#and adding a bit of trivia i suppose

[cybernomads]

➤ NCPD WANTED DATABASE

➤ NAME

Maddox de Vasconcelos "V" Schaeffer

➤ SUSPECTED AFFILIATIONS

Wraiths -> Bakkers -> Maelstrom -> VDB -> ?

➤ WANTED FOR

murder, kidnapping of a corporate representative, battery, resisting arrest, possession of drugs, blackmail, grand theft, smuggling, receiving of stolen property, unauthorized possession and installation of military-grade cyberware, data theft, breaching the blackwall

[enha-doodles]

slytherin boys reacting to their darling being from Ravenclaw?👀

SLYTHERIN GUY'S REACTION TO YOU BEING IN RAVENCLAW | ✧⁺。

Pairing : (Mattheo , Tom , Theodore, Lorenzo , Draco) x reader

Note : tysm for requesting i hope you like it , Hufflepuff is next 🕺🏻🕺🏻

Warning : not proofread, my jokes lmao

MATTHEO RIDDLE

Being with Mattheo is like living in a perpetual comedy sketch. Every time you dazzle him with your Ravenclaw wit, he can't help but playfully roll his eyes and joke about feeling like a first-year struggling with a broomstick. "Seriously, babe, how do you do it?" he'd exclaim, his amusement clear in his eyes. "You've got more brainpower than a room full of Hogwarts professors, and here I am, struggling to remember which potion turns a mouse into a snuffbox."

Despite his self-deprecating humor, you can see the genuine admiration in his eyes, knowing that he's completely smitten with your cleverness. And hey, if being the smart one in the relationship means you get to see that adorable look of amazement on his face, then maybe being a Ravenclaw isn't so bad after all.

TOM RIDDLE

Tom, on the other hand, is a different story altogether. With his competitive nature and Slytherin pride, he can't stand the thought of being outsmarted by anyone, especially his own girlfriend. Every time you happen to know something he doesn't, he's quick to brush it off with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Oh, so you think you're the expert now, do you?" he'll say, a hint of annoyance creeping into his voice. "Just remember who's supposed to be the genius in this relationship."

Despite his competitive edge, you can't help but find it amusing how seriously he takes it all. After all, who knew that trivia night with your boyfriend would turn into a high-stakes battle for intellectual supremacy?

THEODORE NOTT

Theodore, on the other hand, couldn't be more different. He absolutely adores your cleverness, finding your sassy remarks and witty banter completely irresistible. "My darling beauty with brains," he'll say, flashing you a charming smile. "You keep me on my toes, love, and I wouldn't have it any other way."

With Theodore, every conversation feels like a game of verbal chess, with each witty comeback and clever remark only adding to the sparks flying between you. And hey, if being a smartass means getting to see that adorable grin on his face, then sign you up for Ravenclaw house forever.

LORENZO BERKSHIRE

Lorenzo, with his laid-back demeanor and sharp sense of humor, finds your intellect both amusing and slightly irritating at times. "Do you ever turn that brain off, or is it just permanently stuck in overdrive?" he'll tease, though there's a fondness in his eyes that tells you he wouldn't have it any other way.

Despite his occasional annoyance, you know that he secretly loves your quick wit and sharp mind, even if it means enduring the occasional eye roll or sarcastic remark.

DRACO MALFOY

And then there's Draco, the epitome of Slytherin arrogance and charm. While he may grumble about your Ravenclaw intelligence, secretly, you know he's secretly impressed by your cleverness. "Bloody hell, can't you dumb it down a bit ?" he'll joke, though there's a hint of genuine awe in his tone. "But hey, I guess it's better than having a girlfriend who thinks Quidditch is a type of biscuit."

With Draco, every conversation feels like a battle of wits, with each snarky remark and witty comeback only adding to the undeniable chemistry between you. And while he may be a bit of a brat at times, you wouldn't have him any other way. After all, what's a little friendly rivalry between Slytherin sweethearts?

。　　　　✧　　　　⁺　 　 　。

[nautiscarader]

So here is a tiny bit of language trivia: Doof's jingle in Polish.

Not counting ONE MILLION variations of it, collected here by yt user Tomek Flynn-Fletcher (outstanding work!), the base one reads (or sings):

Oto jest spółka zło Dundersztyca!

First and foremost, yes, Doofenshmirtz is Dundersztyc, originating from dunder, or donder, meaning "thunder", as in Drusselsteinian German exclamation "Donner Wetter!" which has Polish equivalents. (pl) So he really is doctor Toheckwithit.

Secondly, the evil part. Companies in Poland can have a phrase added in their name "spółka z ograniczoną odpowiedzialnością" (do NOT try pronouncing it, no, STOP I SAID, you will break your tongue), abbreviated as "spółka z.o.o." - translating as "company limited", or "ltd".

No, the z.o.o. is not pronounced as "zoo", that would be hilarious. Instead, it is pronounced as /ˈzɔ.ɔ/, as opposed to Polish zoo, which is pronounced...exactly the same, you know, this is hilarious. Okay, you are supposed to say "z-oh-oh", pronouncing the... dots, I guess, but not all of us does.

But, back to the point - Polish word for evil is zło - /ˈzwɔ/ - very, very similar, and a brilliant case of accurate and loyal translation! So it really is Heck's Evil Company! (IPA moonrunes via Wiktionary)

And I would be remiss if I didn't mention that Doof's Polish VA, Wojciech Paszkowski, sadly passed away last August. Whoever replaces him will have enormous shoes to fill.

So that's it!

Except.. uhm, I have a question for you...

For the longest time, I've been going back-and-forth on making a sideblog with trivia like these. I love good translations, loathe lazy ones, and I sometimes just want to nerd out about them.

It wouldn't be updated very often, because I do not want to present myself as an expert in this topic, nor do I want to look like an insufferable know-it-all. And it would be open for submissions, ofc. IT would be bilingual, but again, rarely updated. @noddytheornithopod has already encouraged me, and this post is kinda a proof-of-concept/backdoor pilot for it.

Soooo... what do you think? Odpowiedzi na kartkach pocztowych, proszę :)

[littleeyesofpallas]

SUEZOU[スエゾー] ...i swear i used to know some kind of trivia about what Suezo meant but now I can't for the life of me remember it...

MELONBO[メロンボ]the MELON part is obvious but I'm not exactly sure what the -BO bit is meant to scan as... Just a goofy sounding little suffix? Monster Rancher does seem to do that not infrequently.. MELON BALL[メロンボール]? MELON BOY[メロンボーイ]? MELON-BOU[坊] like "Melon Monk" in reference to a monk's bald head? Who knows... If it wasn't clear the scale pattern it gets from its Dino/Zuum subtype is supposed to look like the pattern of a Japanese musk melon.

IWAZOU[イワゾー] from IWA[岩]: "Boulder/rock" and SUEZO. (I do appreciate that the new LINE monster farm mobile game made the rocky texture more apparent than the original games, where it was just kinda gray and veiny)

TSUNOMARU[ツノマル] from TSUNO[角]: "Horn" and -MARU[丸] which is both a common namifying suffix for boys' names, and can literally mean "round." Incidentally the phrase Tsunomaru[角丸] is also a term referring to "rounded corners" like in graphic design. (Oddly MR2 opted to remove the horn, although it got put back later.)

PINKY[ピンキー] nothing complicated here name-wise. (It had kind of unique design in MR1, but they took its little ear/wing/fin thingies. Then when they brought it back it had the awful lipstick and like homer simpson/sonic the hedgehog muzzle. I miss when the Suezos had unique eye textures.)

MUSHI-ME[ムシメ] from MUSHI[虫]: "bug" and ME[目]: "eye" (oddly japanese doesn't seem to have a phrased similar to the english, "bug-eyed" so that's not a play on that, just literal.)

EYES-BEE[アイズビー] skipping ahead a bit, just so we can have worm and /beaclon together. It's just EYES and BEE from Beaclon, but itself from BEETLE.

SUKEZOU[スケゾー] from SUKERO[透ける]: "see through/transparent" and SUEZO. (MR4 and on opted out of the horrifying teeth version and just made it more obviously a jell texture; i like that they added the core but im suprised they didnt just make it the eyeball itself.)

GAMBA[ガンバ] from GANBA[頑張]: "effort/endurance/struggle" the root of things like gambatte[頑張って] and gambaru[頑張る] and gambare[頑張れ] meaning variously things like "keep going"/"persist"/"don't give up"/"try hard" etc... (There is an older anime called GAMBA-no-Bouken[ガンバの冒険]: "Gamba's Adventure" starring a little mouse, so kind of adjacent to Ham's lost hamster theme?) (also boy the suezo family really kinda suffers from oversimplifying their gimmicks as the games wen on huh? The original had its neat little nubbin ears sorta halfway between the original suezo's head fins (which never came back) and Hare's ears, but the MR2 design went full caveman with it, just being a hairy suezo. But MR4 and on went super literal with the fusion and just slapped rabbit ears on it.)

ORION[オリオン] like the constellation. Funny enough the actual mythological hunter Orion doesn't seem to factor into the choice of constellation this one is named after, just a link to the broader stary theme. (Kinda shocking this one never made a come back. It was one of the cooler suezo combos)

AKA-ME[アカメ] from AKA[赤]:"red" and ME[目]" "eye"

NORIZOU[ノリゾー] is this supposed to be a reference to the color and texture of NORI[海苔]: "seaweed"? Generally that's considered either green or black, but there are some that are definitely a kind of reddish purple tint.

PLUMLER[プラムラー] so my instinct was the assume the PURA-[プラ] was from PLANT[プラント] but it looks like it might be from PLUM[プラム] after all... my main hangup was that the coloration is not recognizably like a plum at all, but the LINE special skin makes it very obvious. Which retroactively seems to suggest that it's supposed to have been like an unripe plum this whole time???? That seems a weirdly obtuse way to go about that

AESTHETICIAN[エステシャン] or possibly the french ESTHÉTICIEN since in English it'd probably be more commonly referred to as "Beautician." Anyway it's a term for a skincare professional.

WAKUSEI[ワクセイ] from WAKUSEI[惑星]; "planet"

ANKOU[アンコウ] from ANKOU[鮟鱇] japanese name for the "monkfish"/"goosefish"/"seadevil" all different types of angler fish

KINZOU[キンゾー] from KIN[���]: "Gold" and SUEZO

GINZOU[ギンゾー] from GIN[銀]: "Silver" and SUEZO

BRONZEZOU[ブロンズゾー] BRONZE SUEZO

BETAPIN[ベタピン] apparently a japanese golfing term for a ball that lands on the green and close enough to the hole that it's more or less a guaranteed sink on the next putt.

Sueki Suezou[すえきすえぞー] Seems to be a play on SUEKI[末生]: "End (of) Life" having the same SU-E syllables as SUEZO, which seems like it would suggest SUEZO also means SUE-[末-]: "End..." something, but I can't make a guess as to what.

USAZOU[ウサゾー]from USAGI[兎]: "Rabbit" and SUEZO

FUKAZOU[フカゾー] from FUKA[鱶]: "(large) shark" and SUEZO

MONZOU[モンゾー] MONKEY SUEZO

TANUZOU[タヌゾー] presumably TANUKI[狸] and SUEZO but it's drawn almost more like a racoon?? The problem is it's impossible to tell because apart from the tail the most distinguishing feature is the difference in their little face markings over the eyes, which you can't see with only one eye...

SUECHIYO[スエチヨ] I have no idea what this one is... It seems to be similarly themed to Ghost's Chonmage, with the exaggerated makeup, topknot, and folding fan; I feel like it's a type of staged comedy performance that I've definitely seen before, but I don't know how to pinpoint a name for it

AKAMARU[アカマル] from AKA[赤]:"red" and -MARU[丸] the namefying suffix, that can also be read as "round" in reference to Suezo's head shape.

EBIZOU[エビゾー] from EBI[海老]: "shrimp/prawn" and SEUZO. a fun play on Arrowhead's shellfish and Suezo having a bodyshape like a shrimp

TSUKAREME[ツカレメ]from TSUKAREME[疲れ目]: "eyestrain"

TAKO-NO-ME[タコノメ] from the TAKO[蛸]:"octopus" in Takopii, and -no-me[の目] alltogether reading as "Eye of octopus." (shame it's a GBA exclusive so it doesnt actually have a unique design, it would be really cool to have a suezo with an octopus pupil)

HAJIKE-DAMA[ハジケダマ] from HAJIKERU[弾ける]: "to burst(open)/to pop" or "to bounce" and TAMA[玉]: 'ball"

METAL-SUE[メタルスエ] METAL SUEZO

AKU-DAMA[アクダマ] from AKU[悪]: "evil" and TAMA[玉]: 'ball"

BROWN-EYE[ブラウンアイ]

GIRIMEKHALA[ギリメカラ] a mythic figure in buddhist lore; a monstrous elephant that marches in the demon Mara's army of evil. I've seen it depicted as blue and with one eye, despite the fact that I don't know if that's accurate to its religious origins or just a popculture thing. Anyway it seems like this is meant as a play on the way Suezo's headon view makes its tail look like it could be an elephant trunk. Kinda misses the effect when it doesnt have an elephant's iconic ears...

JYAGAN-JI[ジャガンジ] JYAGAN[邪眼]: "evil eye" and I assume JII[ジー] the sound effect used in manga for silently staring or glaring.

NEKO-ME[ネコメ] from NEKOME[猫目]: "cat eye"

CHERRY[チェリー]

LUNA-BALL[ルナボール]

NIGHT-VISION[ナイトビジョン]

EARTH-EYE[アースアイ]

ZANZOU[ザンゾー] ZAN and SUEZO

TORI-ME[トリメ] TORI[鳥]: "bird" and ME[目]: "eye"

YAKYUU-KOZOU[ヤキューコゾウ] from YAKYUU[野球]: "baseball" and KOZOU[小僧]: "youngster/kid/boy"

SUE-SEIJIN[スエセイジン] SUEZO SEIJIN[星人] which ends up reading like, "Suezo-Planet Person"/"Person (from) Planet-Suezo"

TOROZOU[トロゾー]

SHIROZOU[シロゾー] from SHIRO[白]: "white" and SUEZO

MOCHIMARU[モチマル] MOCCHI and -MARU[丸] the namefying suffix, that can also be read as "round" in reference to Suezo's head shape.

MIMIZOU[ミミゾー] from MIMI[耳]: "Ear(s)" and SUEZO

TENTENZOU[テンテンゾー] I assume from TENSHI[天使]: "angel" lit."heaven+messenger"

HELMZOU[ヘルムゾー] supposedly a Suezo/Durahan in the 1MillionMan Monster Farm app, it doesn't appear in any English language records of the English language My Monster Rancher version though...

And added in LINE Monster Farm the mobile game for the first time,

HIGANBANA[ヒガンバナ] a Suezo/Phonexi. Japanese name for the red spiderlily, HIGANBANA[彼岸花] lit. "(the)other-shore flower" references the River Sanzu, that divides the world of the living and the dead, "the other shore" being the land of the dead.

[supernolanno]

N Club : Yris

MEMBER-25 : Yris (She/Her, They/Them)

TYPE : Leafling

ORIGINAL VERSE : Pikmin

ABILITIES : Pikmin Powers (when munching Onion Samples), Pebbles Throw, Photosynthesis

TRIVIAS :

- Her spaceship crashed on PNF-404 a few years ago, and her helmet also shattered during the accident. To save her, Pikmins turned her into a Leafling, making her suffer from amnesia in the process and become a new person, Yris (which is a misinterpretation of the name of her suit model, YR-15).

- Over time, she became feral and protective, seeing herself as a Pikmin and acting as an older sibling with the others. However, everything changed when she met and teamed up with a space rescuer who came on the planet to save their crew and all the castaways who crashed too.

- While her favorite technique to attack hostile creatures is throwing pebbles, she also has a strange power involving Pikmin Onions : when she chews some sample of a specific onion, she'll momentarily obtain the same abilities as the Pikmin of the same color, which manifests with her hair changing of hue too. That's the reason why she collects and hides samples of every kinds of onions inside her braids, so she can access it anytime.

Yris is currently the last member of the N Club, until I create a new one of course. She represents Pikmin games, which I asbolutely adored for years as I deeply enjoyed (almost) every title. And adding the possibility to make your own avatar in Pikmin 4 was so cool, I HAD to make mine an official OC. Although it wasn't as easy as expected, as the personalization system wasn't that permissive in the end, so I kinda cheated by mixing facial traits and head shapes that weren't supposed to go together. And of course, the whole Leaflings lore gave a new depth to the character background, as it reminded a lot that Pikmin 1 bad ending I grew up with (with Olimar turning into a Pikmin). And well, turns out that my best friend and I discovered the entire fourth game together, with me assisting her as Player 2 by throwing pebbles : so it was clear to us that Yris was going to be the partner of some original character belonging to her who would be the game protagonist~.

As you can see, many attempts of experimented combinations occured. I was really excited about giving her the various Pikmin powers, as it felt very much like its own game mechanic ; but the actual design puzzled me for a while. I ended up prefering to choose either a round head or a pear-shaped head, but boy it was tough to decide between the two. I eventually chose the second option (as it felt a bit more original), but still mixed some details to make her expressive and still pretty wild. The final sketch and its variants were pretty convincing in my opinion! :>

[lanawinterscigarettes]

oooh a fun one I thought of was what kind of games does monica like to play (sfw & nsfw) the most considering how competitive she is

- ✨️

I had to compile a list of board games that I actually remember because I never had siblings growing up so I didn't get to play them often 😭 regardless I hope you like it <3

Games that Monica Geller likes to play

Warnings: both sfw and nsfw games are mentioned here but nothing's super explicit, some nsfwish stuff under the cut

Most people don't play games with Monica because of how competitive she is (the drama that surrounded the Geller Bowl is certainly proof of that lmao) which is a shame because she's actually really good at a lot of things, including physical games such as football

Pictionary and charades are probably her weak points, though. She's not always good at guessing pictures or what people are miming which tends to frustrate her and cause her to erupt (if you're actually good at those games then she'll definitely fight to have you on her team)

She likes trivia games because she enjoys proving how much smarter she is than other people (for example when her and Rachel played the game against Chandler and Joey over the fight for the apartment)

She's the type of person to have a dictionary with her when playing Scrabble so she can challenge whoever puts down a long word to make sure it's real (and she'll flip through it herself to give her a few good ideas)

I don't think she'd like chess or checkers, though. Those games require a bit more thought and strategy rather than just aggressive force, so they wouldn't really be for her

Board games like Sorry, The Game of Life, Candyland, and Clue are only fun for her if she's winning, and if she's losing she hates it (most people won't play those with her anyway because of that. No matter how the game's going, she always gets under people's skin even if it's unintentional)

Some games to never play with her is Monopoly or Uno. She can and will fight with people over the rules, especially when it comes to her fake houses' property tax and whether the Uno rules actually qualify or not

Do not under any circumstances ever introduce her to video games such as Call Of Duty or Fortnite unless you want to lose your girlfriend to a Discord server full of incels (I'm joking but I'm also not though)

This or that or truth or dare are games that she would actually be pretty chill with playing since they're not competitive ones (though knowing her she'd still try to make it be) so if you want a much calmer game night that's what I'd suggest

Now onto some more explicit games she might like to play

Obviously this or that and truth or dare can be tweaked so that they're more geared towards adults, which I think she'd definitely enjoy

It's also canon that she'd be up to playing strip poker (as the group of friends did in the two part episode where they went to the beach)

This one isn't really a game, but that one couple activity where you use body safe paint and then have sex on a canvas? Yeah she'd proudly display that out in the open but get all coy whenever asked what it's supposed to be (you'd have to lay down a plastic tarp because of the mess obviously but in that case I'd say she'd think the reward outweighs the risk)

You also might be able to convince her to try out roleplay or acting out a sexy scene from a movie (though to be completely honest that sounds more like something Rachel would do but still)

Monica strikes me as someone who's a bit more open with trying out things, so if you ever wanted to suggest something specific to do in the bedroom I think she'd be willing to at least try it out once

End notes: I hope this was okay sparkle anon <3

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[m1ckeyb3rry]

will you ever share what other routes you were thinking of taking threefold 👀

(your writing is absolutely stunning btw 10000000000000000000/10 stars)

HIII first of all thank you so much!! hehe i really appreciate it and yes of course!! to be honest i mostly had threefold planned out from the start i wrote it all down in like a fever dream but there are def small things in my original note that didn’t make the Final Cut of the story which i can share!! it’s mostly worldbuilding stuff that i just didn’t think was necessary/forgot to add so it’s not that it didn’t HAPPEN it just wasn’t mentioned if that makes sense 😭

i will also add that the idea for threefold did marinate in my mind for a while because i have had a very specific gladiator au that i’ve wanted to write for AGESSS and i was thinking of doing it for dan heng!! but then i was like wait why would i put him in a greco-roman setting when there are characters that CANONICALLY are of that vibe?? but i didn’t know mydei/phainon (who were the options for obvious reasons) Like That so i never got around to it even though ig it kept marinating in the background…like i think that’s where the idea of mydei as a prisoner came from JFKDND it was just an offshoot of him being a gladiator really🙂‍↕️❕ since many gladiators WERE prisoners of war

adding a cut here because i don’t want this to get too long on the dash/for any lurkers HAHA

so this is like the ORIGINAL thought i had…i’m not joking when i say i woke up at an obscene hour with the paragraph in my mind KDHDDJ time stamp included for proof

obviously i ended up editing it a bit more to flow better in the actual story but this is quite similar to the paragraph included to the masterlist!! i’m not sure why my brain included the term “thrice-blessed” but that throwaway description is actually where the entire motif of threes came from HAHA which is kinda crazy actually (fun fact the original title for threefold was “panthera” which is now the title for just part one!! it took a bit before i was like wait maybe i should just have the motif of three be the title itself too) also note that i do typically write in cursive but i wrote this entire thing in print to make myself think about what i was writing OFJDJDJ

i think mydei’s backstory is the one i left out the most about looking back on my original note!! these are what i first had planned for him:

i honestly just forgot about this part i think but it’s fine it wasn’t Necessary to add just cool i guess!! so yeah there’s some threefold mydei trivia for you 😜 i also remember he was going to mention that in kremnos if a man kills a woman’s husband he essentially marries her?? which was supposed to be the outcome of him destroying the statue — he “wins” reader which frees her to give him to her husband. i ended up not including that because i feel like poor reader already has enough trauma from marriage and i think mydei would not Want to do that to her 🙂‍↔️☝🏻 like he loves her so much he only really wants to set her free even if that means she won’t be with him if that makes sense !!

now as for reader’s backstory most of it stayed the same!! we learn the most about her just because so much of part two and the story as a whole is reliant on mydei knowing her whereas we don’t really need to Know mydei himself — the obstacle on reader’s side of their love was coming to trust him if ykwim…but here are the original plans for reader!! the hometown’s similarity to carthage/south italy was kinda just hinted at because ofc that wouldn’t make sense to outright state but that is indeed where i got the inspiration for the southern sea and its kingdom!! i think everything else in this was mentioned besides her being very sought after as a girl although i think given that she’s a princess it makes sense she would be?? plus we got the news that mydei has been in love with her since he was a little kid and heard her name for the first time (at the announcement of her birth) so i think it makes sense LOLOL

AND FINALLY the proof that the ending has been planned from the beginning!!

the only things from the ending that i changed from my original plans: the husband didn’t mock mydei for thinking that he was in love with reader (in the first draft as you can see he was going to say something about how in kremnos they don’t understand love so it makes sense that mydei confused “bloodlust” with “actual lust” but i wrote the entire ending scene in a trance and it just didn’t come to mind HAHA instead we just got a throwaway line of the husband saying mydei isn’t capable of love) and originally the husband was going to shame READER for thinking that mydei would’ve loved her (in the final draft, he shames mydei for thinking he loves reader…honestly either way could’ve worked but i think it ended up a two-birds-with-one-stone moment where having him say it to mydei served to both deride mydei and get the message across!!)

SO that ended up being a lot of nonsense LDJDJS i am sure you were not asking for this much of my original ideas 😭 but yeah!! threefold has been a very complete idea in my mind almost from its inception and almost all of the changes have just been the natural refinement that comes along with actually writing something in full vs just jotting down notes for an outline 🤩

[jules-has-notes]

My Mother Told Me — VoicePlay music video

A song with just two short verses repeated over and over could easily become boring. But when you've got a lyrics as powerful as this Icelandic verse and singers as creative as VoicePlay, there's no danger of nodding off. In fact, you may have trouble staying in your seat. Just give them a few minutes before you pack up and head for the longships.

Details:

title: My Mother Told Me (feat. Jose Rosario Jr.)

original performers: Peter Franzén as King Harald & Jasper Pääkkönen as Halfdan the Black in Vikings (2013), s.4,ep.9 "Death All 'Round"

written by: lyrics based on chapter 40 of "Egil's Saga", a poem about Egil Skallagrímsson, likely written by Snorri Sturluson; melody composed by Einar Selvik for Vikings

arranged by: Layne Stein

release date: 23 April 2021

My favorite bits:

Jose kicking things off with a clear, confident tone

passing the bare melody to a new singer with each line

Layne singing in a slight thematically appropriate accent

adding hummed harmonies as Geoff takes his turn

Geoff just becoming a viking war horn with those subharmonic drone notes through the second verse

the increasing rhythmic and tonal complexity of the harmonies as the song progresses

Eli's threatening gesture to illustrate how he plans to ♫ "hew many foe-men" ♫

the series of body percussion hits to close out the second verse

that lush homophony in the first half of the third verse

Layne ramping up the percussion in the first bridge as he starts visibly beatboxing

the quick crescendo and crisp cut-off at the end of the bridge

fierce Eli soaring into the heavens as he asserts his destiny further

Jose and J.None's subtle ascending harmony runs

the slow, staggered canon of ♫ "stand up" ♫

building anticipation with the trio's dissonant chords and an extra bar of Geoff's reverberating bassiness

the speed and audio panning on Layne's percussion in the final bridge section

turning away from the camera to gaze upon their respective domains as they settle into those octave harmonies

Trivia:

This song was suggested by a number of Patreon patrons and other fans, so VoicePlay decided to take a crack at it.

It brought in a fair number of new fans, as well, mostly folks who already enjoyed the Vikings TV series and/or sea shanties in general.

Although many people associate the song with the Assassin's Creed: Valhala video game, it isn't actually featured in it. The game does share several historical characters with the Vikings TV series in which this version originated, though, which is probably the source of the confusion.

This was VoicePlay's first collaboration with Jose. They had mutual friends both through the local Orlando performance community and in his Rockapella bandmates.

They were filmed individually against green screen at the PattyCake studio. Jose documented some of what they got up to behind the scenes. [scroll through for photos and videos]

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A post shared by Jose Rosario Jr. (@joserosariojr_11)

The landscape backgrounds were created by Eli using Unreal Engine, software usually used to make video games.

The only additional crew member in the studio was makeup artist Rick Underwood, who applied their tattoos.

The symbol on J.None's forehead is a Norse bind-rune, tónlist, meaning "music". All of the guys have one as part of their makeup somewhere, though the others are a bit less visible.

Some of the guys didn't bother removing their makeup before going home for dinner… or meeting people at a restaurant.

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A post shared by Geoff Castellucci (@geophr3y)

These things happen when you marry an artist, I suppose. 🤭

Their new looks received some mixed responses from friends and family on social media.

(The guy giving Geoff a hard time is his brother Greg, who is a Naval officer like their dad. Boys. 🙄)

A few days after the video's public release, they posted a live excerpt from Geoff on their social media accounts in the hopes that it would lure some more viewers to the full version.

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A post shared by VoicePlay (@thevoiceplay)

This song was a bit of a trend for a while. Several other popular versions were recorded by VoicePlay's friends and colleagues, including The Hound + The Fox (feat. Adam Chance), and The Wellermen.

Peter Franzén, the actor who played King Harald in Vikings, also recorded a version with the original Norse lyrics as a collaboration with Swedish band Hindarfjäll that was released in July of the same year.

Dr. Jackson Crawford, a scholar of Old Norse, provided a brief history of the saga, a more literal translation of the lyrics, and a reading in the original language a few months later. There's even a bonus (more bawdy) shanty from his former sailor neighbor.

The VoicePlay vikings returned almost exactly two years later for a bombastic rendition of "Valhalla Calling".

[athena-the-undestructible]

Sooooo time for a little more design trivia.

This is Red, specifically his art from Pokémon Red and Green, he looks like a normal child and in this Generation he is, this may look weird if you're already pretty familiar with Pokémon but otherwise he seems like a normal protagonist.

Well Red had a unique fate that no other protagonist had, he came back. In Gold and Silver (the Gen 2 games), you can return to the region from the original games after beating the new region and after collecting all 16 gym badges, you can travel to the top of mount silver and fight Red.

And Red was depicted as totally silent, this was simply because this fight was meant to be players fighting themselves from the first game and since you're supposed to project onto protagonists, it would be a bit immersion breaking for your old protagonist to have a mind of his own.

Now having your protagonist be silent seems like it might have stuck around for all of them, seems like a safe decision but then Gen 3 rolled around and had you meet the character you didn't choose, suddenly these characters are A: not always the protagonist and B: don't always speak.

This went for Gens 3-6 and retroactively added to 2 via the remakes but the Gen 1, remakes, Firered and Leafgreen, were dead set on being faithful remakes and so neither protagonist meets the other (supporting a theory I brought up with Leaf).

Red also got a redesign for the remake.

And here we have a design more fitting of the silent dude on top of Mount Silver, he now looks more stoic and unexpressive, also his hair is brown now for some reason. We are now a million miles away from that normal kid from the original games.

And this is Red now, the Gen 2 remakes firmly re-established his silent nature and ever since, every time he has reappeared (quite a bit actually), he is always the "silent one", and to this day, Pokémon protagonists other than him are never depicted as silent.

Ok that was a little more than just a design overview so let's go over characters who are a lot more similar between games, the Rivals.

First here's Green.

Yes I know he wears Blue, they designed him before giving him a name (plus they'll fix it later anyway) but anyway his whole thing is being an asshole rival and that translated from original to remake quite well.

Actually I think they exaggerated it, like the guy on the left looks like a little cocky prick but he is also very much a kid, bit of a charm to him. But the guy on the right is a full on DIPSHIT, you just really want to punch him.

Remake Green is also notable for that black shirt which while it's probably just a fashion choice, personally I've come to associate shirts like that with absolute pricks so good on the designers for catering to my idea of what an arsehole looks like.

And here's me briefly going over Silver, the Gen 2 rival.

So I already put these two side by side but I never really did an analysis. This time the remake kinda ditches the Little Shit look for something more mysterious which I guess does fit with his vibe, plus the remake gave him an actual backstory courtesy of an event.

His hair also got redone which doesn't happen as much with characters, the newer hair ended up starting a theory due to its similarity to another's but I don't have time for that.

Besides that he got a slightly different jacket, new footwear and has been affected by the Stick virus that's been plaguing protagonists around this time. Personally I prefer the old design to both match with my preferences for this generation but also he looks a bit cooler, that less tight jacket does wonders for him.

I swear that's it for large amounts of trivia and I will start talking about my character opinions soon.

[loveletterworm]

Another extremely specific image underscore friend related and also cat related complaint: When people try to use "mike" being a word for calico cats in japan as evidence for image_friend being a cat...For one thing, still thinking image_friend is Mike? In current time? But also this hypothetical word play only works if you don't pronounce Mike out loud or write it down in Japanese, which is a pretty bad obstacle when the supposed evidence is specifically relying on the Japanese word. The Japanese "mike" is pronounced like "Mee-kay", and we specifically know that Deltarune Mike's name is pronounced the Michael way and not the cat way (if anyone ever somehow assumed it was the cat way...) because the JP version of Spamton's dialogue writes it as "マイク" (maiku)

(Irrelevantly to previous complaining, I guess it's slightly interesting that the Japanese equivalent to the line that just says "...Mike..." in English is a little bit longer...I'm not sure (because I'm just using machine translation), but it seems like the additional text is just saying something like "That guy...", so I feel like it was maybe added to clarify that "マイク" was referring to a person and not an inanimate microphone? Since that is also just the Japanese word for microphone...That's not evidence of anything at all, it just kind of seems like something that would hypothetically be written in a little trivia box if they made a deltarune legends of localization book one day)

[the-cu-genswap-au]

Behind the scenes post #1

In which I'll be looking through all the comics I've posted so far and highlighting interesting facts, details, and references I threw in while making them!

#1. General CU references:

- This is the most obvious one: Ben's locker number and locker combination are references to the first book's original publishing date—September 1, 1997

- "Murray" is Dav Pilkey's middle name (David Murray Pilkey)

- I said this in the original post but "Ms. Mancini" is taken from Madison Mancini, one of the kids George and Harold sabotage during the Invention Convention in the second book

#2. Production trivia #1: my cheat for saving time on environments: the following panels were all sketched over screenshots from the movie

- Sometimes to save time on a complicated panel, I'll directly sketch over a screenshot of the specific shot I need so I can get the layout of the scene down before moving on to finer details. It's good practice for drawing the same location freehand later on—every subsequent panel of the stage and classroom scenes was drawn organically using different screenshots as reference.

- I also alternated between tracing and freehand with the car in this comic. I'd post example panels but I'm already close to hitting the image limit on mobile oops.

- I'm not very great at drawing locations. Working on this comic has genuinely helped me improve in that area.

#3. Production trivia #2: how my loosey-goosey approach to comic-making can come back to bite me: I explained once how this scene was a last-minute addition to the comic

going back a few pages, we see this panel

Originally, this panel was supposed to be the only appearance of the Ree brothers in this chapter, with Jerry sitting behind them as a low-key Jeree reference.

- I actually don't make any scripts or thumbnail sketches when I make these comics. I have a rough outline of where I want the scene to go and everything from dialogue to visuals is kind of made up as I go along, lol. Case in point: adding in the above scene as a spur-of-the-moment decision because Melvin's dialogue needed relevant imagery.

- Once I started drawing that page, though, I quickly realized that having Ribble and Anthrope behind the Rees wasn't consistent with the first panel. Whoopsie. I considered going back to edit the panel for a while.... before I decided that the original angle wouldn't actually show them off that well anyway, lol. I figured the implication that Ribble and Anthrope were sitting there all along would be enough.

- Ultimately, I'm glad I added in this little scene. It's a nice character moment between Toilette and Lavatore, and it helps to set up some key points for later on....

Part 2 will be up in a bit!

[kazinsblog]

Ohh, actually, I did have things I've been wondering about, so I'm glad there's someone who has just as much fun with translation trivia as I do that I can ask now! I while ago, I did try to look up rain code's chinese title. Needless to say, I quickly found out that "rain code" isn't even really part of the actual title... but the machine did give me 雨碼 as the translation of "rain code", and it seems that it happens to be pronounced like yuma? I couldn't help but notice the coincidence at the time, but I'm not familiar with the 碼 so I couldn't be sure if it was just giving me something strange.

Also, just yesterday, I was writing an analysis for rain code's chapter titles because they are mostly based off of novels. Chapter 4's title is キミのすべてが０（零）になる, (based off of すべてがFになる). I became curious why they would add the 零 in parentheses, because it means zero/nothing and they already wrote the number 0 next to it. I came to find out that the original chinese meaning of this character was something like "steady rain"? I figure its relation to rain must be the intention behind them adding it. (I suppose it makes sense when I look at the radicals used in it...)

I'm glad i have someone to talk about translation stuff too!

Master Detective Archive Rain Code's Localized name in Chinese is 超偵探事件簿 霧雨謎宮 (the literal translation is Super Detective Archives Light Rain Labyrinth). 霧雨 (Wu yu) means light rain/drizzle which does kinda describes Kanai ward in a way, 謎宮 (Mi gong) means maze or labyrinth which explains part of the gameplay. For Rain Codes title translate i think the translation team used a sense for sense translation method to explain the games context a bit for Chinese players.

Also~! Like you mentioned~! Rain Code's literal Chinese translation is 雨碼( Yu ma) . When i translate something i personally like to use a word as a base and search for a synonym. So for 雨 (Rain) it became 霧雨 (Light Rain), the Code part is a bit tricky the Chinese translation went with 謎宮 (Labyrinth) it could be to explain the game play or make a connection with 碼 (Code).

And now that you mention it yeah! 雨碼 (Yu ma) does sound like Yuma XDD. Even the Pinyin spells Yuma, what a coincidence!

And for the CH4 title translations, comparing all three names (Chinese, English, and Japanese) The Chinese translation is more true to the Japanese text compared to English.

I tried to color code the each of the words... i hope it isnt too confusing

你的一切將回歸為零 (Everything You Know Will Return Back to 0 (Zero)

キミのすべてが0(零)になる (Everything You Know Will Return Back to 0 (Zero)

The Imperfect Insider (reference to The Perfect Insider)

I think the 0 (zero) here means that the world that Yuma knew will soon return back to zero like back to where it all started, he doesnt know anything who to trust or what to believe in like how he was in CH 0. another reason why i think the JP title added 零 next to the numeral 0 might be to clarify that 0 means zero. Because without it the 0 might look like an O

キミのすべてが0になる (0)(O)= ? They do look similar XDD

i hope that helped a bit~!

[tokiro07]

Undead Unluck ep.24 thoughts

[It's the End of the Show as We Know It]

(Contents: reflection)

And with that, season 1 of Undead Unluck's anime comes to a close

I can't say it was everything I hoped it would be, but I can say it was a lot better than I feared it could have been. Strange usage of recaps, blinding color scheme choices at odd moments, and certain scenes composed in ways that sadly cut down their impact from the source material hampered it from being the next big thing, but unique interpretations and embellishments on the source material mixed with several moments of fantastic animation and great voice acting absolutely prevented it from being a cookie cutter, bland adaptation

And of course, keeping in line with the rest of the series, the final episode made sure to encompass every single one of the above aspects

Now, to its credit, almost all of the recap in this episode was in the manga, it's just very funny that a show that was like 10% recap concluded on a chapter that was, itself, 50% recap. Plus, what recap there was that wasn't originally in the manga was actually handled quite elegantly, being brief moments of establishing information rather than just replaying entire scenes - y'know, the way that a recap is supposed to be!

We still got the garish red gel over the final fight, but I think because we've seen it so many times now, I'm kind of used to it, and the action itself was pretty damn good. The addition of a meteor to the final stroke of Unluck made that final pass at Autumn a lot more visually impactful than it otherwise would have been, and Anno Un's death being an explosion of ink rather than just fading into dust added a nice bit of flair that I think makes their nature as an ink construct much clearer

Overall, a fitting conclusion given the rollercoaster of odd and pleasantly surprising creative choices, and naturally it ended with one final befuddlement. While the beginning of the episode cut the opening theme, we ended up getting it at the end of the episode, which would be pretty standard for a finale, if it wasn't immediately followed by the sequel hook which, itself, was both truncated AND followed by the ending theme! If they'd just cut at least the ending theme, we could have had the full scene of Juiz approaching Billy! Hell, if they'd cut the opening too, we could have gotten the full explanation for how Akira knew the future! Sure, that wasn't entirely necessary, but it could have helped, and getting it recapped at the beginning of season 2 will probably be completely out of place

This was a solid episode, I really enjoyed it, and I feel the same way about the season as a whole, but god damn was this a baffling experience from beginning to end. I will definitely end up looking back on this later as a quirky experience, a fun bit of trivia that we as a community will have a chuckle about and appreciate that it's not Promised Neverland Season 2, but until someone posts a deep dive explaining how those creative decisions came about, I'm probably just going to be obsessing over how it came together so strangely

Definitively, the manga is better; this adaptation does not in any way surpass or in my opinion even match the quality of the manga, but at the very least, it does not do it a total disservice. The goods were good and the bads were weird, and I hope the experience will convince newcomers to check out the manga, if not for the desire to see more, then at least for the curiosity of what spawned this madness

If you were able to stick with it the whole time, I hope you all enjoyed this season as much or more than I did. We're supposedly going to be getting some kind of announcement soon, hopefully for season 2 or a movie. I definitely hope that Yuki Yase won't be at the helm next time, but on some level I think I'd appreciate the consistency if he does return. I'd certainly take that over getting someone worse

Until next time, let's enjoy life!

[rinwellisathing]

You're Awful, I Love You: Part 12

Enver Gortash/Trans male Tiefling Durge

It was around dusk again when Sentry realized he had no idea where it was he was supposed to meet with Gortash for this meeting (date?). Meeting. With that in mind, however, he reassured himself once again, he was Bhaal's own flesh and blood. Gortash was a politician who Bane happened to like. It was apparent to anyone who really held the power here, no matter what the Tyrant wanted to pretend. So, Sentry decided to see what the upper city had to offer as he milled about, assuming some twitchy underling would come looking for him if he failed to arrive. He had been to every bookshop and street corner book seller in the lower city multiple times a week, he wondered what there was to be had where the rich wandered. He frowned and wrinkled his nose as he quickly realized the street corner hawkers who sold him most of his beloved copper dreadfuls were no where to be found up here. “Huh...the patriars are too good for vampires and cut throats, are they? Disappointing, that.” Eventually, he stepped into a rather posh looking upscale book shop and began to browse. Romances mostly, and so many dry history books on politicians and rulers and not a single one with any details of the various madnesses and maladies afflicting them. Sanitized for a pampered public. He made a mental note that thus far, the upper city was vastly overrated. He looked over his shoulder and, noticing no employee was breathing down his neck, or even paying him any mind, he picked up a few biographies he was familiar with and began adding some notes of his own in a red artist's graphite he'd been carrying in case he got bored. “Let the patriars know they've got more in common with the mad than with the gods. It's a valuable lesson to learn.” He smirked as he was just about to finish his last note, pausing briefly as he sensed someone behind him, turning abruptly. “Oh. Didn't think you'd come looking for me yourself, my lord.” The title had a hint of playful teasing to it. “I assumed you would get lost up here, after all, it isn't your usual hunting ground, my dear Sentry.” Gortash looked with mild amusements at the notations Sentry had been finishing up. “Hmm...Intriguing bit if trivia you've written there, so you're fond of history?”

“I am.” Sentry replied. “Well, at least much more than this lot seems to be. Who are they trying to fool?” “Themselves, mostly.” Gortash smirked, placing a hand on Sentry's shoulder and guiding him out of the shop. “You see, these pampered patriars wish to view themselves as good people, civilized people. They want to pretend that by ruling over the under class, they are protecting them, giving them a semblance of order, and meanwhile they've made half the orphans they're housing by letting plague, poverty, and famine run rampant, the fine universities and schools they found benefit their children almost exclusively, and the 'donations' to The Flaming Fist are all bribes to look the other way, every single one of them. But as long as they write in their little memoirs that it was all for the sake of altruism, they can sleep better at night.” “And you're some revolutionary? You want to help the poor? I'm supposed to believe that?” Sentry snorted, quirking a brow and folding his arms. “By the gods, no. As I just told you, only a fool would believe those things.” Gortash nearly laughed outloud as he stood by Sentry's side. “No. I mean to put these patriars in their place. To rule over them the way they rule over others. To bring true order, a true rule to this city....And I think you can help me. As you said, you're a clever man and you're terribly creative.” The comment caught Sentry off guard and he could not keep from blushing. “I see. On the note of creativity, I brought you something, a gift. I will give it to you when we're a little more alone. I think you'll appreciate it.” He grinned, sharp teeth glinting. “Then I look forward to it immensely. But for now, are you hungry?” Enver once again took Sentry by the arm and was leading him further into the shopping district, into a throng of the very people they both detested so much. Sentry tensed a bit at the sight of the upper city taverns, fighting the instinct to grab his tail tightly and twist nervously. He had the distinct feeling these were the kinds of places a tiefling wasn't exactly welcome. Still, to his surprise it seemed that as long as he was on the arm of his companion, no one looked twice. A contented smile played across Sentry's lips. Tomi was right. Enver Gortash was useful. The young artist counted several unique features and parts that would make amazing materials for his work, pieces he would never have access to without being able to move practically unnoticed through this part of the city. The thought intrigued him, it prompted him to play his role with a bit more feeling, to truly sell it. He leaned his head against Enver's shoulder, nuzzling against the material of his jacket. Even through the fabric he could practically hear the blood coursing through the human's veins like a soothing lullaby. “All of this is available to you, dear Sentry. I can give it to you. All you have to do is agree to a more formal alliance.” His jeweled fingers brushed through Sentry's pale hair, toying with the strands and sending a shiver of delight up the Bhaalspawn's back. So much blood. So many new materials. Sentry was barely aware of his body sliding into an overly plush seat at a dimly lit table. He completely failed to notice the purposely low candle light washing the booth red. His mind was alive with inspiration. Statues, paintings, sketches. A monument to all that his father was, no, a monument to all that he was. A jolt of pain snapped him out of it, a ringing in his ears and a splitting headache, a yank at his leash from father. A reminder 'you are nothing without me'.

Enver watched the young Tiefling, following his expressions and the way his eyes moved. He could sense some conflict behind those eyes, and at the same time, everything about Sentry set him apart from the other Bhaalspawn Gortash had read about or met. He was something more, something extraordinary, altogether unique. This young man could be a far more worthwhile ally than he had anticipated, and the challenge of earning his submission would be delicious.

The date began in a bit of a blur, food and drink ordered, a bit of small talk, the kind that serves to feel one's companion out, idle remarks about local gossip, weather, politics. When the food arrived, things opened up a bit more. “You know, one thing I never really understood?” Sentry began as he cut into a particularly rare piece of red meat. “So when I was little, right? Sweet meats. They were always offered to me by all of my adopted mom's friends and family and I was SO excited, I mean, stupidly excited...cause back with my birth family, eating was to survive and it never really tasted like anything. And so here I am and I'm thinking some kind of fancy piece of meat glazed in something and come to find...it's candy. Fucking candy. They meant candy the whole time.” He shook his head and sighed. “But then! My first month with my new family, my butler is fixing dinner and he says it's 'sweet breads' so now I'm rolling my eyes thinking 'Really? Because I'm young you think I want a cinnamon roll for dinner?'...and he wheels out a tray of brains! I mean, granted they were amazing, probably some of the best things I ever ate, but the phrasing is ridiculous.” Gortash laughed and shook his head. “I can understand your confusion. But trust me, it's far better than growing up in a household where everything on the banquet table looks amazing but turns out to be rotted the moment you reach for it. I'll take ridiculous, misleading names over illusory banquets any day.” “What, did you go to some kind of wizard school?” Sentry asked, taking a sip of wine. “You....could say that, I suppose.” Enver smiled winningly at Sentry, though the tiefling noted that the smile didn't reach his eyes, the expression was one Sentry was accustomed to using himself. Hiding secrets, the kind that hurt. “Anyway, the um...the gift I have for you...”Sentry recovered. “Remember when I painted your portrait? I told you you were my muse now, that doing that painting inspired me...” “I remember.” The Tyrant nodded. To his credit, no blush crossed his face and no outward hint betrayed the arousal he felt recalling that rough kiss the morning the portrait had been finished. “Did you know I have a statue garden too?” Sentry asked with a coy little grin. “I'd heard of your sculptures, but I've never had the privilege of seeing one in person.” Gortash took a long drink from his glass. “Well, tonight you will.” Sentry leaned in just a bit. Anyone else looking over might have found a mouth full of sharp teeth stained slightly red incredibly unsettling, but the man across from Sentry only felt even more intense desire to retire somewhere private with his companion. “I think you'll like it a lot.”

[gerardwayissexah]

Miscellaneous author’s notes and trivia on “Bird in a Gilded Cage”:

Since I posted the final chapter of my longfic, I figured I’d share a bit of behind the scenes about the story — how it came to be, general thoughts on the characters, how the story evolved over time, etc. If you’ve never heard of “Bird in a Gilded Cage” and a Neji x OC arranged marriage soap opera sounds interesting, you can check it out here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/41647593

How it all began: Way back at the end of last summer, I thought of writing a fic about Tenten training under Tsunade. I considered adding a romantic subplot to that story, a forbidden love arc involving Neji. That led me to imagine an arranged marriage for him, which Tenten would need to confront. As I fleshed out that aspect of the story more and more, I soon realized it was more appealing than my original fic idea. Hence I redirected my energy toward this arranged marriage fic instead. I never ended up writing a word of the Tenten and Tsunade fic, but maybe I’ll get to it someday. That is, if I’m still writing Naruto fic in my 30s.

About the story’s most polarizing character: Risa Hyuga was named for a character from one of my favorite books, though she has little in common with the book character other than being the protagonist’s love interest. However, she was never supposed to Neji’s love interest, let alone a serious rival to Tenten. If I’d planned for the love triangle from the start, I’d have made Risa substantially younger — maybe 23-24. I chose her age because I thought it would add an interesting dimension to her dynamic with Neji, since she’s predisposed to look down on him and his feelings. I decided on the love triangle early enough that I managed to trickle in hints of romance, or what I intended as hints, starting around chapter 8-9. As I kept writing and imagining upcoming scenes in my head, I thought that pairing Neji with Risa would be the most logical way to go — though I’m aware that some readers disagree, and that’s okay!

Depicting the Hyuga clan: One of the most fun and challenging parts of writing was trying to construct the clan’s internal dynamics off the little crumbs in canon. I knew pretty much as soon as I committed to this fic that I didn’t want to write a one dimensional evil main clan, or a terrible hellhole of nonstop abuse. There is abuse included in the story, and Risa does have her seal activated for circumstances clearly not in her control. But I also wanted to explore why branch Hyuga don’t rebel, or try to flee their clan. Though Risa’s perspective is never depicted as correct, I wanted her to have sympathetic reasons for being a loyal Hyuga. Since the clan is one large extended family, I imagine there’d be plenty of love between cousins, siblings, etc. that makes them stay. Risa recognizes that she still lives a privileged life despite the seal on her forehead, and believes she’s best off trying to live within her bounds. I included a little scene between Hiashi and Hanabi in which he explains why every Hyuga clan head has kept the seal going — and it traces back to protecting family and loved ones. Hiashi understands how terrible the seal is, but cares more about protecting his children even at the expense of his own family.

On Tenten’s baby (content warning for pregnancy loss/abortion): I planned the “twist” from the beginning, back when “Bird in a Gilded Cage” began as a Tenten and Tsunade fic. I’m not sure whether I’d call it a major twist when I heavily foreshadowed the baby’s fate starting in the second chapter (rumors of a baby, but never news of a birth, hm). As I began posting chapters regularly and the fic gained a small following, part of me started to dread posting the actual revelation, because I didn’t want anyone to think I threw it in for shock value or cheap drama. And I realize fiction should be a playground for our imagination, but I’ve been that reader/viewer who was let down by how a creator handled a sensitive issue. Then again, I realize it’s impossible to please everyone because our experiences and biases color so much of how we process stories.

5. How I managed to finish: I wrote most of the story while I was in school, and sometimes I had to restrain myself from writing too much. I’d daydream about the story while I waited for the bus, or did busywork. I’d write late at night and fall asleep at the computer, only to wake up to a page of nonsense. It helped (if that’s the right word), that I was sick at COVID over winter break and wrote upwards of 2,000 words per day while cooped up in my parent’s basement. I eventually started logging the number of words I wrote every day, and set a goal for 1,000 words per day. I committed to uploading every 1-2 weeks regardless of who read or commented. Deadlines and word count goals aren’t for everyone, but I simply don’t work well with open-ended tasks without structure. For me, writing isn’t simply a matter of waiting for inspiration to hit then pounding out 10 pages in one sitting. Sometimes that inspiration hits and it’s awesome, but other times, I tease out the scene I want to write after writing 200 words of whatever pops into my brain.

6. The ending: I must have agonized over that ending for a month of my life if you combine all the hours I spent thinking about it, then writing stuff that I then scrapped. I originally planned for Risa to help Neji and Tenten elope from the village, and you can read “These Hollow Vows” if you’re interested in that ending. I briefly considered killing Neji off, then figured that’d be too much tragedy in a story that’s already heavy. Once I decided on Risa as Neji’s endgame love interest, I knew I wanted her to break away from the clan, as the culmination of her character arc. I designed Risa to be a family-oriented character who loves children, so I concluded that having a child could give her the motivation to leave. The name she chooses for her daughter was also meant to illustrate her change of heart. Neji’s decision to fight rather than surrender when it comes to his second child also shows his growth. Risa has given him strength just like he’s done the same for her.

7. Abandoned plot threads: Tenten and Risa were supposed to develop a sort of friendship and mutual respect. However, the story was already long and I couldn’t find a good place to properly insert the scenes I’d need to make it happen. I also toyed with the idea of having Tenten search for legal ways to dissolve Neji’s marriage, but she ended up taking on a more passive role in the story.

[alongtidesoflight]

i have this one prof in particular who's like weirdly averse to teaching which is so wild to me. like i don't understand his teaching style at all. as in. he hasn't really told us anything, just had us researching all this shit for like six months now. not getting into things during his lectures. and now i have all this stuff i researched and it's just an overwhelming amount of topics (15) and there's no way in hell i can memorise all of that. like bro, no way. i know half of this research is the 'tism adding unnecessary trivia.

no context clues. no idea what he deems important. what am i supposed to focus on when studying for my exams. other students went wide eyed when i showed them my research but they also have no clue what to study so usually what they tell me is a vague "yeah well idk either i just studied a bit of this and that don't stress it"