their movements. inosuke wasn’t joking when he said there wasn’t any opening, their movements equally matched. you took the chance and struck when rengoku managed to get the demon to stumble back. bringing your sword down in a vertical strike, you severed one of its arms, before taking a cursory glance back at rengoku to make sure that he was alright.

your wound did little to hinder the demon, as it simply chuckled before regrowing its limb.

“oh? another hashira? don’t tell me you think that this is a fair match,” the demon sneered as you held your sword in front of you, still nervously eyeing the blood that was beginning to drip at rengoku’s feet. it amazed you as to how he was still standing, let alone also ready to keep fighting, but you weren’t going to stop him with that amount of determination in his eyes.

“i wouldn’t say that you appearing after we had to fight an entire train was fair either, but here we are,” you glared at the demon, adjusting the grip on your sword.

“think you can hold on a little longer?” you asked rengoku, still facing the demon.

“always.” you could picture the steadfast smile on his face, lending you his strength whenever you needed it. you took a deep breath, starting your total concentration breathing and launching off of your foot, propelling yourself forwards.

you heard rengoku's footsteps right behind you, dependable as ever. when you swung your sword and sliced through, you knew that the flame hashira was there to follow through with a co-ordinated attack.

despite your best efforts, the upper six demon lived up to its status and provided to be more than a challenge for even both you and rengoku fighting him simultaneously. in fact, akaza had even managed to gain the upper hand a few times, leaving you with a cracked rib that was making it more difficult to focus and control your breathing.

but you and rengoku's big break arrived in the form of a rising sun that leeched itself into your surroundings. the glow was nothing but welcomed by you, though your demon opponent let fear flicker across its face for the first time this night as it turned foot and fled. the invisible adrenaline-fuelled strings that held you up snapped, and you felt the strength from your body sap, too spent to gove chase to akaza.

the bitter taste of defeat crushed you, numbing your senses as you barely heard the cries of tanjiro as he yelled at the retreating figure of akaza. you turned to your fellow yashira, eyes widening and senses returning as you took in the way he had slumped to the floor, head bowed as he kneeled.

"no, don't you dare," you mumbled, dropping to your knees too in front of him. panic gave your limbs a new purpose as your hands stretched out in front of you, seeking out the warmth rengoku still emitted even when mortally wounded.

the most pressing matter was the dark stain of blood that gave his uniform an unnatural sheen that was still spreading. you pressed a hand to the source of it, a large gash across his stomach that was much too deep for your liking. your other hand came to rest on his face, tilting his head up to look at you for any sort of good sign to cling onto.

"you better stay alive!" your voice was shrill, harsher than you wanted it to be, but those were factors you could hardly control more than the blood oozing from rengoku's stomach. you could see how unfocused his eyes were, and how heavy his head was when only being propped up by the waning strength in your hand. your own injuries had been forgotten, cast aside in favour for you to fear for the flame hashira's life.

and still, despite everything, the man still smiled. the blood covering half his face did little to mar its radiance. rengoku raised a shaking, bloody hand of his own, letting it fall heavy against your own as you felt your hold begin to slip.

"you're hurt too, you know." his words were more of a shaky exhale, though you heard it all the same. you felt a smile slip onto yours too as rengoku proved to still be so vigilant in the wellbeing of others.

"you don't need to remind me, shut up and save your energy," you whispered back. you didn't trust yourself to speak any louder in fear of your voice cracking.

"but.. i have to tell you something." the insistence in his eyes was back, burning into you so mich that you couldn't help but lean closer, trying to ease his burden of being audible.

"quit talking like you're dying." you were practically whispering into his ear, close enough to feel the rasp of his breath as he laughed, holding your hand tighter. his other hand came up to your own face, rough thumb brushing against the skin underneath your eye, wiping away a tear you never realised had tracked its way there.

"let me bandage you up." your voice may not have shook, but your hands definitely did as you disentangled them from rengoku's hold, urging him to put pressure on his wound while your fingers found purchase on the hem of your uniform and ripped off a strip of it. it was barely enough to cover his injury but you managed to wrap the severed cloth around his middle a few times, tying it tight and hoping that it was enough to stop the bleeding.

"just.. stay with me until backup comes, alright? you've got tell me something once we get out of here, remember?" rengoku nodded into your palm, smiling at your words as his eyelids fluttered shut. but you were close enough to still feel that he was warm, to feel the slight rise and fall of his chest as he managed to still breathe, and that gave you some comfort.

minutes felt like hours when you had to talk to fill the gap. whether it was to give rengoku something that tethered him to this mortal realm, or a way for you to distract yourself from your own pain, you onew that you would both have to tough it out a little longer, just until the others arrived.

"you know, i've always admired you." you were surprised at both his words and how clear rengoku's voice sounded. your grip on his hand tightened a little, and you leaned towards him so that your forehead pressed against his.

"this is hardly the time to say something like that, kyojuro." you tried not to laugh, the pain of your ribs starting to edge back in as the adrenaline left your body as the sun soaked your bodies.

"i just wanted you to know." you would have responded to the man if it weren't for the shouts that became all too clear. help was here, and everything was going to be okay now.

you didn't want to let rengoku out of your sight, but many insistent hands prised his body from your grip, and with barely the strength to speak there was little that you could do about it except succumb to the pain of your wounds and finally fall unconscious.

recovery was never an aspect of fighting that you looked forward to. when you finally came to, there were a few gripping moments of panic when you asked a nurse if rengoku was here, if he was alive. you had been assured that he was before the pain and medication kicked in again for a fitful sleep as your body healed.

but no matter how you were pressed back into bed, into the constraints of sleep, you never really felt like you were at rest. your mind was still racing to places your body couldn't as it pieced together the events just before you got hospitalised.

when you could finally get up without keeling over, you were stumboing your way through the hallways as stealthily as possible, leaning on walls for support and peering into rooms as you walked past, in search of your fellow hashira. your cards of luck had lined up when you stumbled upon his sleeping figure less than three rooms down from yours.

he looked a lot cleaner, still donning a serene smile even when unconscious and you felt the panic gripping your body loosen its hold. the throb of your most likely broken ribs was enough of an edge to keep you awake, and you made your way over to rengoku's bedside.

there was a convenient chair placed next to him, and you tried not to grunt in pain as you sat down in it. rengoku didn't even stir at your approach, and you resigned yourself to sitting there, studying his figure and resisting the urge to check whether he was actually breathing or not. if you focused enough, you saw the subtlest rise and fall of his chest, just enough to qualm your fears.

your concentration was broken as you heard the sliding door open again, and the hesitant voice of a nurse breaking your intense silence.

"ah, i'm sorry to interrupt but i need to change rengoku's bandages." to prove her point, the nurse raised her arm to emphasise the strips of fabric held by them. you stood up hastily, sending a cursory glance back at the still-sleeping form of rengoku.

like all matters regarding the flame hashira, you found your mouth and body working a little faster than your brain.

"it's alright, i can change them for you. i'm sure that you have plenty of other patients to tend to." the nurse nodded, though she still looked hesitant to hand you the bandages. you gave her a reassuring smile, stretching out your hand to take them. "i've had plenty of experience with this, don't worry."

the nurse appeared relieved, giving you a quick thanks before exiting and letting the door click shut behind her.

you turned your attention back to rengoku's sleeping figure only to watch him crack a single amber eye open and give you an almost sheepish smile. you couldn't help the flooding sensation of relief that drenched your bones, and you returned his gesture.

"i'm glad to see that you're alright." rengoku's eyes never left yours, and you felt yourself grow hot underneath his gaze.

"glad to see you too." you offered a hand, helping rengoku shuffle further up the bed with minimal effort on your side. despite the bandages covering a large expanse of his upper body, his grip on your hand was still stable and you bit back the fond smile threatening to bloom on your face.

luckily for you, rengoku seemed to get the message that he needed to get shirtless without you asking him, which saved you a whole lot of embarrassment. you weren't confident in your ability to look him in the eye and ask him to strip without blushing, though you did exactly that as your eyes raked over his bare skin.

littered with scars and covering taut muscle, it was hard not to let your eyes wander down his form. from the look on rengoku's face, he looked well aware of the effect that he had on you and fixing you with a practically imperceptible smirk. you were quick to ask him to turn around, and he obliged as quickly as someone with broken and bruised bones could manage.

his back was the same story, with broad shoulders and defined shoulderblades that had muscle twitching without you touching it. you sucked in a breath, way too audible for your liking, and tried not to let your hand stretch out to run your fingers down the expanse of his back. you were here to help treat him, not indulge in some fantasy of yours.

your mindset snapped back to professionalism as you grabbed hold of the fresh bandages, opting to put them on after you removed the old ones. while there was no sign of infection, you still grimaced at the bloody sight of rengoku's major wound. you tried not to show how much it had upset you, both now and in the moment, and your attention turned to your slightly trembling fingers.

you were careful to avoid where his skin was obviously discoloured from bruising, not wanting to cause him any unnecessary pain. he was warm to the touch, enough to invite you in with some false sense of confort before burning you alive. the way his back muscles jumped at your touch did little to help your concentration, but you shouldered on.

your mingld escaped you, insisting on recounting those painful minutes where rengoku was vpeeding out on the battlefield. there was a particular focus on his insistence to tell you something, and you bit your lip. surely, he would ask you at some point from now.

"how are your ribs?" rengoku's voice cut through the silence, its rasping edge acting as evidence of hiw soundly he had been sleeping earlier. while it wasn't the question you wanted him to ask you, you were never one to turn down conversation. especially from him.

"worry about yourself, kyojuro. i'm fine." your appliance of the fresh bandage meant that you would now have to be stood in front of him, a development that had your face flaming from the close proximity. silence set in, and all that distracted you from the rise and fall of his stomach was his breath tickling the sensitive skin of your neck. your eyes flickered towards the ceiling, relying on your hands to guide yourself instead.

you dared to glance down and saw rengoku’s eyes fixed on your face already. there was something about his softened features and the look in his eyes that had you scrambling to stare at the blank ceiling again. as much as you would like to retreat at every first sign if danger or confrontation, you knew that you woukd have to talk to him soon, whether it was you or him who brought up the conversation topic from that day.

taking a deep breath, you perched yourself on the edge of rengoku's bed, still maintaining a professional amount of distance from him. still close enough to spot how his smile brightens when you choose to stay. you glanced down at your fingers, twisting knots into themselves as they were placed in your lap. you almost cursed and placed them underneath you to stop that, but instead you fixed your gaze on the flame hashira's ever-present smile.

"do you remember when you said you had to tell me something? right after akaza?" rengoku straightened up a little, nodding. you gave a cursory glance to the bandages safely wrapped around him, and winced as you remembered how much blood had left him that day. 

as if he could tell what you were thinking, rengoku reached forward and took your hand in his. you sucked in a breath at the sensation of his calloused hands, wincing as your ribs ached in protest. you couldn’t bring yourself to break his stare as your fingers intertwined, and rengoku brought you slightly closer to him. the tension was palpable, and you squeezed his hand in an attempt to alleviate some of it.

“what did you want to tell me, kyojuro?” you were still closing the distance between the two of you, voice barely above a whisper because there was no need to talk any louder for him to hear you. everything about him drew you closer, and the thought of pulling away never crossed your mind. you finally stopped, inches away, staring at him expectantly.

“well, there was a chance that i was going to die that day, so i was going to be selfish and tell you that i love you."

it amazed you how he could say that with such confidence when that statement had effectively swept you off of your feet. you were well aware that you looked more than caught off guard- your eyes had widened, and your mouth probably hung open from shock. that was nothing to stop rengoku’s words, though. if anything, it only encouraged him to keep going.

"and when i said that i admire you, i meant it. i admire your strength and how willing you are to help others. i admire you when it's sunset and you're laughing and i admire the way your hands feel, especially here." he guided your hand to his face, letting it cradle his cheek as he rested his own hand at your wrist, not willing to let go. you were sinking into the warmth of his body, letting his borrowed strength keep you upright.

“and most of all, i admire you because i find your beauty striking in everything that you do.” you were silent as rengoku’s eyes searched your own, watching as his lips split as he laughed. “you’re crying again.” you raised your other hand to your cheekbone, feeling the liquid there that began its trek down the planes of your face. you wiped them away with the back of your hand, keeping yourself anchored to rengoku as you curled your fingers around his own.

you felt so light that you could float away, and you couldn’t  help but laugh and grin as you fully processed the confession of the man lying underneath you. tears still rolled down your cheeks, and you couldn’t help the bittersweet pang as you remembered exactly why he was here recovering.

“you really scared me back there, you know?”

“it wasn’t my intention.” you laughed through your sniffle, feeling his warm hand trace patterns on the back of yours. you shuffled forwards and, as best as your shared injuries allowed it, you gave rengoku a hug. while your arms were around his neck, his rested squarely on your lower back, and it was better than anything else you could imagine.

you pulled away, relinquishing the comfort of his arms in favour of looking him in the eye as you prepared what to say next. admittedly, it was a lot easier when you knew how the other person felt about you.

“you know i admire you too, rengoku, and i love you. so much.” joy rewrote itself within his eyes, and they almost glowed with how intense his emotions were after you uttered those words.

“you do?”

your yes came out as a barely audible breath before you were being snagged forwards by him again. you practically crashed against his lips, but you welcomed the sensation, pulling yourself closer to him and settling on his lap.

you sighed into the searing kiss, only truly appreciating his warmth now as you felt it spread through you. you kissed him back intensely, ignoring the dull ache of your ribs to chase the addictive feeling that you only got around him.

around the person who loved you back.

take a look at the menu - ,, ⛩ ·˚ ༘ ꒱

[more-than-a-princess]

"That is correct," She confirmed for him, smiling. "Liam is four years younger than I am, and his brother Sam is two years younger than him. But I think it is different, something more than 'not getting along' with his father. Misunderstanding has morphed into loathing, perhaps." It was easier to analyze it with her cousins than her own situation, one made complicated by parents whom, to some degree, she loved. And yet both lacked the parenting she'd always missed and needed as a child, something that needed to be fulfilled by people her family employed, and people she opened her heart and bed to. A psychiatrist's dream to deconstruct, her family. Too bad that hardly ever happened, and if so, only after a litany of NDAs. The royals needed to be above talk therapy, despite publicly acknowledging and supporting it for the Novosonian population.

Royalty first, people second. In her more cynical moods, she once muttered that such a motto would be etched into all of their tombstones one day, a comment that had earned a hearty amount of laughter from Liam and a snicker from Sam. They knew who she really was, in almost all of her entirety: it was, as she was told, safer that way. For as much as she wanted to be a normal girl at a normal school, such a thing was impossible. No matter how she tried.

Somia cast a cursory glance towards Kazuichi: case in point, would he ever treat her like a normal person?

Not that his habits were ones Sonia was familiar with. With widened eyes, she was taken aback by his preferred methods of consuming cereal. "Hot chocolate...is made with water?" She repeated, baffled. "I have never seen it be made, but that sounds rather implausible: particularly when it tastes so rich and creamy, if not a bit bitter. The chantilly cream is necessary to temper a bit of the sweet and bitterness of hot chocolate!" She grinned at the thought: a silver dish, chilly to the touch, piled high with the aforementioned cream. It always accompanied the silver hot chocolate service and the china cups and saucers that bore the official royal pattern. On particularly good days, her mother allowed her a hot chocolate and she was treated to footmen making a show of elaborate pours, the liquid as thick as syrup before she added cream to her liking.

Shit, she thought as her stomach grumbled. She needed to seek out a place in Japan that made hot chocolate.

"You have tried cereal with milk tea? And not separate?" She asked again. This prospect was not nearly as shocking to her, if her smile alone was anything to go by. "I am used to separating the two, but I imagine, perhaps, a plain or sugared corn flake might be appetizing in cold milk tea. I might try it sometime."

They'd left the school building behind and with it, Sonia's insistence to make sure he ate a proper meal. She didn't believe him in that two bags of potato crisps were filling, but she knew better than to push such a notion forward. So she let it be, instead finding his assessment of her homeland far more surprising. "A 'medieval' vibe? We do have modern technology, you know," Sonia chuckled as they entered the cafeteria. "We have ancient buildings and monuments, yes, but Novoselic is a global leader in technology, military technology specifically. We have also made great advancements in agriculture and animal conservation. Much of these advances were made by independent thinkers, so individuality may be to thank."

Taking a tray, Sonia surveyed the Japanese and Western breakfast offerings. But the mention of hot chocolate had made her yearn for home, so she chose the latter, or the best she could manage: hot muesli in milk, topped with bananas and blueberry compote, a hardboiled egg, and a croissant. A glass of cold water was added to her tray, but Sonia nearly dropped the individual-sized teapot of hot water she'd been filling from the beverage station, intending to add a teabag to it to steep.

"Soda-san," She told him firmly, after she'd safely placed the teapot and accompanying cup and saucer on the tray. She took care in balancing everything: carrying her own meals was still something new for her, much less doing so with Kazuichi saying such ridiculous things. "Corporal punishment will not benefit either of us, or anyone at all as far as I am concerned. That is not a fair reaction whenever one of us does something to upset the other."

The cashier gave them both a look from her spot on the stool in front of the register, but Sonia merely gave her a smile, greeted her good morning, and handed her the requisite payment before picking up her tray. "I would much prefer to tell you when you are out of line. Which is something you may also tell me, too: when I have crossed the line of your comfort. Friends should be honest with each other, yes? Now, let us sit: I think the tables by the window are most lovely in the morning."

Lonely in a full house… sounded like a foreign concept to the mechanic. He did understand the need to confide in someone, though, so maybe it was more about being able to be vulnerable than anything else. Someone you don’t have to keep up appearances around. It was still odd, since he wouldn’t categorize that as loneliness, but that’s probably because he didn’t really know what the princess was describing. He’s never been in her shoes before, after all.

The shoes he’d always thought looked pretty, but is just now discovering how hard they are to walk in.

…That was a poetic thing for his mind to think.

“Liam would be one of your younger cousins, right?” he asked, trying to create a mental picture of the other’s family tree. His mind always got lost when someone started talking about family members, since he only had his dad. “Don’t most people not get along with their parents, anyway? ‘cause like, the generation gap kinda gets in the way ‘n stuff… unless uh, unless you mean that they really really don’t get along. Like, they seriously hate each other kind of not getting along…”

He wondered what that would look like, in an important royal family. They’d definitely have to pretend everything was alright for the public, wouldn’t they? He’s never heard of fights between royal family members… but it wasn’t like he kept up with the news, either way.

“It depends on the cereal! If it’s chocolate, hot water makes it almost like hot chocolate. If it’s something else, cold water is okay, you just gotta drink-eat it quickly so it doesn’t lose too much of the crunch!” he explained, feeling somewhat like an expert. “But yeah, that’s only if you don’t have milk. If you do then milk is still better – there was one time where someone gave it to me with… milk tea, I think? That one is definitely the winner. It’s like… a warm, crunchy, sweet heavenly soup…” Just thinking about the memory made him sigh in pure bliss. “It’s just, it’s like if comfort was a food, you know? …All soups are, really.”

At her offer to buy him food, he quickly shook his head. He absolutely can’t have her doing that again, especially if she wouldn’t take his repayment later. It would feel like he was exploiting her kindness… in addition to making him feel like a beggar. That, was a kind of low he seriously didn’t like getting to. “I’m really alright! I snacked on two bags of chips earlier. Thank you for um, offering, though.” He took his can of Fanta and nervously fiddled with it, the ‘I think’ part not lost on him. Was it really okay, for him to sit with her? He was determined to make sure he didn’t make her uncomfortable anymore, but… it felt like making her go through his process of trial and error was unfair.

That thought kept circling around in his mind, even as they arrived at the cafeteria. It’s not that he didn’t listen to what the princess was saying during that time: he did, and attentively at that, but the unease still sat in the back of his mind. “No, no, that actually gave me a better idea about the country. I um, I always thought it was like America, but with a medieval vibe…” he admitted, sheepishly. “A-anyway, I get what you mean, with the individuality thing. We usually think as a group here, instead of as separate people… but I think we’re starting to go into that other mindset, too. At least, some of the younger generations are...” Glancing off at nothing in particular, he scratched his cheek. “…Dunno if that’s a good thing or a bad thing, though.”

He stood in his place awkwardly as he waited for the princess to choose what she’d like to eat, opening his can of carbonated drink just to give his hands something to do. The fuzzy taste on his tongue did nothing to quell his unease from earlier, but it did give him time to think as to how to address it, instead of letting it stay as the elephant in the room. As soon as he could get the princess’ attention, he tried to get to it immediately, before they get sidetracked. “H-hey, Sonia-san?” he called, in a way more stilted of a tone than he meant for it to be. “I… er, I was… thinking about what you said earlier, a-about is trying to be friends, I mean, and…” He toyed with the soda tab. “I-I feel like it’s still… not fair to you, to be the only one that has to put up with, like, the bad part of all this…”

“S-so!” he started again, this time with a nervous kind of determination. “I um, I found a solution! T-to make it fair, I mean. You can… like, when I do something that makes you feel sad or uncomfortable… you can give me a whack or a bonk on the head, or… something like that. To make it fair.” He held up one finger in each hand to demonstrate, though it was hard to see it when he was gripping his drink in one. “A one-for-one kind of thing, y’know? It’ll make me pay more attention to what I say or do around you... I-I know this sounds self-deprecating ‘n stuff, but it’s really not. I uh, I just don’t learn otherwise. You gotta smack the stupid outta my head or it stays there.”

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

Makes sense. (My thought are is that the Paradox Pokémon-and by extension, "Ingo" and "Dawn's" Pokémon-aren't refined. They have the right major organs, in roughly the right places, but there are small things: the blood color's off, or the overall internal layout is simpler, or the way certain systems work is a bit weird. (Mind you, the duo's Pokémon are a bit rougher, since they're completely new designs the Disk has to work with, but they're still perfectly functional internally-just weird.)

[ Anonymous: (Like, "Ingo's" Paradox Sneasler might have her heart on the wrong side of her body, or her musculature might be more geared towards sprinting than climbing-or she might be better suited to a semi-Mediterranean Climate (like Paldea) rather than Hisui. But they're minor things, and what does Sada/Turo know about extinct Pokémon?) ]

ooh YEAH that's fun. something that passes a cursory examination but wouldn't hold up under like, a serious examination by a biologist/vet. like "okay yeah they're from the past but surely... surely sneasel bodies haven't changed that much in such a short span of time?"

...yknow that may also very well be true for dusk and helic themselves, too. i mean, the disk knows much better how people are shaped, it has templates for that, but... keep in mind here that for all its power, the disk is, essentially, a very sophisticated 3D printer. it's working with specific materials and it can only get to so much of a level of granular detail with what it has. so the zero constructs are mostly correct, they've got the basic concepts down, but their function is just wildly wrong. they've got veins full of something that looks like blood, and is metallic-tasting and changes brightness based on distance from the central point, but it doesn't actually carry oxygen/nutrients or anything because the constructs don't truly need it and were you to put it under a microscope you'd realize that no that isn't blood at all what the fuck is that.

(though, the constructs were programmed with basic failsafes of "start breaking down if you are without air for x amount of time or lose x amount of fake blood." if they want to pass as humans they need to be able to die like humans)

[capriciousvisage]

i love kaebedo its my top fave ship (side by side with zhongluc) but its one of those ships that the fandom just like dpesn't do right so bad i think.

canon albedo: i think having friends is so tedious and not worth the time when i could be doing things that i perceive are much more worth my time

(which he later proves himself wrong insofar as saying that he sees Klee as a little sister, though he still finds her somewhat troublesome. not sure if that's because she's blowing everything up or because alice was like "you're literally siblings now" or what.)

albedo loves distance. he's one of those people that you have on your friends list for years but haven't talked to for those years, but you have a generally favorable impression of. then he messages you and is just the same as you remember him, but more importantly, the state of friendship in his mind between you two has not degraded in any way, shape or form since you last spoke. you guys are "friends" and he likes you and even if you, personally, do not think you guys are on the same level as friendship as someone who makes the effort to talk to you every day, it doesn't matter to him.

but fanon albedo is like completely open with his emotions and kaeya is the one being mysterious and withholding his own feelings. i feel like it'd be the opposite. i think the fandom at large misreads the characters' intentions and goals when applied to this specific pairing and they are generally seen as Husbands Immediately. not only is albedo struggling coming to terms with himself as a Being(tm) and experiencing An Emotion, but kaeya omits things about himself and keeps it that way for everyone around him. so yeah, the fandom did get the "kaeya withholds his own feelings" thing right, but that's not even the case for most works i see depicting kaebedo.

i think a typical, closer to canon kaebedo getting-together scenario would work like this:

kaeya takes interest in albedo superficially for any reason. this could tie into khaenri'ah, or it could just tie into them being "co-workers". kaeya deems albedo interesting enough that he wants to get information out of him, about himself and his work.

kaeya thinks about applying the tactics he uses to get information out of other people to albedo, which involves manipulating, for better or worse, the emotions of his "target". of course, this would prove fruitless because albedo barely recognizes he has emotions himself. kaeya is very observant and would likely (and likely actually is, in canon) watch albedo and his mannerisms, as well as probably timaeus, sucrose, and klee (those people that are "closest" to albedo insofar as they actually can find him sometimes), for an undetermined amount of time (and doesn't stop). this is made especially easy with klee.

kaeya comes to the conclusion that albedo may actually be "easy". he realizes that because albedo doesn't seemingly have any boundaries when it comes to sharing his work, kaeya takes on the role of a mentoree. by now he knows a lot of what albedo thinks is interesting - conversation starters. topics to get albedo talking. kaeya starts off asking questions about topics that kaeya might not (or he may) have any knowledge greater than simply cursory.

and it works! of course it works because it's kaeya we're talking about. he starts off visiting the laboratory only once every few weeks under the guise of "work" (but always gets albedo talking before albedo can ask what the work is), then slowly he starts visiting more and more.

of course, what started as mere passing interest in someone he thought didn't fit in with the rest of mondstadt grows and grows, and soon he finds himself caring about albedo greatly. this process may take several more months - after all, kaeya might not admit he has feelings, either, even if he's much more in tune with himself than the average person.

at some point, either before, during, or after kaeya realizes he has feelings for albedo beyond just "colleague" - and genuine ones at that! - kaeya would start sharing information about his own world. despite living in mondstadt, albedo still considers himself an outsider: he doesn't belong here and is only here on recommendation letter from his master. but kaeya's lived in mondstadt his entire life! he can show albedo all sorts of things that the average person of mondstadt may take for granted - things that are truly "magical" (which kaeya has noted that, even though albedo doesn't use that term, albedo would love to be enchanted in such a silly, childish way), things that dazzle, things that aren't just things mondstadt markets as a tourist attraction of sorts. he invites albedo to join mondstadt officially.

i think there'd be a genuine slowburn that would take months to years here. i think kaeya, in all his perceived responsibility and duty, would not admit to albedo how he truly feels. albedo has no other frames of references and simply accepts kaeya as someone a part of his life (after all, kaeya seems particularly receptive and in tune with leaving albedo alone, even when albedo doesn't voice it), much like he did with klee. while they're both knights of favonius, kaeya is closer to "family" and "kin" than he is as a knight.

thinking about it, i genuinely think there'd have to be some sort of inciting incident in order to get them to actually talk. it doesn't even have to be dangerous or fatal or "one of them is in danger and the other helps them!". it can be as simple as diluc telling kaeya to be honest with himself after a mission that nearly costed kaeya his life. it can be klee asking albedo when kaeya is going to play with them next even though kaeya just played with them yesterday, and albedo starts wondering the same question - but why? it can be others noticing albedo seeking out kaeya first, rather than the other way around. it can be kaeya or albedo messing up in their work - only to realize they had done so because they were thinking of the other. generally, the universe is going to have to shuffle these guys together first, because they're not going to start anything of their own volition. even if it's not fully external, something has to happen in order to break either of them out.

and then it all comes to fruition eventually. i think kaeya would be less likely to start it. kaeya still has that perceived sense of duty and responsibility and the sense that his whole life is built on lies, and he doesn't want to get anyone else caught up into it - he doesn't want to fall back into another perceived sense of security and love (look what happened with diluc, after all!). i think albedo may go to sucrose or jean for advice - once again, he's needing to be taught how to do something. i think jean would be great for this actually. i think they'd have a lengthy conversation one day about it. jean tells him to think about it. albedo comes back the next day asking precisely how to ask someone out because he's made up his mind but this is not a subject (courtship, that is) that he's really researched before. jean laughs.

in the end, i think even with the final, final beginnings of courtship and dating and loving, i think kaeya is still reluctant (and albedo is reluctant, too!). but eventually, albedo convinces kaeya that he'd love him regardless of any of his faults and would support him in his sane and sound endeavors and would stop him if necessary (though albedo only says this to him in order to ask kaeya to stop him if necessary), until ashes return to ashes, and dust returns to dust.

basically what i'm saying is that these two are emotionally constipated and need a fire lit under the asses (maybe literal) in order for them to just Do anything. but my criticism with the fandom's common portrayal is that it'd take less than 3 weeks for them to go from practically strangers to married, and i disagree with that, even when you take into account the theories that kaeya is a khaenri'ahn prince/royalty of some sort and albedo is a "weapon of khaenri'ah"* or otherwise related to khaenri'ah in some way. kaeya only has his parents and family to connect him to khaenri'ah -- and besides being of the same alchemy that khaenri'ah developed, albedo has no clear connections with khaneri'ah at all.

* i say "weapon of khaenri'ah" but that was my old theory. it might still be true (especially with the new event) but i was just reading something about how albedo is the purification process in alchemical stages as well as the fact that albedo himself talks extensively about the petrified trees and that he has been shown revitalizing them (much like we do when we purify a ley line, etc). so i think albedo is not built to be a "weapon" of destruction, but a "weapon" of "purification" in the regards that more and more signs point to him actually, possibly, maybe stopping a berserk kaeya -- prince of khaenri'ah -- than the opposite. but he still feels that he can do more hurt than good, i think.

this is just a lot of rambling but anyway. i think the genshin/kaebedo fandom at large just wants to see them happy and loving because they both deserve it and i am also a sucker for romance. however i am a slave to canon personalities if anything and think that it's actually a much more interesting dynamic than what most fanworks make it out to be. so much potential lost just reducing it to standard "lovey-dovey" tropes immediately imo.

"and yet you reblog and like the fanworks where they are just lovey-dovey tropes. curious!" yeah because i appreciate them and i am multi-faceted and think that people should still have fun.

[wumblr]

i'm assuming you read the replies and not the reblog, because i did touch on it there -- but there is no connection except that they were the first people to go apeshit on my ass for having the audacity to talk about seeing a bomb test. them and the type of lesbian who enjoys little girl titty anime. in the many times i have addressed this anywhere else, cartoons never come up. only here

this has a lot to do with two people in particular, who thought they could prove me wrong by talking about the long-decommissioned vela satellites in vagueposts about how stupid i must be, appealing to the authority of a regulatory body that has decayed without so much as a cursory review of the facts, let alone the point i was making, that we have been actively developing weapons designed to avoid detection ever since the day the comprehensive test ban treaty was signed. but this is a "hit the ground running" topic, and obviously i'm asking too much of the adult child demographic. well, someone should! we are very probably about to kill a lot of people with it, as if we haven't already. (would it be any better if we could all act like grownups? NO!! but maybe then we could have a productive discussion about it instead of writing an API script to cordon off five thousand wailing infants who can't handle the topic)

none of these people like it when i suggest the time spent watching cartoons could be better spent... not feigning ignorance about the empire, just to absolve themselves of guilt, by pretending to be an innocent baby. it's a tired, sad excuse that had gotten old before we were born. and i've even liked a cartoon or two, there's nothing inherently wrong with cartoons -- the distinction is that i think facing the truth is more important than how i personally feel about it. (bad!) and i don't see the point in holing myself up to lick my wounds about it and cope for the rest of my life looking at pretty little drawings animated in a sweatshop just to distract myself. it is a topic that cannot be left unsaid. surprisingly enough, they doubled down on not facing the truth. i wasn't writing to persuade. it's not my skill. i was, and still am, enraged about this abject failure of willpower and resilience

they also thought i must be stumping for big oil because i said you can't have the reactor without the bomb under capitalism. i stand by that, and it continues to get more obvious every day, but unfortunately there is a type of person who is violently unwilling to let go of their belief that techno-optimism is the only way out. curious how none of them actually went to learn about how reactors work, or how the waste handling is going, in the intervening year (the only waste we have put into any type of "longterm storage" was loaded into the tips of 40mm bullets in iraq, and one of the two proposed interim sites, texas, had its permit invalidated in august). if they had gone off to learn about it, they'd know the primary obstacle to nuclear-greening the electrical grid is actually startup capital, which has been covered by just about any news source that will discuss nuclear policy, which is not many of them

i did also say i wasn't going to stand in the way of any new reactor construction, my iron in the fire is that i want people to know exactly what deal they are making, which is that waste storage extends the empire onto geological timescales. you can't build the reactor as a stopgap for the climate destruction the empire is causing, this amounts to handing the climate destruction machine a new 50-year gigawatt battery. they're going to waste the energy mining crypto or some fucking thing, and then insist only they can be responsible for custody over the waste for a hundred thousand years, while they profit off reselling it and reselling it and going out of business and abdicating responsibility each time it changes hands. this has been patently demonstrated in every reactor decommissioning so far, as if it matters in any case, because no one is paying any fucking attention

to put a finer point on it, this is why everyone from warren buffett to bill gates has got their hand in SNR development (gates founded terrapower and berkshire hathaway owns pacificorp, both of which are collaborating to site a natrium test reactor in wyoming). it's so they can run a company on a privately held future contamination site. there are only three ways to turn a profit: write off natural resources as having been free, write off waste as not your responsibility, or exploit wage labor. the notion that trading a more wasteful energy source for a less wasteful one will change the fundaments at hand is ludicrous, they'll continue on full steam ahead no matter what

that's the deal being made. i have yet to meet one nuclear environmentalist who understands this, but they all hate me for pointing it out. possibly also because i am not nice about it! either way: weak, pathetic, ostrich ass patsy shit. i guess it'll take a next-generation reactor to cook up an orator capable of saying it in a way anyone can hear

well it took a year but bloomberg is now reporting on subcritical nuclear testing ongoing at the u1a complex