#Almost Literally

[patriamrealm]

Read another ask about this:

Irida goes sword to sword against kamado and comes out on TOP? I need to see/read that.

Also, Ingo knows how to use swords because of her, too?

Look, she was very angry and was not having it when Kamado challenged Akari to a battle at the Temple of Sinnoh, sacred ground he was already trespassing on. Frankly the only reason she jumped in to fight him first was because Akari had been traveling with Adaman to the lakes and he was a bit more tired. Had Irida gone with Akari instead Adaman would have faught Kamado.

Ingo does not learn to swordfight he practices fighting more like Lady Sneasler though. However Irida is determined to beat him one of these days as he goes all out on her and does not pull punches. Ingo is just thrilled to battle someone.

Bonus:

All the people that taught Irida to use a sword. Her parents, and when they died Gaeric did it too.

[ilivelikeimtrying]

Headcanon: Both Ballister and Ambrosius are horrible at and with subtext.

Someone would be trying to talk to them using subtext to get try and gossip or get information or whatever else and they either take it too seriously, or are just so, so confused at why this person thinks they're playing ball with each other. Neither of them play ball sports????

[orienteddreamerrr]

APPARENTLY, I had lost power yesterday since from 7 in the evening up until it was 2 in the morning today…so, inspiration had struck me to make this short story of me and Cal:

The whole city had lost its power. All the towers and Skyscrapers went dark, all the street lights were off. Me and Cal were trying to find our way back to our apartment, not seeing anything since it was so dark. Holding onto his hand, he takes his lightsaber to ignite it, his blue blade illuminating our path. “Is that better?”, he mutters to me, glancing over with a small faint smile on his lips. I matched his smile as I nod. ”Yeah…come on, we’re almost there!”, I start walking ahead, tugging Cal along, feeling his grip tighten in my hand. Upon arriving to the apartment, I could see Bode was here and he was waiting outside of our apartment door, having a flashlight in hand. He noticed us approaching as his brows furrowed in worry.

“What happened?”, He asked as we got closer to him. I could only sigh, as I try to explain this situation to Bode. “The city just went poof! Off with the power…this happens all the time…for some reason…”, I could only see Bode roll his eyes. “No wonder everything got dark so quickly…”, Cal went up to Bode, placing a hand on his shoulder. “We plan on going down to the station…they have power there…you comin’?”, I see Bode nod. ”Yeah…I’ll meet you guys up there…”, Cal gives his shoulder a pat, retaking my hand in his as we tread through the dark streets again, only to see a light illuminating in the distance. “That’s the station!”, I point out, seeing Cal put up his blade. “I see it…”, As we had both came upon the station, there were a lot of people there…all complaining the same thing…the power.

The mayor of the city was there, trying his best to keep the people calm. He stands onto this tier to grab everyone’s attention. “Everyone! The city is just experiencing a malfunction…we’ll get the power up and running in just a moment…please, be patient!”, Everyone is still complaining, sighing and mumbling under their breaths. I hear Cal sigh as he looks over to me with a “something’s not right” look. Bode was able to catch up to us as we had discussed what the real issue was. “It’s their new generator they’re using for that tower…”, Bode points ahead of him as we follow his direction, seeing a tall tower in the distance illuminating. I groan under my breath. “That’s the mayor’s tower…he has backup generators…”, Bode sighs, shaking his head in disbelief. “There’s gotta be something that’s causing this outage…”, I see Cal was thinking. “I think I know where to look…follow me…”, Cal starts walking ahead as me and Bode follow him, with Bode shining a flashlight for us.

We had followed Cal to this small power plant with the gates surrounding it being locked up tight. He points to this wide shaped antenna, seeing someone had damaged it–markings covered the axis along with it being bent out of shape. “Whoever was here, they probably did it on purpose…”, I felt irritation flood inside me. “Are you serious?!”, I hear Bode chuckle, gently nudging my arm. “Hey, it could be worse…do you think you can fix it Cal?”, Cal is standing there, running finger through his small beard. “I think so…but BD is back on the ship…and Merrin’s not here…”, I look behind me, barely getting a glimpse of our ship sitting from afar. I sighed to myself. “Well…what’s the plan?”, I look back to Cal as he points to the antenna.

“If I can get up there, I can try to force the antenna back to its original position…”, I nod as I look to Bode, who was nodding along with me. “Okay…worth a shot I guess…”, Cal nods back, going to the gates as he forces them open with his Force power. Upon entering the plant, we could see the antenna was not the only thing that was damaged. The generators of the power plant had multiple knife lacerations to them. I watch as Cal takes out his trusty welding tool he carries on him. “Nothing a little welding couldn’t fix…”, He points to the antenna. “Bode…try to work with the antenna…”, “Copy that!”, I see Bode lift himself up into the air using his jetpack as Cal starts working on trying to fix up the generators.

His welding expertise was working as the laceration markings were starting to fade and mold against the metal. He eventually takes a moment to admire his handiwork. Bode lands himself back onto the ground to also see his handiwork. “Did you fix it?”, he asked, seeing the welding marks before him. Cal sighs. ”It’s the best I can do…”, He points to this big light switch as he gestures to me. “Care to do the honors?”, “Sure!”, I go over to flip the switch as the power plant comes alive, humming to life. The lights to the city start to come on as well. “I think we did it…”, Cal smiles. “Yeah…I think we did…”, I see Bode smile too. “Well are we done then? We need to see if the ship is still intact…”, Cal nods to him as we all went to the ship, seeing it was okay. It was starting to get late as we all went back to the apartment, hoping to get some rest from this little fiasco that we had endured.

The End!

Sorry for the blunt ending…this “power outage” ruined my sleep…so I was rushing to finish this so that I COULD sleep…I still don’t feel well rested from Monday...but I will try to do what I can to rest throughout the day today…

Tell me how we should title it in the comments...

[theblackestofsuns]

"Almost Literally"

Amor Y Cohetes (2008)

Gilbert Hernandez

Fantagraphics Books

[tokidokifish]

l'mao is so small. and the world is full of such big men.

[varpusvaras]

I was just laughing to my wife about experiencing a big fandom with a lot of online presence for the first time after, idk, my teen years? And how different it is by just comparing the amount of tumblr notes for this blog this year so far and last year. I'm almost at 10k for this year, meanwhile last year I was at under 50 notes. And then I kinda started to think "wait a minute, that doesn't sound right, actually. I know I was on tumblr a lot last year, since I didn't have the energy to write, do sports, work or study, and this is the place I will just scroll down on if I have nothing else to do", and I go to my posting archive and...I have most months reblogged maybe 10 posts. Maybe. Some months there's maybe 5 max. So on top of not doing anything else, I wasn't even fucking scrolling on tumblr.

Yeah, maybe my body just completely giving up at the start of spring this year wasn't surprising. It was a long time coming and I just ignored it completely, trying to make myself do something even though I couldn't actually make myself do anything.

I don't know, this makes me feel kinda better, in a weird way. Like this was the final proof that yeah, it wasn't my fault, I was not just being lazy and imagining the feeling of not feeling anything. That me being on a pause for a year was not just because I decided not to do anything.

[bandit-prince]

this just in Holly shouting "IT'LL TURN ME????!!" In hlvrai just snapped me out of a spiral

[dykeomania]

i actually laughed (& ty !!)

[ellen degeneres hand on thigh stance whilst awkwardly swaying back and forth and waving and holding for applause] (you're v welcome!)

[arborix]

When you analyze the seeds, what do you look for? :o

...but really for a standard purity test we check for inert matter like stems or soil (and "empty" seeds) as well as other seeds! Other crops, weeds, noxious weeds...

[knavestrolls]

Dear Airika, what inspired you to start dancing?

♪(/_ _ )/♪ is it cheesy if i say its just always been that way ♪(/_ _ )/♪ i hatched and knew how to spin before i could walk ♪(/_ _ )/♪ my lusus taught me the rest ♪(/_ _ )/♪ which was pretty impressive at the time ♪(/_ _ )/♪ but its hard to copy a heron

[floofysmallbob]

today I learned that Clinton, who was president 20-ish years ago, is younger than both Trump, the Republican candidate for president, and Biden, the current president.

[fanaticalthings]

the muskification of twitter except it's lex luthor instead of elon lol

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[thatdykepunkslut]

Taylors wift is just elon musk for horse girls and gays who are afraid of faggots

[heritageposts]

What does life in North Korea look like outside of Pyongyang? 🇰🇵

Hey, I'm back again with a very scary "tankie" post that asks you to think of North Koreans as people, and to consider their country not as a cartoonish dystopia, but as a nation that, like any other place on earth, has culture, traditions, and history.

Below is a collection of pictures from various cities and places in North Korea, along with a brief dive into some of the historical events that informs life in the so-called "hermit kingdom."

Warning: very long post

Kaesong, the historic city

Beginning this post with Kaesong, one of the oldest cities in Korea. It's also one of the few major cities in the DPRK (i.e. "North Korea") that was not completely destroyed during the Korean war.

Every single city you'll see from this point on were victims of intense aerial bombardments from the U.S. and its allies, and had to be either partially or completely rebuilt after the war.

From 1951 to 1953, during what has now become known as the "forgotten war" in the West, the U.S. dropped 635,000 tons of bombs over Korea — most of it in the North, and on civilian population centers. An additional 32,000 tons of napalm was also deployed, engulfing whole cities in fire and inflicting people with horrific burns:

For such a simple thing to make, napalm had horrific human consequences. A bit of liquid fire, a sort of jellied gasoline, napalm clung to human skin on contact and melted off the flesh. Witnesses to napalm's impact described eyelids so burned they could not be shut and flesh that looked like "swollen, raw meat." - PBS

Ever wondered why North Koreans seem to hate the U.S so much? Well...

Keep in mind that only a few years prior to this, the U.S. had, as the first and only country in the world, used the atomic bomb as a weapon of war. Consider, too, the proximity between Japan and Korea — both geographically and as an "Other" in the Western imagination.

As the war dragged on, and it became clear the U.S. and its allies would not "win" in any conventional sense, the fear that the U.S. would resort to nuclear weapons again loomed large, adding another frightening dimension to the war that can probably go a long way in explaining the DPRK's later obsession with acquiring their own nuclear bomb.

But even without the use of nuclear weapons, the indiscriminate attack on civilians, particularly from U.S. saturation bombings, was still horrific:

"The number of Korean dead, injured or missing by war’s end approached three million, ten percent of the overall population. The majority of those killed were in the North, which had half of the population of the South; although the DPRK does not have official figures, possibly twelve to fifteen percent of the population was killed in the war, a figure close to or surpassing the proportion of Soviet citizens killed in World War II" - Charles K. Armstrong

On top of the loss of life, there's also the material damage. By the end of the war, the U.S. Air Force had, by its own estimations, destroyed somewhere around 85% of all buildings in the DPRK, leaving most cities in complete ruin. There are even stories of U.S. bombers dropping their loads into the ocean because they couldn't find any visible targets to bomb.

What you'll see below of Kaesong, then, provides both a rare glimpse of what life in North Korea looked like before the war, and a reminder of what was destroyed.

Kaesong's main street, pictured below.

Due the stifling sanctions imposed on the DPRK—which has, in various forms and intensities, been in effect since the 1950s—car ownership is still low throughout the country, with most people getting around either by walking or biking, or by bus or train for longer distances.

Kaesong, which is regarded as an educational center, is also notable for its many Koryŏ-era monuments. A group of twelve such sites were granted UNESCO world heritage status in 2013.

Included is the Hyonjongnung Royal Tomb, a 14th-century mausoleum located just outside the city of Kaesong.

One of the statues guarding the tomb.

Before moving on the other cities, I also wanted to showcase one more of the DPRK's historical sites: Pohyonsa, a thousand-year-old Buddhist temple complex located in the Myohyang Mountains.

Like many of DPRK's historic sites, the temple complex suffered extensive damage during the Korean war, with the U.S. led bombings destroying over half of its 24 pre-war buildings.

The complex has since been restored and is in use today both as a residence for Buddhist monks, and as a historic site open to visitors.

Hamhung, the second largest city in the DPRK.

A coastal city located in the South Hamgyŏng Province. It has long served as a major industrial hub in the DPRK, and has one of the largest and busiest ports in the country.

Hamhung, like most of the coastal cities in the DPRK, was hit particularly hard during the war. Through relentless aerial bombardments, the US and its allies destroyed somewhere around 80-90% percent of all buildings, roads, and other infrastructure in the city.

Now, more than seventy years later, unexploded bombs, mortars and pieces of live ammunition are still being unearthed by the thousands in the area. As recently as 2016, one of North Korea's bomb squads—there's one in every province, faced with the same cleanup task—retrieved 370 unexploded mortar rounds... from an elementary school playground.

Experts in the DPRK estimate it will probably take over a hundred years to clean up all the unexploded ordnance—and that's just in and around Hamhung.

Hamhung's fertilizer plant, the biggest in North Korea.

When the war broke out, Hamhung was home to the largest nitrogen fertilizer plant in Asia. Since its product could be used in the creation of explosives, the existence of the plant is considered to have made Hamhung a target for U.S. aggression (though it's worth repeating that the U.S. carried out saturation bombings of most population centers in the country, irrespective of any so-called 'military value').

The plant was immediately rebuilt after the war, and—beyond its practical use—serves now as a monument of resistance to U.S. imperialism, and as a functional and symbolic site of self-reliance.

Chongjin, the third largest city in the DPRK.

Another coastal city and industrial hub. It underwent a massive development prior to the Korean war, housing around 300,000 people by the time the war broke out.

By 1953, the U.S. had destroyed most of Chongjin's industry, bombed its harbors, and killed one third of the population.

Wonsan, a rebuilt seaside city.

The city of Wonsan is a vital link between the DPRK's east and west coasts, and acts today as both a popular holiday destination for North Koreans, and as a central location for the country's growing tourism industry.

Considered a strategically important location during the war, Wonsan is notable for having endured one of the longest naval blockades in modern history, lasting a total of 861 days.

By the end of the war, the U.S. estimated that they had destroyed around 80% of the city.

Masikryong Ski Resort, located close to Wonsan. It opened to the public in 2014 and is the first, I believe, that was built with foreign tourists in mind.

Sariwon, another rebuilt city

One of the worst hit cities during the Korean War, with an estimated destruction level of 95%.

I've written about its Wikipedia page here before, which used to mockingly describe its 'folk customs street'—a project built to preserve old Korean traditions and customs—as an "inaccurate romanticized recreation of an ancient Korean street."

No mention, of course, of the destruction caused by the US-led aerial bombings, or any historical context at all that could possibly even hint at why the preservation of old traditions might be particularly important for the city.

Life outside of the towns and cities

In the rural parts of the DPRK, life primarily revolves around agriculture. As the sanctions they're under make it difficult to acquire fuel, farming in the DPRK relies heavily on manual labour, which again, to avoid food shortages, requires that a large portion of the labour force resides in the countryside.

Unlike what many may think, the reliance on manual labour in farming is a relatively "new" development. Up until the crisis of the 1990s, the DPRK was a highly industrialized nation, with a modernized agricultural system and a high urbanization rate. But, as the access to cheap fuel from the USSR and China disappeared, and the sanctions placed upon them by Western nations heavily restricted their ability to import fuel from other sources, having a fuel-dependent agricultural industry became a recipe for disaster, and required an immediate and brutal restructuring.

For a more detailed breakdown of what lead to the crisis in the 90s, and how it reshaped the DPRKs approach to agriculture, check out this article by Zhun Xu.

Some typical newly built rural housing, surrounded by farmland.

Tumblr only allows 20 pictures per post, but if you want to see more pictures of life outside Pyongyang, check out this imgur album.

[bacchuschucklefuck]

no more fan-ta-sizing about it! everything's already changed~

[nnobodoodles]

Oh wow, I'm absolutely FLOORED by the response on my Strawhat Screenshot Redraws! Thank you so much, been reading all your lovely tags and smiling SO much!! 💖

Here's Part 2 with requests from Insta plus some. Let me know if there's someone else you'd like to see!