#A cultural melting pot

[chongoblog]

Being in America is super fun because you get to see Trump going up against Biden in a presidential election with both of them being dogshit options, mass protests against what should very obviously be seen as an injustice that spits in the face of what you were told your country stands for, except the government disagrees, using the power of the militarized state to brutalize protestors, all the while people spread malicious lies regularly with millions believing their every word(a lot of it being thanks to some rich freak on Twitter). Also, the economy is doing pretty damn poor and you see media sources tell you to sacrifice your well-being all while the ultra rich get richer and richer.

And then after you're done with 2020, you get to do it again four years later

[jiangyanlissidepiece]

Mal, after dropping something: FUCK

Fairy Godmother: Language?!

Mal: that was english. I think

[isa-ah]

it really sucks that the kind of men I'm attracted to are so demonized. I'm from Appalachia! I like those quiet rugged broke mountain men! fat men hairy men autistic men mute men impoverished men making do- ideally all of the above. but when have ANY of those traits ever been on a man that wasnt a villain? or written to be a freak? nvm in a GAY romance. fucking suckage.

[yakool-foolio]

So since Yuma's birthday was yesterday a thought came to mind: Do you think that; as Yuma's homunculus Makoto would technically have two birthdays or does he only consider either yuma birthday or his technical day of creation as his birthday?

Fashionably late to answering this, but I think Makoto would prefer to have his 'creation day' on January 6 be deemed as his only birthday. Though I feel like in the post-game era, he'd turn his birthday into a whole holiday week for all of the homunculi as a way to celebrate Kanai Ward's unique culture and its inhabitants. It's separate from 'Blank Week Remembrance', which is a week dedicated to honoring the lives of their originals and their legacies that the homunculi carry on for them. It sure does make the city even more popular with tourists enticed with learning about their species and their history.

[vitalconviction]

Vincent Valentine for the ask game?

Sexuality Headcanon:

Unlabelled, but if hard pressed will say "doesn't make a difference to me" -- I also think he's full on demiromantic

Before he 'dies' for the first time I think he was quite casual about sex and the like in Midgar which was mostly a hobby of sorts since there wasn't actually much else to do in Midgar after the initial coolness factor wore off

After he wakes up different though, he's repressed city. The drive is still there, or it would be if he looked for it and if someone in particular he was soft on prodded him--but he is almost always rocking some level of derealization or depersonalization, if not totally dissociative in general so you have to Ground him first.

Romantically... eeh he's less restrictive on that because he's making the rightly false assumption he couldn't possibly be human enough to feel something, you know, NICE instead of BAD AND SHAME AND GUILT ALL THE TIME!

Gender Headcanon:

This one was a shrug always, just a vague who cares thing! I think overall he's GNC and likely agender or something along the lines of nonbinary, but after coming back wrong he's mostly concerned about whether or not he's even still a human so the gender thing is just beyond him LOL -- If anything, the lack of gender in general he feels after coming back probably plays into his fear of not being human anymore

As for how he presented himself, as a Turk he would be sauntering around below plate in whatever he thought looked pretty enough OR if it looked cool enough--whether it be a camisole with a dark colored lipstick that had alluring packaging Or a blazer he found that had amazing fabric that seemed to change colours in light! He's drawn to the abstract qualities of stuff!

As red bandana man, if he isn't sauntering around in his cloak, he's sauntering around in the most nondescript clothes ever. In the process of his slow recovery, given that he recovers, I think he would be inclined to go for a full-on androgynous look which would be the most comfortable for him. For work, though, he really associates it with masculine presentation so he feels quite weird when he makes the gradual shift Lol

A ship I have with said character:

VINSENG! Valenstrifesodos is also great :D I can be drawn in by the idea of Vinseph but in practice, ehhh, it doesn't fully hit LOL --also past-vinveld/future-vinveld, or even vinreeve, those two also are nice ships if the other guys aren't available to kiss vincent themselves

Vinseng is seriously the ship I have for him, and it's all based off the one au I have rattling around in my baby brain. TLDR for the ship basis is, Vincent finds purpose in caring for others and has chronically and historically been the person who cared too much for the role he was in. Tseng is literally THE SAME GUY but he didn't get turned into a science experiment. Every compilation expansion featuring Tseng has further added the narrative of him being far too invested personally, having too much compassion, caring in the way turks aren't supposed to.

They're both internally in opposition to their roles, still view it as a necessary evil (Tseng in particular doing mental gymnastics that would make an olympic gold medalist blush), think they're bad guys, and are RIPE for atonement but neither of them have canonically moved towards helping themselves because it's their disposition to let themselves rot. They both tried, and failed spectacularly, in going against their roles, with Tseng in trying to save Zack and directly going against the company and trying his damndest to keep Shinra away from Aerith for as long as possible--and Vincent in trying to stop the experiments on Lucrecia, and therefore also on Sephiroth. If they had been successful they would have literally changed the course of the entire fucking story.

I think if you smashed them in a room together and forcibly socialized them like two cats, which is what happens in my au, they would do the thing they always do which is care too fucking much. In this way, they seriously have the capacity to slowly heal together! I just want their cycles of pain and violence and self loathing to break man.

A BROTP I have with said character:

Honestly, not any! I suppose Barret and Nanaki would fit this dyanmic though! I really like seeing it in fics so I'll go with this :D

A NOTP I have with said character:

Vincent and Hojo existing in a relationship together, namely with Lucrecia. I can't even entertain the thought of Vincent/Hojo in general--and I mean this in a romantic ship sense, fucked up stuff I'm so down for, but I take ship to mean literal relationship in which there is a semblance of happiness LOL

Honestly Vincent/Cid is the only true NOtp for me because I can see someone who was an abuse victim falling back in with another abusive person, but I can't imagine myself liking this ship in any circumstance LOL I don't even like it in the fucked up way. I just am not the biggest fan of Cid I've found.

A random headcanon(s):

His mother was absent and he never met her, and his father was negligent in that he was abroad for work and rarely spared time for Vincent, so his childhood was pretty lonely.

He's from one of the islands off the coast of Wutai, their region was under occupation and he was almost displaced. He grew up under the occupation and subsequently learned their language as a tool of survival. During the fullstart of the fight back against the Kisaragi led occupation, his father panicked and pulled strings to get Vincent out. He started going fulltime to university as a student after that and even graduated early but it still wasn't what he wanted, so he left for Midgar.

Names and stuff of the place and language of the Island he's from I'm sparse on as I haven't gotten around to settling on etymology, but generally the basis will be Korean and Thai oriented :D In a similar vein, the Midgar language I had considered Nordic but since they're directly next to the plains there's probably Celtic too, but since the President Shinra is THE white guy of all time in the story I gravitate towards calling the language in Midgar Seaxe (anglo-saxon)

General Opinion over said character:

I LOVE YOU BANDANA MAN! This guy deserves to heal so hard. FUCK! He's an amazing character and I want to put him in so many situations. I also want to put him in my mouth like a chew toy.

[gayvampyr]

find it endearing when people who aren’t native speakers of a language i use are like “oh i love your accent, it’s so pretty!” very sweet that you think so but my accent is actually an atrocious mishmash of a hundred different dialects <3

[ancient-reverie]

does anyone else realize that white supremacy in america has also taken white people culture away from various different white cultures there used to be and made it into one conglomerate white person thing. like I can't look back into my ancestors and find any culture at all. and I can't really say that being american is much of a culture really it's just capitalism, and surviving that capitalism

[eggbagelz]

U have no idea how much thought i put into the culture of the zones

[daenystheedreamer]

ohio resident. would LOVE to take you to skyline chili. spaghetti chili cheese french fries and like weird sloppy joe sauce all in one bowl 🫶

NEEED i think people making fun of american food aresoooo wrong like yeah its not 10000 years of tradition yeah it can be junk but its made with heart and soul and love!! its comfort food!!! im a dirtbag okay skyline chili looks good. cheese on meat on carbs YES THANK YOU!!

[digitalgirls]

i think it’s so funny whenever people are surprised there are indian, chinese, etc. people in the caribbean 😭

[frogsare-friends]

no bc the european superiority complex is something that needs to be studied

[bat-anon]

The weirdly specific horrors of being Chicano and Ukrainian while caring about accurate geopolitics is an Experience.

[the-save-place-art]

An archive video with not so good sound and video, but still... Love it!

[fieriframes]

[IT'S KIND OF LIKE A MELTING POT OF CULTURES AND CUISINES.]

[seeminglyseph]

I had a brief realization that with a genetic heritage of Polish, German, Scottish, and other sort of… British Isles meets Eastern Europe by way of Canadian Prairies….

My people have a history of doing funky things with alcohol. Truly fermentation is The Way. Blessed is the Rot and the controlled Pickling and Preserving of things.

[mechahero]

@pzfr asked- [ Culture ] [ Specialization ] [[ what's da culture like in motor city!!! ambassador questions (accepting!)

[ Culture ]

"Well, uh, it's kinda hard to explain?" A lock of hair twirls absentmindedly around a metal finger. His eyes locked to the side and away from whoever asked him the question. "It's very... condensed? Everyone brings a little bit of somethin' when they choose to live here and I guess over time it kinda turned into its own thing?"

"We've got like a lot parties and stuff? Mostly for morale, a lot of the time its for people that were dead and stuff." Lambda taps at his head, racking his brain for any more information that seems to have suddenly slipped his mind. Right when he needs it too. Man. "Oh right! We kinda just exist? But, like, we try and be good people obviously. That's kinda at the forefront of this whole thing. Uh... we kinda scrapped the idea of using cash for food and stuff? And people don't have to work to survive! I mean, people can work if they wanna?" He chews at his lip. It's hard to get the words out the way he was thinking about. "It's um, kinda hard to explain. You'd just hafta see it for yourself."

[ Specialization ]

"Like, as a cyborg? Or?" Realization dawns on him. Or something akin to that, anyway. "Ohhh. Did you mean the city?" He taps at his fingers. Or taps them together, rather. "Honestly? I don't really know? I guess it's sort of part of my goal to have a peaceful world? I mean, ya gotta start somewhere I guess." It sounds odd coming out of his mouth. Maybe even bad. Well, it sounds bad to him.

"We don't really specialize in anything? Except for being, I guess? Existing? I don't know how to explain it. I just don't know."