#using reference from wikipedia lol

[corvid-convergence]

procrastinating on making the last few so ig will share current progress :3c

lil gameboy colour inspired sprites for my dragons !!

[ceiling-karasu]

I was discussing Korean shamanism with @agotia-t after they introduced Hanbam, and this encouraged me to finally draw my White-Naped Crane shaman OC, Chongsu (link to months old post here), as I said I eventually would. I have briefly included her in The Rod that Blocks the Lightning (here, about 2/3rds of the way through the chapter), as well.

She participates in the spiritual and medicine making practices of the mudang, while avoiding the performances of the kisaeng path.

Here is an example of one of her gutdang worship rooms, in which she would perform sacred ceremonies.

Generations past, a Joseon style caste system was kept in place with the help of the spiritual priest class, mudang shamans with a mixture of Confucianism and Buddhism, enjoying many luxuries and power in their caste high above most other species.

In the current day of the AU, generations after the former kings and caste systems were overthrown, the scars still remain (ex. Weasels thinking they are superior to smaller species and the squirrels needing to be reminded that they are allowed to join the soldier hedgehogs).

The White-Naped cranes spiritual practices, and preference towards the old caste system, have fallen out of favor with the general populace of Flower Hill. It is, however, very popular with the Weasels, who still hold that they are superior to the smaller animals. Many shaman leave Flower Hill to join the weasels to provide spiritual practices, something Flower Hill cannot stop due to migration permits.

Chongsu is based on a mudang shaman whose bloodline supposedly ties back the strongest to Sungmo, the mother of all shaman priestesses. Which makes her a sort of community elder despite her young age, as well as her constant mysterious illnesses.

She is a young crane, who lives in Flower Hill, too sickly to make the annual migration to Teikoku (Japan), like most of the White-Napes cranes. She and her followers assist in making medicine for the troops. Her biggest wish and command is for all species to get along with each other in harmony. What she does not realize, is that as the ‘supreme leader,’ this could possibly be misinterpreted as a command for her followers to reinstate the caste system, by any means possible, which could even mean teaming up with weasel, wolf, or tiger leaders, who also wish to return to the caste system and crush all underfoot.

In real life, white named cranes are unusual in that they primary live in the demilitarized zone of North Korea, but migrate to Japan. Shaman still exist in Korea to this day (participating in spiritual/healing leaders, fortune telling, and entertainment such as with the kisaeng), but are sometimes treated with suspicion, especially in North Korea, due to many of them, especially the kisaeng (who the Japanese troops found similar to geisha, apparently according to reports), siding with the Japanese during the invasions. As a result, the distrust and semi discrimination the Flower Hill commanders hold for Chongsu, is a hint that all is not absolutely perfect in Flower Hill.

[kxsagi]

something kinda funny happened to me recently and i immediately thought about rin and your fics, so i'll send it as a req!! i hope you dont find it uncomfortable.

to sum up: ppl usually perceive me as a "nerdy and smart girl" (as in, "top of the class" kind of smart) bc of my looks but in reality i couldnt care less about paying attention to something if its not abt a topic im interested in lol. WHICH RESULTED IN ME RANKING 20 OUT OF 23 STUDENTS in everything but english. it doesn't bother me at all bc. well. i was expecting it. but my classmates are always shocked somehow.

anyways, i immediately thought about my dear rinnie, bc i think thats the kind of situation that poor boy would experience, since everyone in bllk sees him as an academically smart guy bc hes fluent in english, failingto realizethat my boy does NAWT cate about anything other than eng and soccer. . so! my req is basically just a fic where both rin and reader end up in the bottom of the rankings in everything but english (they were the only ones to ace it) and the others are like "?!?!?!" bc i think it would be rlly funny!! feel free to do it in any way you like! tyy! BTW SORRY FOR ANY TYPOS I HOPE IT DOESNT SOUND CONFUSING

“𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐞𝐜𝐭 𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐫”

a/n: OMG I ABSOLUTELY LOVE THIS REQUEST BC i have a male coworker in his 20’s who looks like a geeked out nerd, like kind of skinny, glasses, black hair, asian. and my mom told me to talk to him to potentially gain connections bc i’m academic and i was still in high school at the time so i asked him about college and he said “oh yeah, i dropped out like… 3 times. i just didn’t have the drive because i attended raves instead of lectures” don’t let looks fool you 💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀

for context, all the blue lock characters attend the same high school lol

title is a beabadobee reference bc i love her idc

(art credits go to immmso_ko on twitter)

in a cruel twist of fate, or maybe divine comedy, you and rin itoshi have somehow landed in the bottom tier of your class rankings. 

not just “average.” not “middle of the pack.” no. we're talking rank 21 and 22 out of 23. (it would’ve been 22 and 23, but shoutout to that one guy who never came to class and failed on principle. king.) 

the only subject you both aced? english. 

english was your salvation. your shared pride. your mutual delusion. you’d both walked out of that test with the smug confidence of people who knew the word “juxtaposition” and weren’t afraid to use it. and it paid off with perfect scores. 

but everything else? absolute academic carnage. 

math: rin got bored halfway through and started drawing soccer formations in the margins. 

science: you answered every question based on vague memories of a documentary you half-watched two years ago. 

history: you just… didn’t. rin got distracted by a headline about international players and spiral notebooked into a wikipedia hole mid-exam. 

and when the results were posted, the classroom erupted. 

“WAIT. RIN?! RIN ITOSHI?!” 

someone physically grabbed him by the sleeve. “bro. you’re like. fluent in english. i thought you were smart?!” 

rin stared at them, face completely blank. “i am.” 

“YOU’RE 22ND!!” 

“in english?” 

“NO. OVERALL.” 

“… okay. but in english?” 

he had a point. it was the only thing that mattered. 

you slinked over beside him, matching his blank expression. “hey. i’m 21st.” 

he looked at you. “you’re better at literature than me.” 

“damn right.” 

behind you, chaos brewed. karasu paced like a man discovering the earth was flat. bachira was cry-laughing, gripping isagi like he’d seen a ghost. otoya just kept whispering “no way. no way. no way.” like he was having an existential breakdown over his fantasy of rin being the dark, brooding honor student. 

“this is a scam,” reo muttered from the side. “i thought rin was our secret weapon for test prep. i was gonna ask him to tutor me in math.” 

rin tilted his head. “why would i do that?” 

“you got a 12%.” 

“i don’t need math to score goals.” 

“… you didn’t even attempt question two.” 

“it was too many words.” 

you nodded solemnly beside him. “same. too many triangles. immediate shut down.” 

someone behind you whispered, “this is actually worse than when nagi slept through the finals.” 

but you and rin? unfazed. you were both already planning how to celebrate your dual top scores in english. (you were thinking milk tea. he was thinking silence. compromise: milk tea in silence.) 

you sipped your drink later that afternoon with the confidence of two people who fully accepted their intellectual limitations, so long as they didn’t apply to soccer or essays on animal farm. 

“this doesn’t bother you?” you asked, curious. 

“not really,” he replied. “they’re just shocked because i don’t talk much. so they assume i’m smart.” 

“right?! same! they see glasses and a quiet demeanor and suddenly expect perfect grades.” 

he nodded slowly. “people are stupid.” 

you toasted your drink to that. “cheers to mediocrity, king.” 

and rin, for the first time that day, cracked the smallest smirk. “except in english.” 

“except in english,” you agreed, dead serious. 

the only subject that mattered. 

© 𝐤𝐱𝐬𝐚𝐠𝐢

[sssssssssw234459]

Rhaenyra is the legitimate heir in a feudal monarchy

My history classes are finally useful lol. Anyway, this is kinda short, simplified and with wikipedia as my main source because honestly I don't feel like getting into a full argument about it as it is just a fictional world and all. But I needed to write this because there is a misunderstanding about how feudal monarchy works (although technically there are some major differences between Westeros and medieval Europe tbh). Also my english kinda sucks sorry.

To be simple: oaths are very VERY important in a feudal monarchy. We see the apparition of feudal monarchies around the 9th century after a few kingdoms' territorial expansions in Europe. The main issue of such large territory is that it required soldiers everywhere to protect it, and these soldiers needed a "leader" to defend the territories the king couldn't protect himself, someone to make sure the new conquered territories would stay under the king's rule. However, to make sure these new "leaders" would stay loyal to the king, they had to pledge an oath to him, thus becoming his vassals. Later, these vassals will themselves have vassals under them that have to swear oaths to them as well. The whole feudal hierarchy mainly existed through oaths as it is based on that the king could give his vassals lands, territories and castles (ect...) to protect.

"The obligations and corresponding rights between lord and vassal concerning the fief form the basis of the feudal relationship.[1]" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feudalism)

"Before a lord could grant land (a fief) to someone, he had to make that person a vassal. This was done at a formal and symbolic ceremony called a commendation ceremony, which was composed of the two-part act of homage and oath of fealty. During homage, the lord and vassal entered into a contract in which the vassal promised to fight for the lord at his command, whilst the lord agreed to protect the vassal from external forces. Fealty comes from the Latin fidelitas and denotes the fidelity owed by a vassal to his feudal lord. "Fealty" also refers to an oath that more explicitly reinforces the commitments of the vassal made during homage; such an oath follows homage.[35] Once the commendation ceremony was complete, the lord and vassal were in a feudal relationship with agreed obligations to one another. The vassal's principal obligation to the lord was to provide aid or military service." (Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feudalism#:~:text=Classic%20feudalism,-See%20also%3A%20Feudalism&text=In%20broad%20terms%20a%20lord,of%20service%20to%20the%20lord.)

"It was sworn between two people, the feudal subject or liegeman (vassal) and his feudal superior (liege lord). The oath of allegiance was usually carried out as part of a traditional ceremony in which the liegeman or vassal gave his lord a pledge of loyalty and acceptance of the consequences of a breach of trust. In return, the liege lord promised to protect and remain loyal to his vassal." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fealty)

In the United Kingdoms:

"The oath also specifies that this same oath to the king, is equally sworn to his "heirs and successors", in the plural, rather than a single heir and successor (...) in the event that any one of them should accede to the throne. Thus, the pledge of loyalty to the Crown made in the oath does not end at the death of the current monarch. (...) The oath of allegiance was performed to King Edgar (c. 944–8 July 975).[4] The oath was certainly in use as of the date of John, King of England's Magna Carta, signed on 15 June 1215." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oath_of_Allegiance_(United_Kingdom))

In a Fire and Blood:

"Disregarding the precedents set by King Jaehaerys in 92 and the Great Council in 101, Viserys declared his daughter, Rhaenyra, to be his rightful heir, and named her Princess of Dragonstone. In a lavish ceremony at King’s Landing, hundreds of lords did obeisance to the Realm’s Delight as she sat at her father’s feet at the base of the Iron Throne, swearing to honor and defend her right of succession." (page 393).

"The ancient master of coin, who had served King Viserys for the majority of his reign, and his grandfather, Jaehaerys the Old King, before him, reminded the council that Rhaenyra was older than her brothers and had more Targaryen blood, that the late king had chosen her as his successor, that he had repeatedly refused to alter the succession despite the pleadings of Queen Alicent and her greens, that hundreds of lords and landed knights had done obeisance to the princess in 105 AC, and sworn solemn oaths to defend her rights." (page 430).

These are the same kind of vows the Kingsguard swear:

"Then as now, the Sworn Brotherhood of the Kingsguard consisted of seven knights, men of proven loyalty and undoubted prowess who had taken solemn oaths to devote their lives to defending the king’s person and kin." (page 428).

The "solemn oaths" term is used in both cases for Rhaenyra's inheritance and Kingsguard's vows, which is very interesting.

Anyway, it is mentioned two times the lords and landed knights swore an oath to her. From a feudal perspective, Rhaenyra is a legitimate heir. For people who want to say "oh but Tyland said he had swore no such oaths!" 1) oaths like that are supposed to be on behalf of your house and doesn’t cease to exist if your king dies, 2) technically Tyland is only the brother of the Lord of Casterly Rock anyway so it makes sense it’s not up to him to swear the oath in a feudal monarchy, though it still applies to him.

Anyway, in a feudal monarchy the king is powerful but he doesn't even have all powers… so he does need the vassals' approval. In Fire and Blood, all the lords who are vassals to the king Viserys I swore an oath to Rhaenyra and recognised her as heir. She is legitimate.

[timeslipcamp]

honestly looking up the demons in the ars goetia was the worst because as i was reading through it and looking at some of the connections i was like DAMN this is really cool. aw man, now ive gotta do a whole post on subarus demon smh

spoilers through ep 15

back at it again with the crack theories!! it's what i do best, what can i say.

initially, when i was going through the demons in the ars goetia, i was like "huh, dantalion sounds a lot like dandelion. i wonder if that's going to have to do with us." and then i got further in my list and saw it was subaru's demon and there went that theory. and THEN i read more about dantalion and holy shit dude

anyways this is just a post going a lil more in depth on subaru's stigma, demon, and where i think he fits in the story

so first off, the ars goetia is fucking bonkers. in my professional opinion (i'm an opinionated nerd and a former humanities major), all grimoires that were written around the 13-15 centuries (and were widely publicized) are so goofy. the like, "modern" witchcraft thing is so funny to me because these experts were just making things up and making up their rules and all wildly contradicting each other in every book. i love the drama

but that's not what you're reading this for so i'll get off my soapbox

several of these demons are listed in a bunch of grimoires, but the tkdb wiki (however reliable) lists the ars goetia, so we'll go with that description

shoutout to wikipedia for having one of the only compilations of info that didn't have pretentious drivel to get through (i'm not being a hypocrite shh). tumblr mobile stop deleting my drafts challenge

as far as i can gather, the rankings in the ars goetia are meaningless lol. each demon has their title and their legions and satan rules over all. each demon is also listed as the things they were meant to teach, because the purpose of having these demons in a list was for summoning purposes. you would summon a demon, wear its seal so you could control it, and ask it questions based on what it had dominion over.

the demon's other abilities were what i was really interested in, especially in relation to subaru. the first one listed is the ability to declare counsel on anyone; basically he can read minds. he knows anyone's secret thoughts and can also apoarently change them to his will.

this one applies directly to subaru's stigma. his stigma is the ability to read residual thoughts from people and objects. there is zero doubt in my mind that if we were to enhance his stigma, he'd be able to read active thoughts. or more! luca summoned a whole ass creature with his and all he can do is guard or whatever. who knows what he could do? change thoughts maybe?

manipulate thoughts to the point of someone being intermittently amnesiac? side eyeing my incomplete taiga theory post

the next ability listed isn't as relevant, "cause love and show similtude", but the NEXT part: "show the same by means of a vision." could subaru, in theory and while using us, project the memories he's seeing so that everyone can see them as well?? i think so!!

the last part is also just so subaru, "many faces," meaning he can appear as anyone, man or woman. ngl, i thought subaru was a lesbian the first time i saw him and got so excited, but this is definitely referring to his ability to act. we saw a bit of it in episode 15 where he auditions for the haunted house and then acts like SUCH a freak in that room. love him.

there's also a part about the demon always being depicted holding the book but idk what that means yet, will revisit later

subaru's abilities are so fascinating and honestly he has so much potential to do some crazy shit with us boosting his stigma. i do think he fits aomewhere into my theory about what's going on with taiga's memory but again, i don't have a solid theory yet just because of how little information we have.

the main theory thatni have about subaru is that i think he did have something to do with taiga's memory issues, and i do think he's the type of person that could be blackmailed into helping the faculty and work against the ghouls. his stigma would allow him to get an insane amount of information on the other ghouls simply by touching things discarded by them. the galaxy express area is full of lost items, it'd be a field day for him. who knows how much he's found out about the campus just by grabbing things in there?

maybe he doesn't leave his room anymore because he found out too much last year. maybe he doesn't want darkwick to use him any more than they already have. who knows?

what we do know is that subaru is a squishy little freak and i'm so fascinated by him and his story. can't wait for the next sinostra chapter to come out and (hopefully) get more info on taiga.

asks and dms always open!

[rigelmejo]

Beginner Resources: Studying Hanzi

Are you starting to learn Chinese? Are you trying to figure out how to approach studying hanzi?

First, I would suggest you read some short article that explains radicals in hanzi. Those are the components that 'spell' the hanzi character, there's not very many, and they can often help you guess the meaning or pronunciation of a hanzi you run into. Here is a list of Chinese radicals on Berlitz.com so you can get some familiarity with what they look like, their pronunciation, meaning, and some example hanzi that have those radicals. This Chinese Character Radicals wikipedia article explains how radicals can sometimes contribute a meaning or sound to the hanzi. I suggest reading through both of these articles fully, and saving them to reference later. You do not need to memorize, or spend more than a couple hours reading these. Just having a basic familiarity with what radicals are, and what they contribute to a hanzi, will be helpful as you learn hanzi.

For Chinese beginners, this is still absolutely my favorite study resource for learning hanzi. The book teaches 800 common hanzi, from HSK 1-3, and it uses mnemonic stories it provides you (so you don't have to come up with stories on your own - unlike Heisig) to teach meanings and pronunciation and tone. After studying this book, it's achievable to keep using the same kind of mnemonic story strategy used in this book to keep learning hanzi on your own. That's what I did. This book got me from 0 hanzi knowledge, to enough to read graded readers (I read Mandarin Companion and graded readers sold on Pleco app), and then from there I'd picked up enough additional hanzi to start reading the Newcomer/Beginner stories suggested on Heavenly Path Notion Site's recommendations. (I jumped into reading harder stuff way faster than I perhaps should have, and eventually went back and read some of the Newcomer/Beginner stuff Heavenly Path recommends such as TuTu DaWang 禿禿大王).

Learning Chinese Characters: (HSK Levels 1-3) A Revolutionary New Way to Learn the 800 Most Basic Chinese Characters; Includes All Characters for the AP & HSK 1-3 Exams

There is also an anki deck, with mnemonic stories provided, to keep studying hanzi if that method works well for you and you need a little more aid for a while before moving onto learning hanzi entirely on your own. This is the anki deck I used for around ~500 hanzi when I was trying to speed up my hanzi recognition, since I jumped into reading BL webnovels pretty fast (faster than I probably should have lol): Mnemonics - 3018 Simplified Chinese Hanzi

There is also a traditional version of that anki deck: Mnemonics - 3035 Traditional Chinese Hanzi

[dol-dogboy]

Percy gives you an… interesting lesson on anatomy.

> Warnings: Typical DoL themes, medical terms, discussions of off screen bodily harm, brief discussion of murder

> Notes: There’s some smut at the end, pussy AND dick versions for the reader, Percy is referred to with only he/him here since it’s in the pov of pc, also if any information in this is wrong then blame Wikipedia bc that’s the extent of research I wanted to do for this silly horny fic lol (also it’s very simplified on purpose bc otherwise I would have ran out of ways to spice the writing up)

> Word count: 2215

You are in Percy’s room. Bleak walls protect you from the outside.

Percy sits at his desk, reading a book. He looks absorbed in it.

(1) Ask about the book he’s reading. <<

“I’ve seen you read that before… what’s it about?” You tilt your head inquisitively. You’re unable to see the actual title of the book from the angle he’s reading at.

Percy glances up at you, facial expression unreadable. “… It’s a textbook,” He quickly flips it towards you, and you spot the word ‘anatomy’ before he flips it back around. “Not some fictional fairytale as you seem to have assumed it was.”

You look between the book and him, maybe this is an opportunity to finally learn more about your… boyfriend? “Oh, I see….. why do you, uh, read about that? Is it for Sirris’ class…?”

He rolls his eyes. “Science is already my best class. I don’t need extra time for studying. This is for my own personal hobbies.” You feel like you have a pretty good idea about what he could be talking about. +Stress

“I’ve studied multiple textbooks for it. A few years ago I most likely wouldn’t have been able to even place where all of the major organs are located in the body— now I even understand the ins and outs of the central, peripheral nervous, and circulatory systems. And more, of course.” You kinda feel like he just started stroking his own ego at the end there…

(1) Enquire about the central nervous system.

(2) Enquire about the peripheral nervous system.

(3) Enquire about the circulatory system. <<

“The circulatory system… that’s for blood, right?”

“Good job, you managed to get it partially right. The circulatory system is about your blood vessels, heart, and the blood that runs through it— it doesn’t take a genius to understand that.” His tone was clearly sarcastic, and while you did have a vague understanding of the topic… you wanted to try and get him to talk more.

“I-I see! So… you know where all of my blood vessels are then? In my body?”

At this point, Percy had fully turned around in his desk chair to face you. “‘In my body’ as though your blood vessels would be somewhere else,” He scoffed. “Yes. I have the entire system memorized by now. It’s useful for knowing where to avoid stabbing someone, so they’re not out of commission too fast… what? Are you so dumb that you need me to teach you about it?” ++Stress

Before you can answer, he’s already stood up to his full height. “Okay then. Bed. Now,” It’s very telling how quickly you scramble to the other side of the room. “Clothes off too. Keep your underwear on, don’t you dare get any funny ideas.” You do as he asks, squirming under his scrutinizing gaze. +Arousal

Percy steps over to you and places a hand on your chest, pushing you down onto his mattress before manhandling you into a more convenient position. Now you feel like you’re about to be dissected…

He examines you from above, towering over you now. He stands still for a few seconds, as though he’s trying to determine the best way to start. Then, he clicks his tongue and places a claw directly onto the center of your chest. “We’ll start here. The heart. It pumps blood throughout the blood vessels in your body… I could go into the overall structure of the heart, but I’ll keep it dumbed down for you. There are multiple types of blood vessels, but today we’ll focus on my favorites. Arteries.” You feel a little concerned that he has a favorite genre of blood vessel.

He leans down and places his other hands claw directly next to the first, before gently running them up your chest. Gliding across your clavicle before ending up on the edges of your neck. You’re sure he can feel the bobbing of your throat as your breathing grows heavier. +Arousal

“Aortic arch. Brachiocephalic. Common carotids. Vertebral.” He presses his claws down into your skin oh-so gently. “What? You getting scared? I’m not even doing anything to you… yet.” He lets out an amused huff when you stiffen in response to his words. “Oh, calm down. It was a joke.”

He trails his claws back down again, stopping at your clavicle once more. He curves around the shape of them before moving down your arm. “Subclavian, right and left. Axillary…” Down… “Brachial…” Down…… “And then there’s…” He places a second finger next to the ones he already had pressed onto you. “The radial and ulnar arteries. Bifurcated from the brachial artery,” He finally stops his descent at your palms. “Finally, the palmar arches, deep and superficial.”

He traces over where you presume the arteries are located… you can’t help but blush over him handling your palms so sweetly. It’s possible he’s so deep into explaining that he doesn’t even realize how strangely intimate this is. +Arousal

“Did you know that cutting someone’s arms vertically rather than horizontally is the most effective way to ensure that they bleed to death? Deeper, damages more… isn’t that just. So. Interesting?” He emphasizes every word with a scratch up your arm, not deep enough to bleed, but enough to sting. You manage to stop yourself from flinching away, maybe you spoke too soon… +Pain

Percy lifts his hands away from your arms briefly. You shiver at the loss. He notices and rolls his eyes. “Am I going to be able to go over everything else, or are you going to cream your damn pants over me barely touching you before I can?” You blush deeply, and he groans in exasperation before placing his fingers in the original position they were in when you started. “… Anyways, the heart area itself has the ascending and descending aorta, the pulmonary artery, the coronary arteries… blah blah blah.”

He moves one claw down your torso, and you can’t help but feel like he’s pressing down harder than he was before. +Stress +Arousal

“Coming from the heart we have… celiac. The superior mesenteric artery. Renal— supplies blood to the kidneys...” Percy’s voice sounds completely focused. Maybe he’s zoned out, and you’re nothing more than some sort of medical chart to him now… the thought makes you bite your lip to avoid making an embarrassing noise. You start staring up at the ceiling to avoid that intense stare of his. +Arousal

He hums and continues with his musings— a distant part of you panics at how close he’s getting to your crotch. How mad is he going to be over you disobeying him and getting ‘funny ideas’?— “Gonadal artery. That’s the generic term at least, changes depending on what you have. Then there’s the inferior mesenteric artery. Not to be confused with the superior, of course.” Another ego stroke. Somehow. This is like a job to him. “Nearly at the legs now… common iliac artery,” You’re unsure when, but his other finger had now started mirroring the first again like before. “Which goes into the external and internal iliac arteries… then—“

He pauses. You inhale sharply. You can’t look down at him. You know precisely what he’s looking at. “You. Eyes down. Now.” He sounds pissed. Oh no. +Stress

Tentatively, you look down. Percy’s eye locks with yours, and you can tell that he’s unamused. Both of his hands are located on your thighs now, your brain is so fried you didn’t even notice when he had done that.

(If PC has a vagina)

A clear wet patch has formed on your underwear, utterly humiliating you at how easy it was for him to get you so wet. “Christ, how much of a desperate whore do you have to be to get this worked up over me barely putting my hands on you.” He spat the words out with utter contempt in his voice. You can’t stop the whimper that escapes you at the degrading words. That only makes him look angrier.

His hands grip at your thighs harder. “What? You think it’s hot having me study you or something? Want me to play scientist for you?” He leans up and over you intimidatingly, now looking at you face-to-face. The angle was slightly awkward due to the positioning of the bed, but your cunt throbbed over it anyways. +Arousal

“I-I just… your hands—“

“Oh? My hands? You got some sort of fetish for them? Or is it the claws?” By now his grip was nearly enough to break skin. “Do you like how easy it would be for me to slice you open? Cut and slash at you until you bleed out on my mattress? Or maybe…” He repositions his hands onto the back of your thighs so he can lift them up slightly. “You want me to shove them up your cunt? Fingerfuck you without any care for your safety? My claws would probably nick you, you know? Unless you’re into blood…” +Stress ++Arousal

You feel yourself tense up, your thighs instinctually trying to press together as you cum untouched. Percy’s eye widens and he looks down at the spot between your legs, now completely soaked. “Did you just—?” Your face burns. You can’t believe you just came that easily. +Stress

He takes a few moments to process, before his expression morphs into a scowl. “You pathetic little…” He growls and drops your legs, now going to grip at your shoulders, lifting you up and off of the bed. He carries you as your mind reels, barely even processing him opening the door to his bedroom and suddenly plopping you on the ground right outside. “Out. I need to see if you got my sheets wet— need to determine just how much I’m going to be pummeling you later.”

The door starts to shut as your brain finally starts back up again. “Wait— wait! What about my clothes!—“

“You’ll get them back later. Maybe. Better run to your room quick, before someone dubious gets an idea.” You think you see the hint of a sneer on his face as he slams the door in front of you.

You are in the main hall of the orphanage. A couple of orphans on cleaning duty sweep the floor.

You can’t bear the thought of someone catching you like this. You hasten to your bedroom.

(1) Next

(If PC has a dick)

Your cock strains against your underwear, tip peeking out at the top, utterly humiliating you at how easy it was for him to get you so hard. “Christ, how much of a desperate whore do you have to be to get this worked up over me barely putting my hands on you.” He spat the words out with utter contempt in his voice. You can’t stop the whimper that escapes you at the degrading words. That only makes him look angrier.

His hands grip at your thighs harder. “What? You think it’s hot having me study you or something? Want me to play scientist for you?” He leans up and over you intimidatingly, now looking at you face-to-face. The angle was slightly awkward due to the positioning of the bed, but your dick throbbed over it anyways. +Arousal

“I-I just… your hands—“

“Oh? My hands? You got some sort of fetish for them? Or is it the claws?” By now his grip was nearly enough to break skin. “Do you like how easy it would be for me to slice you open? Cut and slash at you until you bleed out on my mattress? Or maybe…” He spreads your thighs apart forcefully. “You want me to wrap them around your pathetic cock? So sad that you can’t fuck me proper that you’ll settle for my hand? Even when I dig them into you, you’ll probably just imagine it’s my hole squeezing around you instead. Even when I draw blood…” +Stress ++Arousal

You feel your hips instinctively buck up as you cum untouched, whining quietly. Percy’s eye widens and he looks down at the spot between your legs, cum now spread up your stomach. “Did you just—?” Your face burns. You can’t believe you just came that easily. +Stress

He takes a few moments to process, before his expression morphs into a scowl. “You pathetic little…” He growls and lets go of your thighs, now going to grip at your shoulders, lifting you up and off of the bed. He carries you as your mind reels, barely even processing him opening the door to his bedroom and suddenly plopping you on the ground right outside. “Out. I need to see if you got my sheets dirty— need to determine just how much I’m going to be pummeling you later.”

The door starts to shut as your brain finally starts back up again. “Wait— wait! What about my clothes!—“

“You’ll get them back later. Maybe. Better run to your room quick, before someone dubious gets an idea.” You think you see the hint of a sneer on his face as he slams the door in front of you.

You are in the main hall of the orphanage. A couple of orphans on cleaning duty sweep the floor.

You can’t bear the thought of someone catching you like this. You hasten to your bedroom.

(1) Next

[oldmanpusspuss]

hell0o. i dont know anything about the beatles but i just watched two of us on a whim and have become insane. fic recs please or just any content, news articles interviews idek. help me tumblr use paulmccartneyprostateorgasm

Sorry I haven't been ignoring this I've just been Thinking. The thing is that I've been into the beatles off and on since I was in middle school so it's hard for me to remember like. Beatles 101. But welcome to hell. Two of us is a cwazy intro to mclennon lol.

Ok so I guess the thing is really depends on how serious you wanna be with your idk beatles scholarship? Like at an absolute bare minimum I would skim some wikipedia articles so you know the major people/places/events/eras. There are a zillion beatles bios and docs most of them bad some of them vital. Unfortunately it haven't gone through any of those since I was a teenager so I can't really tell you which is which anymore. I'm sure plenty of other beatles blogs could provide resources if you want them.

Definitely watch get back and let it be. The movies the beatles were in as well but less essential I guess. Advanced Level McCartney Studies but watch give my regards to broad street it's a fascinating reflection of pauls psyche.

I'd look at blogs like @amoralto @thecoleopterawithana @undying-love for references. Probably more upper level stuff but all of pauls interviews are on the paul mccartney project website and I once went through and read all the interviews from the 80s. Full disclosure, the thing about mclennon that compels me the most is the tragedy of it all, so that's where I tend to fixate. But it was a fascinating experience because you can really see paul work through his regrets/grief/resentment/bitterness/pain about john in real time

A word of caution when reading interviews: both of these guys are incredibly untruthful at times. John, after the breakup in particular, could be very hot and cold, especially about paul so don't take everything he says at face value. Paul also lies a lot no matter what anybody tries to tell you he just gets away with it more because he's still alive and people feel bad calling him a liar

Songs. Their songs are very very important. I sometimes see people act like it's stupid to believe things based on the songs. To a point I get it art doesn't have to be literal yadda yadda. But you also gotta consider these guys communicated a Lot to each other through music from the time they were teenagers. Anyway I'd suggest listening to the songs for a more thorough understanding but just reading lyrics I guess is fine. I personally still like going through people's mclennon playlists and analyzing Why people think they're mclennon. Look at the lyrics, go to beatles bible and/or the paul mccartney project and learn about the context, etc.

Okay anyway on to fanfic. If this is your main concern just ignore all the above advice who cares. Also I'm a horrible resource because I always forget what I read. Um @forthlin @menlove @pauls1967moustache have good fics sorry I can never remember any of your ao3 names. Merseydreams (I think it is) has good fics. @crepesuzette2023 does a lot of fic recs I think. One thing that's always fun about beatles fics is when u think something is completely made up and you look it up and it's literally real like wtf. I'm also a bad reference because I'm heavily biased towards early days fics and post breakup fics.

Ok hope this helps even a little bit. Remember the most important rule is to have fun. People take this shit so seriously but it's literally the beatles. But please do fact check that always drives me nuts.

[youkaigakkou-tl]

The TRUTH behind the soul pieces

Preamble: I started writing this expecting nothing, but I actually found something??? not clickbait???? gone right???

Warning: the expected reaction of reading this is “damn. I’ve never seen someone grasp harder at straws” and “I dunno about this one chief”

So. "The soul pieces aren't exactly what we're told they are" is an idea I've had for a while now. (I wouldn’t even call it a theory, it’s just a passing thought.) Not that "they're manifestations of Haruaki's traits" is wrong, but I think there's more to them than immediately obvious. I just haven't talked about this much because even I don't fully buy into it and it kinda verges on horoscope-type confirmation bias territory. It’s kind of a, I THINK there’s more to it but I don’t know what exactly is more.

A brief recap

First one shown is his "worldly desires", animal trio vs Seiryuu.

Second is his "freak athleticism", that Kurahashi's team and Ebisu just ran into.

With just these two he runs off to find Sano

Third is his "cowardice", found by Sano's team and Byakko, which gets away and hides in Sano's pocket.

Fourth is his "memory", originally found by Hijita's team and Genbu, which gets picked up by Genbu and then the whole Heian flashback happens.

And last is his "intelligence", which for some reason is also the one that can use his exorcism power.

So immediately a couple details stood out to me.

Why is "memory" here?? I wouldn't call that a trait exactly??

Also, when it first broke apart and flew off in five directions, it's specifically pointed out that it's "like a five pointed star" (even though it's not really if you look at the actual locations on a map lol)

And the sticking point, if it was as clean and simple a split as “Haruaki’s traits”, why do the traits bleed into each other? “Athleticism” is into sailor uniforms too, and “Cowardice” and “Intelligence” are pretty quick by themselves. Also, even without his “Memory” at the time, he remembered that conversation with Seimei in ch87.

The five pointed star detail, considering everything in the arc heavily relates to the Four Gods and Seimei's star, which relates to Wuxing, almost begs to be referencing that too.

What is Wuxing?

Wuxing, five elements, five phases, gogyo, whatever other name for it: I’ve talked about it briefly in my Kyoto arc analysis

(Wait. Is this actually all I mentioned regarding Wuxing in that analysis???? This tells you nothing!!)

(Tbh I think I had a longer explanation about it but I cut it because I thought it was irrelevant)

Wuxing 五行, roughly translated as five elements or phases, is a concept that comes from Taoism. The five elements are Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water and describes the interactions between them. Here’s the wikipedia page if you really want to get into the details.

The “xing” means movements/moving, and the entire concept of Wuxing comes from the five classical planets’ (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn) movements affecting… things? In general? (It’s horoscopes)

In fact, the names of those five planets in Chinese and Japanese are tied with the Wuxing:

Mercury = 水星 water star

Venus = 金星 metal/gold star

Mars = 火星 fire star

Jupiter = 木星 wood star

Saturn = 土星 earth star

You’re taught these as a kid but not the reasoning behind it (because it’s hella irrelevant lmao) but I guess it kinda makes instinctual sense? (Venus = yellow, Mars = red, Jupiter = stripes, like tree rings?? Saturn = brown. Mercury = it looks like there’s rivers? idk how much detail they were seeing in the BC times)

And just to sate curiosity, the planets that were discovered after telescopes were invented are just based off the English names

Uranus = 天王星 sky god star

Neptune = 海王星 sea god star

Pluto = 冥王星 underworld god star

By the way, this is also why the days of the week are named after elements in Japanese; it’s not actually the elements, rather it’s referring to the celestial bodies: those 5 planets + the moon and the sun. It’s the classical Chinese system that Japan adopted around the 5th century AD, and they haven’t changed it since then. (Chinese uses stuff like “weekday 1” for monday now.) And China itself adopted the Greco-Roman system of the 7 day week, days named after celestial bodies around the 4th century AD, which is also why the planets and days line up if you look at the English and Japanese names now.

Would be crazy if they independently decided to have 7 days in a week and name days after celestial bodies and assigned the same planets to the days huh.

(Also, TIL from looking at this chart that the sun (taiyang) is indeed called that because it’s the “great yang star”, and the moon is called the “great yin star”, you know, like yin-yang)

I’m remembering why it’s so hard to research and write about this stuff now. Everything is so inextricably connected to everything else its hard to talk about one thing in isolation. Thanks for indulging my astronomy tangent I love astronomy.

(I always got saturn on da mind when I think about Seimei cus of this art…)

The only useful part of this essay

So. Wuxing. Here’s a pretty standard diagram of it so it’s easier to visualise

There are five types of processes Wuxing describes:

Generating: Wood feeds fire

The reverse side of generating: Fire burns wood

Regulating: Wood grasps earth

Excessive regulating (destruction): Wood depletes earth

The reverse side of regulation (exhaustion): Earth rots wood

And here’s a full list of it, from wikipedia

With this in mind, you’ll notice that it pops up all over the place in Kyoto arc!

If we take lightning as aligned with metal (because Byakko = metal = lightning user), this is the regulating interaction of metal -> wood

Metal cuts wood, but wood also dulls metal

Water… nourishing wood….???

Water destabilizes earth

(“This is just pokemon lol” WRONG!! Pokemon types and every other element system in videogames came from Wuxing!! (Or Godai))

Back to the soul pieces

So you see, it’s incredibly tempting to connect the five soul pieces with the five elements of Wuxing. It’s basically begging for it. The Wuxing has been associated with lots of things that come in sets of five, including things like senses, tastes, smells, emotions, mental qualities, periods of one’s life, body parts. It has applications in divination and traditional chinese medicine after all. If there was a clear, 1-to-1 match between the soul pieces and the elements, you bet I would have talked about it more by now. But the connections are tenuous at best, and even I don’t really believe it. They might, probably, just be the traits we’re told they are. So this really is just to humor myself, and maybe someone can glean something more from this.

Let’s lay out the things surrounding the soul pieces:

“Desires” was at Arashiyama (a bamboo forest) and Seiryuu was present, both associated with Wood

“Athleticism” was at Ginkaku-ji (silver pavilion), none of the four gods were present, no obvious element associations here.

“Cowardice” was at Mount Kurama (mountain = earth?), Byakko was present (metal?)

“Memory” was at Kiyomizu-dera (clear water temple), and Genbu was present, water association

“Intelligence” was at Kinkaku-ji (gold pavilion), and none of the four gods were present initially. (gold = metal?)

The other thing I’ve yet to mention is all the soul pieces seem to be of different points in Haruaki’s life. (Well. Four of them at least.)

“Desires” and “Athletics” seem to look and act younger (as much as you can tell with chibis…), both wearing simple t-shirts, and “Athletics” t-shirt and shorts look like what Haruaki wore as a kid in the Miki arc flashback. Adding on to that, we’re constantly told how into sailor uniforms Haruaki was as a little kid (literally whenever his childhood gets brought up: Mamaaki talking about it in ch8, him saying his first cry as a newborn was “sailor uniform” in ch43, the ch51.5 extra) (ok to be fair. his sailor uniform fetish gets brought up at every opportunity. but i feel like it’s Pretty emphasized here) Also I feel like “Desires” especially talks like a kid.

Meanwhile “Cowardice” and “Memory” are dressed the way he currently does, and “Cowardice” seems to parallel the way Haruaki was at the start of the series. It’s Sano’s team that runs into him, he acts like how Haruaki did early on just amped way up, and he ends up hiding on Sano.

IQ-kun… still don’t know what to make of him and how he fits into this lol

Put like this, doesn’t it almost seem like, in the order they appear, they represent points in Haruaki’s life too?

Or, this could all be nothing, because they’re all wearing the same thing in the jacket for Volume 14.

So anyway, from this angle, it seems like Desires and Athletics line up fairly cleanly with Wood and Fire respectively, but Cowardice, Memory and Intelligence are a little murkier. Cowardice only somewhat lines up with Earth, and both Memory and Intelligence could align with Water, while Memory could also be Metal. (I dropped the quotation marks bc they were getting distracting)

Here’s a diagram to illustrate.

(See it’s kinda, pick-and-choosey, horoscope-type shit)

Immediately a couple problems arise. First and most majorly is the horoscopey-ness of it all. And then there’s the matter that, if the four gods represent four out of five of the elements and earth is the outlier, wouldn’t it also make sense if IQ-kun as the outlier would be assigned that?

There’s also the possibility that the first four are a set, and IQ-kun makes up the “yin” to the rest of Haruaki’s “yang” (But then what would the first four correspond to individually? idk….)

We’re getting nowhere with this analogy, so let’s look at some adjacent philosophies in sets of five, just for fun, and see if they line up any better.

Traditional Chinese Medicine

This one is the most related to Wuxing, there are five main “organs” in TCM that have associated Wuxing elements. They might be called the same names as the anatomical organs, but they’re actually more like concepts only roughly correlated with locations on the body. This is stuff codified thousands of years ago before modern knowledge of the human body, mind you.

Heart (fire): stores the “aggregate soul” (the mind)

Spleen (earth): governs transportation of qi and blood, and governs muscles and limbs

Lung (metal): stores the “po 魄” (physical soul)

Kidney (water): responsible for willpower or fear

Liver (wood): governs free flow of qi, blood and emotions. Stores blood, which stores the “hun 魂” (ethereal soul)

(The wikipedia page I linked has more in depth descriptions)

And if we sorta line up the attributes…

Desires = Liver/wood

Athleticism = Spleen/earth

Cowardice = Kidney/water

Memory = Lung/metal

Intelligence = Heart/fire

Something like this? It doesn’t line up particularly nicely either, and certainly doesn’t line up with the first theory…

But reading up on this actually brought something useful to my attention: the concept of “hun” and “po”

See, there’s this Chinese compound word “hun po 魂魄” that generally just means “soul”, but if you get really semantic they’re two different types of souls?

The “hun” is the yang-aligned “ethereal soul” typically understood as the wits/mind of a person, whatever constitutes the personality, and is the part of the soul that leaves the body on death.

The “po” is the yin-aligned “physical soul”, sometimes described as the “baser animal spirit” of a person, and is attached to the body.

This could explain why Haruaki’s soul is also Seimei’s soul, but also Seimei is in the underworld?

This scene I got real hung up about in my Kyoto arc post?

It lining up and being a reasonable explanation is one thing, but whether sensei is deliberately referencing a property of Chinese linguistics that doesn’t have an equivalent in Japanese kanji is another thing. And honestly, I could see Tanaka “I’ll have to read up on Chinese history, but off the top of my head Byakko and Seiryuu are from 4000BC and Suzaku and Genbu are younger” Mai could and would do it. (Good god, what I wouldn’t give to see sensei’s notes. Yohaji fanbook explaining every cultural reference PLEASEEEE IM BEGGINGGG)

Godai

Godai (“the five great (elements)”), while also a thing with five elements that features prominently in Japanese culture, differs from Wuxing in that it originates from the concept of Mahābhūta in Indian Buddhism, and features Fire, Water, Earth, Wind and Void. It’s a more inert definition and describes the elements as building blocks, contrasting with Wuxing which is more concerned with the balancing and interaction between the elements and the changes they cause in each other.

Godai also isn’t ever depicted as a star (and Wuxing is only depicted as a star as a byproduct of all the arrows denoting the interactions, sometimes the 5 elements are arranged like the 5 side of a dice with lines connecting everything) and is typically depicted as a Gorinto, a stone structure.

In order from top to bottom, it goes Void, Wind, Fire, Water, Earth, and represents the structure of the universe in Buddhism.

So. Attributes and if they line up any better.

Earth: unmoving, stability

Water: fluidity, adaptability, motion

Fire: passion, power, energy

Wind: growth, freedom

Void: the spirit? thought? there’s not really a clear description of this one. To begin with, originally in Buddhism, it’s just said that “from void emerged air, from air emerged fire, (etc)”

I could see wind = Memory and void = Intelligence, but the rest… I dunno man

The five aggregates in Buddhism

And now, following the thread back from Godai, to the Buddhist concept of Skandhas, or the “five aggregates of clinging”, described as the five factors that make up a sentient being’s personality. (Hey, this sounds like it could be onto something here!)

The five aggregates are:

Form or matter: the material form of a person

Sensation or feeling: the five senses + intellectual sensation, and the feelings that occur whether pleasant, unpleasant or neutral

Perception: cognition and recognizing what has been previously noted

Mental formations: dispositions, or something that motivates a person to take action (or sometimes described as the influences of a previous life?!)

Consciousness: cognizance, or the base that supports experience, sometimes translated as mind, intelligence or life force

Wait… This kinda… lines up…? No way…?

Form = Athleticism

Sensation = Cowardice

Perception = Memory

Mental formations = Desires

Consciousness = Intelligence

This… kinda works? They all basically line up and it’s not too tenuous, and there’s enough matching details in the descriptions of the five aggregates that it’s kinda scary…?

I’ll be real, prior to writing this section I hadn’t actually read the descriptions of each of them too carefully (I had the tab open and roughly noted the descriptions kinda worked) and I entirely expected to end this essay with a “in conclusion: no conclusion i learned nothing lol” but there’s actually something here????

And Tanaka Mai is known to reference Buddhism a lot, so this could entirely be intentional…??? I’m kinda shaken rn tbh

I mean, I guess I should have looked to Buddhism first considering sensei’s track record, what with how the arc opened with Haruaki getting put under a waterfall to get rid of his worldly desires, and how 3 out of 5 locations were Buddhist temples, but Buddhism concepts usually use their Sanskrit names and I don’t know how to google for that… (making excuses. classic)

Um. Hope you enjoyed reading this and that you learned something? Here’s all the relevant wikipedia pages if you want to go down your own rabbit hole:

Wuxing (Chinese five elements)

Godai (Japanese Buddhism five elements)

Mahābhūta (Indian Buddhism five elements)

Hun and po (two concepts of souls)

Skandha (five aggregates that make up a person)

Twelve Nidanas (didn’t mention this one, but it’s related to skandhas)

If you read all this you should read all my other long rambly things too if you haven’t, they’re all under the #rambles tag 👍

[andromeddog]

Oooo jumping off the previous anon ask, do you have any websites/books that good for reference that you’d recommend?? Or is a simple Google search/going from there good enough to start with

I’ve always been interested in uniforms n stuff but idk where/how to actually FIND info (especially for accuracy) but idk if Wikipedia/Google is the best for that lol

i’ve talked about this (here) and (here) before, but i will elaborate a bit more (a lot more) for you!

again my first response is to ask, what kind of uniform are u looking for? bc there’s just more info on some types than others. like, ww2 american paratroopers? sooo so so much stuff out there, maybe bc there was a wildly successful miniseries that is often listed as one of the best tv shows ever made and it mythologized the paratroopers and now everyone has a big ol boner for them and their uniforms and you can’t got two searches deep without tripping over those jump boots (said w all the love in my heart). but that being said, sometimes just a google search is enough!

this is where being familiar w each of the components of the uniform comes in handy. like oh damn i need ref of that one specific small pouch the marines have on their guns, what was that called?? oh duh it’s a carbine butt stock pouch, sometimes they wore it on their belt, i can just google that and get the exact result i want

buutttttt sometimes the online sources/pics u get are undated/unlabeled, and you have to piece together what ur looking at based on ur own knowledge of a uniform. this is especially true the older you go, and ive run into this issue with ww1 stormtrooper uniforms specifically, where you don’t have an exact date and u have to be like “welllllll i can’t be 100% sure if this is from early or late war, if this is german or austrian, but it’s close enough to what i need and i can’t find any other source that even comes close and ive spent four hours looking so im going to use this” and then you get someone in ur dms like “well actually 🧐 they didn’t wear those specific suspenders/have that patch on their uniforms/use that limited issue pouch in this theater” and then you feel kind of silly. but it’s like damn dude i spent hours looking for ref and found the only like five jpegs still remaining of this uniform pls cut me some slack. ig this is just me saying that i dont get it right all the time and inevitably there will be someone out there who has a better grasp on it and will clock your tiny error from 200 yards

to stop my pointless rambling and actually get to your question, google is a pretty good place to start but u gotta know what to be looking for. wikipedia can b helpful for kind of an intro/getting names of items. pinterest is a big one for me, i mostly like that you can save pics and organize them. i’d also check out reenactment websites/forums; those guys are dedicated to being 100% accurate and can also provide some good action shots. youtube is also a resource that i forget exists haha. following artists who are into that kind of shit, taking notes from the uniforms they draw (careful w this one, as i said earlier even ppl who draw uniforms a lot still mess up occasionally). honestly any big website is bound to have some military history enjoyers and so u can do a general search and see what comes up, that can help point to users/a community that will often have their own sources/discussions that can be helpful. ive said it before but watching movies/shows about the specific era ur looking for is great, you can see how a uniform sits and moves with a person 👍

also books! there isn’t a single catch all book for uniforms, again (again) it’s all by era/country you’re looking for. ebay is GREAT for finding super specific books on topics only you and five other people care about. sometime u can get lucky at an old used book store but that’s a real gamble and only happens veryyyyyy rarely hahah

i always use these sorts of references in tandem and double check to be sure, i swear i have like 12 tabs open and two books open per drawing just so i can get everything as close to accurate as i can. but like ive said im kind of obsessive about details (negative) and can’t be chill about anything ever. what a super cool and very practical skill set that makes me very popular amongst my peers and interests everyone once i have two beers and won’t shut up about it

ending this with my standard “did any of this make sense?” i’m going to turn on my computer now and spend the next eight hours staring at reference pics and drawing my silly little war boys have a great day everyoneeeeeeeee

[hestzhyen]

Chapter 65 Feels Posting

Greetings, dear void. Once again the unexpected has happened and once again I am here to yap about it. Not as much as I could say because the struggle bus is merciless but there's more translation notes than usual I guess.

Rough TL of the editor's notes: Front Page: "斬欲"に負けた久々李!! ["zanyoku" ni maketa Kuguri!!] Kuguri loses to his desire to "slice"!! Technically desire should be in quotes too but it looks silly like that in English. Last Page: 自らと重ね合わせ導いた選択-!! [mizukara to kasane awase michibiita sentaku-!!] A choice that was guided by his own experience-!! God I struggled with this one. But I think I got it right in the end... maybe... don't count on it. I'm just proud I figured out that 導 (michibi, to guide/lead) was the kanji I was looking for in a blurry, pixelated mess.

Anyway, so... damn, what happened, exactly?

Names Extravaganza

We got more names! Since I'm already looking up kanji I may as well do the TLs here.

"Lily Hishaku" is 斗斗 (Toto) which is highly unusual for a name and I don't think it would pass muster in real life. 斗 (to) references the Big Dipper constellation or a sake dipper for the most part; otherwise it has some obscure uses and mostly exists as radical no. 68. I wonder who named her...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fun fact about the Hishaku while I'm here I guess since I haven't talked about it before. 毘灼 (Hishaku) is made up of the kanji for "help/assist" (毘, hi) and "miraculous" (灼, shaku). 灼 as a verb has lots of interesting meanings like to burn, to roast/grill, and to be jealous of. Oh and 毘 is part of the kanji that make up the name Bishamonten (毘沙門天), the Japanese version of Vaisravana- the guardian god of Buddhism and Birushana Butsu (毘盧遮那仏), the Vairocana-Buddha who symbolizes all of the observable and conscious world. It doesn't really exist outside that context except for 荼��� (dabi, "cremation"). Hmm!

I've been basing some of my pet theories about the org around the kanji chosen to name it to some extent, so I figured I may as well note it down after forgetting to for so long.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Shirakai Itsuo (白廻 逸夫), the master of the White Purity style, is definitely a man at least. 白廻 (shirakai) could be roughly translated as "white game" and 逸夫 (itsuo) could be idle/elusive husband lol. At the very least, shira (白) means "white" and o (夫) means "husband/man". So we know where the name of the school comes from and maybe got some insight into the guy who founded it. But we'll have to meet him to be sure. We got a name, so surely that will happen.

Sengoku Yojirou (戦国 与次郎), the random hotel manager guy, has a pretty manly name.

戦 (sen)- battle, war 国 (goku)- state

Trivia: 戦国 refers to the Sengoku period in Japanese history, a time of civil war and lots of social upheaval. Thanks, Wikipedia! 与 (yo)- bestow, participate in, award 次 (ji)- next, order 郎 (rou)- son

So the overall impression of his name is of a son that was born during a period of war... hm. This one's a toughie for me but I think it could be something along the lines of "the next son born in battle". Don't take me as 100% accurate on that though.

Yes his name contains the same kanji that the Masumi leader uses as his name/codename. It also has the same goku used in "Kokugoku Onsen (State Prison Hot Springs)" where Uruha was staying but that's certainly a coincidence. I don't expect to see this guy again but hey, a name. For a random guy. When we're still calling other characters things like "Bandana" and "Hatshaku" lol.

Blue-Balling Kuguri

My man does not understand that Chihiro is the protagonist of this series.

Poor Kuguri. He just wanted to fight and slice and he got left behind. He's definitely a shameless nerd though, lore dumping about the Iai White Purity style all over the place for us like that.

Combined with what we know from the previous chapter about how the Bearers were scouted and chosen, it makes sense that two people who could master such a difficult style were picked to wield Enchanted Blades. RIP Uruha and watch your back, Samura. Because even though he's never had a teacher, Chihiro has his dad's eyes and can mimic stuff he sees.

If he didn't use his sorcery to make the blades, then will we learn what Chihiro's is? Or maybe his sorcery was used to give the blades their unique properties...

So I know there are going to be lots of bad-faith takes about Chihiro having special genetics after this, but that's not the intent here. The phrasing around him "inheriting unique eyes" shouldn't be taken literally; Shiba's line about Chihiro having "Rokuhira's eyes" from chapter 54 didn't come back now to hint that he's got a special bloodline talent or anything. He just learned from the best of the best when it comes to noticing tiny details and adjusting for them on the fly, then applied it to fighting. Chihiro is still closer to Batman than Sasuke okay? At most he just has a knack for it like his dad does. Chihiro is smart and learned some useful skills that he can apply across disciplines. Once again, just like Enten, he's using part of his father's legacy to fight.

What style Chihiro learns could go any which way, but maybe he'll stick with White Purity since we got the name of the guy who founded it and thus will probably meet him at some point. What remains to be seen is who exactly that person is, how they will meet, and what Chihiro can learn in the ~3 days he'll have left after Iori makes her decision. Thankfully they have some breathing room since the Hishaku completely lost track of her.

I'll get you next time, Gadget!

Anyway, congratulations to Chihiro for adding another person who will be obsessed with him to his harem.

Chihiro and Iori's Choice

How convenient.

京屠殺戮ホテル I guess "Kyoto Bloodshed Hotel" in the official translation. How seriously are we supposed to take this? Not at all, I suppose. Especially with the manager's appearance and his manly war-themed name. Seems like the Masumi have made use of this hotel often with how he recognised them though.

And of course we get into some real heartbreak in this ridiculous place.

This guy needed PTSD counseling and lots of therapy.

Samura being guilty AF with the tear-track scars again. I do feel bad for him and I want to know what The Incident was...

There's an interesting nuance in Samura's line in the first bubble that was lost in translation. The Japanese is: あの子は戦争の穢れとは無縁の子だ [anokoha sensou no kegare to wa muen no koda], which was translated well into English. But the secondary meaning of 無縁 (muen) wasn't brought over- it means unrelated/unconnected, but it can also mean "unrelated to the teachings of Buddha/unable to be saved by Buddha". So basically, more religious guilt from Samura here. This dude is very sincere about his beliefs despite how much he struggles with them. He definitely feels inadequate as a Buddhist on top of all the other things he's got going on. Seriously, he's got way too much self-deprecation going on for the whole cast, let alone just one person.

Speaking of reminding us of how guilty everyone's feeling:

Thank goodness he has the Masumi with him.

Chihiro looks so damn exhausted as usual when he's making these vows to keep pushing himself to protect. God. If he's able to mimic an esoteric sword technique after seeing it once and getting a brief description of how it works, why can't he learn some self-care from the Masumi?! But we know the answer: he doesn't think he's allowed to rest because of all the blood on his hands.

Talking to Iori about Samura will at least have him sitting down I guess. Better than nothing. Because Ro is absolutely right in that once the seal's undone, Iori will be a target on both sides. Chihiro's making more work for himself because of his bleeding heart, of course...

Oof ouch my feelings.

Chihiro recognising he could have had a normal life but choosing the time with his dad over everything... he's so empathetic, I love him, I want only the best for him! I just hope he doesn't lose anyone or anything for making these compassionate decisions. Iori's very safe -sincerely doubt the author will kill a defenceless 16/17 year old girl- but the Masumi and Chihiro himself are in a hell of a lot more danger than they already were thanks to this. Can Chihiro really protect Iori from the Hishaku and the Kamunabi? Surely he recognises the potential threats from both sides even if he's letting his emotions take over here.

"I'll do the impossible in one day." - Shounen Protagonist Guy

Maybe! Chihiro wants to become Hakuri's samurai and Iori's protector by learning one of the most rare and difficult sword techniques out there in 24 hours. He can do it because he's That Guy, but damn. That's some resolve he's got.

I like where this is going with Iori, too- she's definitely not going to go back to safety after all her memories are restored. So it's very exciting to consider what will happen next. Also, there will be two people who the Kamunabi will want under their thumbs now- her and Hakuri (when he's healed). No way they will let such valuable people walk free of them... one the daughter that Samura cares for so much (great hostage!) and someone who can transport the blades to or away from them. Very cool stuff.

I'll be waiting a little more to see where the story takes us before drawing conclusive parallels between Iori and Chihiro. I'm also keeping an eye on what happens to Iori after this arc is done. She's gotten a lot of buildup and attention so she's probably going to stick around in some capacity. I just hope it's not as a love interest for the sake of having one... it sucks when a girl gets stuck with the burden of carrying the romantic subplot by themselves and can't do much else. But Hokazono's mostly been great so far so that's something I won't fuss about unless it happens.

Alright dear void, let's sit tight and wait to see what happens. See you next week and do a small gesture of kindness for yourself today.

[jcollinswrites]

Hi JC! Would you happen to have resources for Ancient Egyptian attire/general aesthetics that can be used for reference? I’d love to draw fanart but I don’t want to be horifically inaccurate or culturally inappropriate. Thank you :3

The best resource is to look at original paintings from the era. Hollywood movies get it wrong nearly every time. (no surprise there I think lol)

Other than that, there are some things you can keep in mind. Most clothing was made of white linen. The tailoring was usually simple. Men and women wore similar things which usually consisted of a tunic and/or robe or a dress. Men wore skirts too and loincloths.

The climate was warm, and the sun hot in the summer, so long, breezy robes were always in fashion to keep the body cool and defend against heat and bugs.

They all liked decorations, but this also depended on how wealthy a person was. Gemstones and gold were very expensive. They sometimes had dyed linen collars, painted with patterns. They also had painted beads, colorful stones and faience jewelry. Silver was even more expensive than gold, so mostly only royalty had it.

Here are some examples you can start with:

[reason-with-the-underdog]

modern au chatfic

thinking about modern au where alhaitham casually refers to kaveh as "loml" in the groupchat

& tighnari messages kaveh "pls tell me you guys got together finally"

kaveh: wdym no he thinks it means "light of my life" lol

tighnari: do you understand why that's not better. do you

kaveh: he's just making fun of me and my nickname!!

tighnari: [switches to alhaitham's dms] that's rough buddy.gif

alhaitham: [Your message could not be delivered. This is usually because the recipient is only receiving direct messages from friends]

tighnari: [switches back to kaveh's dms] alhaitham blocked me

kaveh: WHAT how could he do that to my bestie>:( what did you say

tighnari: oh just laughed at him about the loml thing

kaveh: IKR icb he calls me loml & not know what it means

tighnari: mm hm tell him to unblock me

alhaitham: [This user has accepted your friend request! You can send each other messages now]

tighnari: that was fast wow

tighnari: kaveh doesnt know how much u listen to him huh

alhaitham: Is this important?

tighnari: nah just bored

tighnari: anyways try sending him the wikipedia pg for "loml"

alhaitham: I clarified my intended definition already. He thinks I'm pretending to have known all along out of embarrassment

tighnari: and how does that make you feel

alhaitham: It's fine. He'll accept my feelings when he's ready

tighnari: [switches to kaveh's dms] KAVEH

kaveh: what?!!?

tighnari: i wish i didn't believe so strongly in not sharing private messages

kaveh: is this about alhaitham? did he unblock you

tighnari: i love how i gave you no context and you still guessed it was about alhaitham

kaveh: i wasnt wrong though!

kaveh: what did he do

tighnari: i just said i wouldn't say anything

kaveh: why would you tease me like this... 🥺 do i need to talk to alhaitham to find out

tighnari: yup

kaveh: why does everyone keep telling me to talk to him i literally talk to him all the time

tighnari: i think you should look at the common denominator here

kaveh: yeah ik alhaitham's terrible at communicating directly

tighnari: no comment

kaveh: pls agree 🥺 you know im right

tighnari: no <3

kaveh: >:(

kaveh: but it is weird he didnt bother to look up a word before using it

tighnari: im gonna log off, getting late, good luck figuring it out

kaveh: ok gn

[46 minutes later]

kaveh: tighnari do you think he meant it

kaveh: ykw im not gonna overthink this

[the next morning]

tighnari: kaveh why did you leave a heart react on alhaitham's message in the groupchat

kaveh: im embracing it! i'm the light! nbd!

tighnari: hm very convincing

kaveh: if i pretend it doesnt bother me then it wont

tighnari: does it really bother you tho

kaveh: yes!! ofc it does! not when he doesnt really mean it

tighnari: maybe you should talk to him about your feelings

kaveh: ur supposed to be supportive not attack me >:(

tighnari: if you want an enabler go back to school

kaveh: i CANT that's where he works!

tighnari: didnt you bring him lunch last week

kaveh: yeah he gets grumpy if he skips a meal

tighnari: no comment

kaveh: WE ATE LUNCH AS FRIENDS. JUST LIKE HOW YOU & I GET LUNCH TOGETHER SOMETIMES. AS FRIENDS

tighnari: i dont call you loml tho

kaveh: u are def not the loml rn

[melrosing]

What do you think about the idea of Cersei and Brienne as Jaime’s Madonna/Whore dichotomy?

talked about this a bit before but I think actually the Madonna-whore dichotomy is widely misinterpreted, and I think even by me to some degree? so pasting the actual definition of the 'complex' below directly from wikipedia.

In psychoanalytic literature, a Madonna–whore complex (also called a Madonna–mistress complex) is the inability to maintain sexual arousal within a committed and loving relationship. First identified by Sigmund Freud, who called it psychic impotence, it is a psychological complex that is said to develop in men who see women as either saintly Madonnas or debased whores. Men with this complex desire a sexual partner who has been degraded (whore) while they cannot desire the respected partner (Madonna). Freud wrote, "Where such men love they have no desire, and where they desire they cannot love." X (emphasis mine)

so rather than being simply a narrative contrast between 'the good virgin and the evil whore' (an interpretation which I broke down here a couple of years ago, to argue that a contrast on the basis of their sexual experience was not an intentional dichotomy within the narrative), the complex specifically denotes that the man feel a kind of asexual admiration for the former and a lowly lust for the latter; he can only love the madonna, but he can only desire the whore. most other sources corroborate this definition.

and this does not apply to the Cersei/Jaime/Brienne trio. Jaime and Brienne's relationship is not, and has never been chaste. Jaime has been staring at her body since the first page of his POV, and she has been looking right back at his. they've bathed together, gotten aroused by it, and then gotten aroused reflecting back on it (or in Jaime's case, thought back on it when aroused lol). their first fight together deliberately references a first night together, and intentionally demonstrates their physical chemistry. there's a lot that's sweetly courtly about jb but it is not an asexual romance: the physical, sexual component is as significant as the courtly.

meanwhile: Jaime has never struggled to love and desire Cersei simultaneously. famously: "the things I do for love". Jaime has loved Cersei since they were born, has been as close to her as anyone ever has been or will be, and has desired her plenty. his desire falls away when he falls out of love with her. there is no split: he loved and desired her once, now he loves and desires her less.

fwiw i think Jaime will never stop loving Cersei, even if he lives to 100. it will just take on a new form, and in their case probably some bizarre mix of 'twin sister who i will always feel some unbreakable bond with' and 'irreconcileable-differences-mother-of-my-children ex that I was in a relationship with since we were teens'. the love is always going to be there, but I don't think the desire will. that also contradicts the dichotomy, which argues that the man feels incapable of love for the whore, rather only desire.

so idk if we're going to use the dichotomy to the letter, it simply doesn't apply. if we're talking about Jaime loving Brienne for her 'purity' and hating Cersei as 'damaged goods', then talked about that in the answer linked above.

[yinyuedijun]

i dont know if this is an unusual thing to ask (or if it has been asked before), but i’ve always immensely admired the effort you put in your fics with how well-researched they all are, especially when it comes to cultural details of the story/concept (it’s very immersive because it feels like i’m learning as i read further, not only about the character/s but about the culture the story is set in as well)

and so im curious, how do you start or how do you go about the research when starting a fic?

aw thank you anon!!! I'm so glad you find the fics interesting from a learning perspective, I'm always so happy to hear when people appreciate the research I've done for my fics 🥹

I don't really have a set method for research, but here are some basic tips:

for topics that I don't know a lot about, I usually start by skimming the wikipedia article on the topic, picking out key points of interest that are relevant to the story, and then googling to find academic pages or books on that topic. then I usually try to stick to those sources for my writing, both because they go into more depth and because I know they'll be more reliable than other sources on the web

ALSO when I was writing the yakuza au, which is a topic I knew close to nothing about - for the first time, I tried to begin my research by watching documentaries and video essays on youtube, and it also worked CRAZY well. super digestible and way less labour intensive than googling and trying to find academic sources.

if you're trying to get a sense of everyday life for something, or how a regular person might view/act on the subject rather than an academic or journalist perspective, I find video blogs and reddit threads to be a really informative source. for instance, I've never been to any hostess bars in japan so I tried to look for AMAs from hostesses and was quite successful in that regard (especially for things like terminology/slang that people use)

this final tip is not really a research method per se, but helps with it. in my real life I'm always on the lookout for subjects that I find extremely interesting, and I try to retain as much info about it as I can in case the opportunity ever comes up to write about it. so for example, in my feudal japan au, I came up with those inari shrine plot points because I visited fushimi inari shrine once and got super obsessed with all the fox statues LOL. naturally when I was writing about a fox spirit character, that came back to mind, and I already had a reference point for my research, which helped.

I hope this helps!

[withnofreetime]

Hetalia ☆ World Stars (512, main story) (1/2)

5 days later, I finished. And because it was the 10 most hard-work hours of the week I share it.

Translation notes at the end: ‘cuz I took a lot of “creative freedoms(?)”. Warning: I don’t know Italian, German (my sister know) and Chinese.

Next (2/2) T/N:

Page 1. (Warning: Rough translations)

“Distretto Italia”, this one is obvious “Distric Italy”

“Fratellone” is an informal way to say “big brother”, the formal and literal word is “maggiore fratello” but they’re gangsta.

“Pezzi di merda” is “pieces of sh*t”.

Page 2.

“Chūgoku District”, its name of an island in Japan, but it’s also used to refer to China.

The bad quality in the name of China, so I just invented it: “Great Dinasty”, because the Great Wall and nth dynasties.

“Ya dig?” I’m not British and I don’t know anyone who is, so… sorry.

Page 3.

“Parrain”. Wikipedia has a lot of information about the hierarchy in the French Mafia and they said: “Godfather” like the movie but French (?). Apparently “Parrain” is not as important as “Caïd” who is the “Big Boss” but that changes from family to family.

“Король” means “King”, and has nothing to do with “Tsar”, but it’s also related to the monarchy.

Page 4.

“Amici” the plural way of “friend”, hence “friends”.

“Homo Homini Lupus”, again Wikipedia, is a Latin proverb, “Homo/Homini” is “Human”, and “Lupus” is “Wolf”. It can be translated to “Man is wolf to man”. In other words: “Don’t trust (talk) to strangers, because they can be dangerous”, just thinks about “Little Red Riding Hood”.

“Fratelli d’ Italia” is “Italian Brothers”

“Stahl in unserer Seele” is “Steel in our soul”. I couldn’t find any current or old usage of the phrase, but I didn’t look very hard…

“Rising Sun”, again the quality. But in my country, Japan is the “Country of the Rising Sun” and I REALLY like the name, better Japan than Spain :)

“Grand Master”, I think in Japanese is used to name the Master of the family/house.

Page 6.

“Evviva!” Is like a “Hooray!” But it’s a shout of enthusiasm.

“Figlio di puttana” is “son of a b*tch”.

Page 7.

The “ranks”, not sure about that. I know it’s now about them as players tho (Germany was more lost…).

“Chi trova un amico, trova un tesoro”, an Italian proverb, “who finds a friend, finds a treasure”. The Centro Virtual Cervantes said its usage is very common.

“Grazie!”, “Thanks”.

“Cari tesori”, “dear treasures”, let’s pretend that Japan and Germany don’t know Italian.

Page 9.

“Chi la fa, l’aspetti”, depending on the context (and the person) the proverb can be negative or positive, literal tl: “who makes it, waits for it”, like karma but Italy made it positive. It’s very used.

“Caro amico” is “dear friend”.

Page 10.

“Cost” it’s real money lol. And, uh, please notice the wallet with a rose embroidery from China and ignore what France does.

If you notice an error (most likely), please don’t doubt to say it.