#BUT i'm still curious as to what The Bigger Review is.. if it's anything like this review yk- NO PRESSURE OF COURSE NO RUSH

[todayisafridaynight]

I wanted to touch on Day with the Sun in a manner that's EVEN REMOTELY TIMELY so I don't end up piling too much on when talking about your fics [both in terms of how much I'd have to write and how much you'd have to read]. SO! Sorry if this sucks and is inarticulate… exhausted from crunch AND my keyboard is busted… but I will power through because this haaas to be one of my favorite fics of yours and I Cannot Contain Myself. Also I feel bad for egging you on to post it but not actually saying anything yet so☠️

I've said bits and pieces of this before but I adore your fics because I can visualize them with incredible clarity. Like not even kidding, Top Ten Hallucinogens, you've got everyone's mannerisms and "voices" down perfect and you always have just enough detail to be able to See The Vision without the story having to grind to a halt. I really like the way attention is only brought to certain details with purpose, when they're relevant; that adds a lot to what I'm about to talk about.

I think your writing style really shines in works like this, where it's sort of like a Particularly Involved Substory, or a lighthearted "cooldown chapter"--just like, those parts that are all in-engine and mostly unvoiced but have SO much heart and characterization. I can See the camera moves and transitions, and I can Hear the music and sound cues. But at the same time, you take full advantage of the medium in being able to get into Arakawa's head, see what he sees and does or doesn't take note of and the conclusions he comes to, and get into what their day-to-day might be like and the ways this trip is both reflective of and breaks from the usual for them.

It's just SO well-done! The fic as a whole is a delight from start to finish--there's so much to chew on in every moment, every interaction, and the fact you've managed to pack it all into such a short story while maintaining the perfect pacing throughout is nothing short of commendable. Giggling And Kicking My Feet The Whole Time For Real and I MAINTAIN I was right to be excited… I'm so happy to have had the opportunity to read it [three times now]!

Arakawa's soooo moe To Me and reading from his perspective always makes me ill because his worries and concerns and shortcomings are so human, but he's doing his best to make his family happy, and they ultimately do end up having a nice day because of his initiative… Jo is SO cute in this too, I rewatched Hero SP after completing the show recently and he really has that Tsugaru-like Neurodivergent Awkwardness. Last But Not Least I loved Masato, I was his age the majority of the last couple of times I remember going to the beach… he's just like me fr…

No But I always really enjoy this Era of Masato, because in the singular flashback we get, he seems just a little bit more tolerant of Arakawa. It's nice to see him before [I feel like] he stops addressing him as "Dad" to his face, only saying it to specify who he means when he's talking to other people--that's kind of how I am with my mom now.

At the same time, it's of course a little bittersweet. One nice day isn't going to change the course of their futures, and it's painful to see Arakawa have these high hopes for his son that don't come to fruition in the way he envisions, or to think about how Jo's the only one around to remember moments like these now…

At any rate, closing out with some notes that came to mind as I was reading:

LOVE the premise being based in Masato being more open with Jo--I was definitely hoping Arakawa'd have some thoughts on that and I was happy to see he did, and to see echoes of it in things like Masato choosing to lean more heavily on Jo and Arakawa musing on Masato's "preferential treatment" of Jo.

It's also really sweet to see how Jo's earned it; he really spares no effort when it comes to Masato and it shows in big and small ways, like how he seems more synced with Masato when he wants to be put down while Arakawa's lost in thought. At the same time, even though he's grossly overprepared and clearly didn't pack for just himself though he initially wanted to set up away from the Arakawas, he only really has the courage to do any of what he did because of Arakawa strongarming him into actually involving himself and letting himself have a good time. The synergy with those three is unreal

Love literally every single time Arakawa tries to understand Jo… that longing for a greater depth of knowledge when he already knows him well enough to read his thoughts from what he wrote in the pamphlet… the way he notes and responds to Jo's anxiety and propriety, the way he goes and investigates the book, the Painfully Awkward But Real conversation they try to have about art and theater and how he /wants/ to share but they're not quite communicating, the way he doesn't know to connect things like Jo's knowledge of construction and his inexperience with normalcy to his past but has this gut feeling… the way he's right about how he'll never fully know him…

I wanted to note this separately because of The Subject Matter ☠️but although this quote comes from a CSA checklist, it is applicable to others with abusive backgrounds [I mean… I do HC Jo as a CSA survivor and it is close to my heart given he ticks a lot of said boxes either way, but that's a topic for a much different ask… If Ever, it never felt like an appropriate topic to write in about], and it seems relevant to what's going on with Jo in this fic: "31. Limited tolerance for happiness; active withdrawal from happiness, reluctance to trust happiness ('ice=thin')." Obviously He Has Other Reasons but I feel like that's what Arakawa's picking up on at certain points. That's why I was really happy Arakawa got to spot and capture those Rare Jo Moments where he's happy and at peace… it's something that works whether you read the fic as platonic or romantic, but it's interesting to view through both lenses

VERY MUCH NOTICED THE BOOK HAS A BROWN COVER BTW I'm Literally Delusional but I was obviously reminded of the book that keeps popping up in your comics, the tattoo one and the AraSawa Domestic Moments Cringe [For Masato] Compilation… perhaps not the same one but I wouldn't be surprised if it took years to finish either given he hardly got to read it before being pulled away… he's INSANE for describing that as Light Reading [I can't even read my own art history books, I just look at the pictures] but I respect it… I also respect you both actually using bookmarks instead of just Praying I Turn To The Page I Left Off On like I do…

Dadliest FUCKING moments from Arakawa in this one I swear to goddddd I talked about his attempts to understand Jo but his attempts to understand Masato when Masato refuses to get what's on his mind across at every turn are so real… also spooking Masato like that… showing up with only his wallet and practically nothing else but being fully prepared to spoil Masato… wanting to put Masato's sunscreen on for him… not "acting his age"… the SKIPPINGGGGG… the expectation of a soon-to-be-empty nesty making him squish Masato for reasons Masato cannot discern [not to mention The Symbolism of the sunset imagery as the backdrop for this in particular although it should be a beautiful moment]… his FUCKING FIT [JO'S FIT TOO BUT HIS FITTT] GOD I'M LITERALLY JUST LISTING THINGS THAT HAPPENED IN THE FIC AT THIS POINT BUT HE MADE ME SO ILL

I could hardly say any of the above without thinking of Jo though… I mean… Second Parent is so true… A Dad Of Another Variety... Deeply appreciate him getting to be part of the family… speaking of parents I ALSO deeply appreciate the Akane mention…

I'm just. Obsessed with the entire finale and everything leading up to it [AS IF I'M NOT OBSESSED WITH EVERY OTHER THING] but I should let you go at some point so I'm stopping here <3

OH AND I would absoluuutely love to read [Or View] anything else you might have in mind with regard to Ikumi! Loved your art :] We don't have anything concrete to go off of At All as of now, so I don't think anyone could blame you if you wanted to explore one idea one day and a different one the next. I don't think about her often because I'm not creative enough to know where to take things [and I certainly wouldn't know how to make it Not Miserable], so I'd be very curious to see :]

Would also love to hear your thoughts on We Make Antiques 2 and The Deer King :] if you have the time/If They're Still Knocking Around ☠️

[EVERY THOUGHT I GOT DOWN BELOW]

i think its Physically Impossible for you to write anything Lame nor Inarticulate dont WORRYYY best wishes to you and your keyboard regardless tho 🙏 more over i'd be THRILLED to read a novel's worth of your commentary on any of my works- but i also know typing a lot is. Tiring LMAO SO i'm utterly grateful for anythin you send in (;´༎ຶ▽༎ຶ) i also never mind how long it might take for you to send something in: i know you always put a lot of time and effort into your asks, and all of that time is well worth the wait since they always end up being my favorite things to read (❁´◡`❁)

moving on tho, ABSOLUTELY makes me happy to hear my descriptions are good ! i always worry about doing too much or too little, so im glad it's Just Write in terms of highlighting what's important while not lingering too long on unimportant things or going too fast ♪(´▽｀) reading the fic three times… thems Deer King numbers WHAT AN HONOR TYSM FOR ENJOYING AND READING (^人^)

im glad this story can feel 'substory' esque. when it comes to my comics, i generally try to give them that 'side content' kind of feel: just something nice to cut away to away from the 'main action' of the canon story, so im glad that can be reflective in a fic like this (and probably makes sense as to why this is my 'strongest' fic) (╯▽╰ ) ive mentioned it during a stream before (and probably in my tags too), but i do try to 'direct' my art and treat things like a movie set. i try to keep that same kind of mentality when writing, so i'm happy to hear it was effective :]

being able to write from arakawa's perspective is a fun experience to say the least. i really Do Not Hide It when i say that i borrow a lot from my life and the people in my life whenever i draw or write something, and i've made it noooo secret my dad is a big inspo for the things i make, ESPECIALLY when it comes to family. with all of that said, an aspect of arakawa i wanted to try to explore lately was his struggle of maintaining a happy family despite his circumstances. it wasn't a MAJOR focal point of this fic I Dont Think, but definitely was something i had in the back of my mind and is generally something i keep in the back of my mind when trying to portray arakawa

all of that said, i'll try not to be SUPER personal (as i do that anyway LMAO) but i'll confess that writing arakawa is 'special' to me. i can't exactly put a word to it, so 'special' will have to do. when i was growing up, in some sense, i was upset with my dad for things he ultimately had no control over. despite the time that's passed though, he's always tried his best for my siblings and i (and even my mom before this year when An Incident occurred and finally woke up him up to how terrible she is LMAO). he told me once that he wanted nothing more than a happy family, and that he never wanted his kids to feel alone or abandoned. that's a sentiment i can very easily imagine arakawa having not just towards masato, but towards the rest of the arakawa family as well due to his own upbringing; that sort of care extends to jo too Evidently. whether it's romantic or platonic, i do want to communicate that arakawa does try to get close to jo not just cause It's Expected for him to care about someone in the clan, but because he can identify the signs of an uncomfortable upbringing in jo, and doesn't want anyone else to have to shoulder that loneliness by themselves like he did. yk: have a more personal reason to as opposed to it being a part of his job. and lbr: jo can't brood ALL the time, there's GOTTA be a single second he actually does seem happy for once (and those very rare momence, me thinks, are very much all the waiting for arakawa)

with all of THAT said, being able to explore these thoughts and scenarios with arakawa is a way for me to better understand and appreciate my dad and what he had to go through i guess- sort of like an apology for how much i tended to doubt him even though i knew he wanted nothing more than to be there for us, so i'm def happy exploring that for myself has been able to become a good read (❁´◡`❁)

onto jo tho…. i love portraying jo in these domestic settings somuch (evidently). bro really is just so out of his element, ESPECIALLY when he's trying to appear Tolerable (in his eyes: arakawa will ALWAYS love him) it's just such a hilarious contrast to how we know him (a cunt) ☠️ as i was writing this fic i just kept thinking to myself that- in an ironic sense- jo would absolutely be a beach/airport dad given the circumstances (just pack unnecessarily, be overly vigilant to make sure things go accordingly, etc etc) and it's what really made writing everything so fun when i got to sit and imagine it and share it （￣︶￣）

that fun bit aside, i do also enjoy writing jo in these types of scenarios in a similar vein to why i like writing arakawa: it's a bit personal. i'd rather equate my upbringing to negligence opposed to outright abuse like jo experienced, but i can't imagine how my thoughts manifest to be too different from jo's in certain scenarios. especially when it comes to his hesitance towards happiness or believing he isn't deserving of that happiness (or anything good really), it's a very personal feeling i get a lot, and in particular his need to not want to intrude or take up space (doubly considering it may seem as tho he's trying to 'steal' masato even though he gave him away in the first place). it's pretty easy to write with that respect (and is probably why i tend to drift to portraying his pov's LMAO), and trying to capture that feeling of anxiety or worry or apprehension but still keep it in tune with jo's 'stonewall-esque' character is definitely cathartic in a sense. it's also interesting to do when i have him next to other characters, and ESPECIALLY when im writing from a perspective that isn't his own. it's important i don't make him appear too outwardly anxious or 'small,' but i also want to make sure it's clear he does feel those things in that moment: i want that fact to be sort of a blink-and-you-miss-it kind of deal.

all of THAT said though, i AM very interested to hear more about your thoughts on him as a CSA survivor (and me wonders if that is what you were referring to when adding to his backstory some asks ago)... VERY fair if you'd rather keep that discussion elsewhere though: it is a very sensitive topic

onto masato though, i enjoy portraying masato a lot pre-ichi times. i guess it's just a nice phase to touch on before Everything Spirals, so to speak: he still has some of that anger from his childhood, though he can't express it the same way anymore. he has to be a bit more mature about it- but he is still a teenager. plus, since he's still a teenager, he still predominantly relies on jo and arakawa, and Of Course i have the most fun when i get to portray any combo of that trio interacting with each other (and it shows lmao).

on that note though, i do enjoy thinking a lot about the supposed relationship jo and masato mustve had while he was growing up. as it shows, jo turned out to be 'masatos favorite' (however much that means all things considered). there surely must have been some seeds planted for that to have been the outcome later on, so it's fun thinking about how those things can manifest, and it's especially fun getting to pen arakawa's perspective on it

AND OF COURSE THE BOOK WAS INTENTIONAL LMAOOOO yk what they say One's An Incident Two's A Coincidence Three's On Purpose You Asshole ☠️☠️ the first two times were truly accidents but at this point it doesn't hurt to have a 'running joke' or something like that in my comics/fics. we'll get him a new book someday i promise ♪(´▽｀)

as for me though, i cant trust to open on the same page i left off on.. plus i really like collecting bookmarks, especially when they're of butterflies: it gives me a reason to look them up and learn something since the designs are always pretty enough for me to wonder what species they're based on (❁´◡`❁)

ALL IN ALL THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH FOR ENJOYING !!!!!!!! truly commentary like this gives me reasonsto keep writing its SUCH a huge motivator i cant stress it.. all the pain is worth it when i can see how much you enjoyed the fic.. i hope to always make you feel that excited to read something from myself ╰(°▽°)╯ !!

with THAT in mind tho… i certainly do feel the motivation to pen at least ONE ikumi story now.. when that's finished is TBD but for now i hope you enjoy this Kinda Old scribble of a Little Older ikumi i did (or at least one variant of an older ikumi) <- drew it so i could hallucinate better

im not good at fashion and i was really trying to figure out a look for her that still REMINDED people of ikumi but yk. was appropriate for a 30-something-year-old woman in the 90's.... but i have plenty of time to explore other looks so i wont worry (i do really like this hair cut tho.. maybe that'll be a constant)..

AND OF COURSE i'd be happy to write two quick lil reviews for those movies: i LOVED them after all (´▽`ʃ♡ƪ)

for WMA2, my favorite bits of these movies is always The Plan Coming Together- yk the last like. thirty or so minutes LMAO BUT FR ill never get over watching everyone work together to con people (plus the turtleneck really is A Look for nakai.. BIG fan- also them goofy ass magnetic glasses.. what even are those i love them). had me GOBSMACKED when it was revealed shino wasnt even a real mom but also Not Surprising in retrospect but ALSO Whose Kid Is This. Where Are Your Parents.

i do love how the movie started with the idea that sasuke Wasnt going to do any more con jobs and was going to be living honestly, yet In An Ironic Twist to ensure japan wouldnt have a Counterfeit Antique problem he ended up having to make so many fakes… a necessary evil me thinks… more importantly i really will never get over yo-chan fucking licking everything like ENOUGH. STOP. but dont it still makes me laugh fuckin weird ass old man (;´༎ຶД༎ຶ`)♡ it did make me happy to see sasuke's son get a job he really loves tho… that was cute.. AND WHEN HE TRIED THE POTTERY WHEEL That Was Cute :) anyways.. all in all lovely movie Of Course I'd Love It… one day i hope we can find the third movie….

AS FOR DEER KINNGGG ABSOLUTELY LOVELY MOVIE you were right the animation was GORGEOUS and PERFECTLY weighted. i ESPECIALLY loved the scene with the stilt walkers not just atmosphere wise, but the actual weight and heft of the stilts was just so… Immaculate. AND LEST I NEGLECT TO MENTION YUNA'S THE CUTEST LITTLE GIRL EVER i love her so so so much she's so adorable her cheeks are plump like a peach's her pigtails are adorable and i love her tooth gap (;´༎ຶД༎ຶ)(;´༎ຶД༎ຶ) van and yuna getting to hang with the villagers was MAD sweet tho… had me deceased at the end when the cure of Mad Wolf Disease was just deer milk tho. NOT A HATER was just a hilariosuly simple solution considering The Horrors caused by the mittsual (i knew i wasnt a sicko for drinking milk...)

As If I Need To Say It Anymore very lovely movies….. thank you much both for going through the effort to find WMA2 and for reccin The Deer King…

[aangarchy]

Alright. I've rewatched the trailer like 20 times by now and i've been processing it.

First things first: anyone that's gonna talk shit about Gordon Cormier is gonna have to go through me first. I've only had Gordon!Aang for a day and a half and if anything happens to him i'll kill everyone here and then myself got it?

Just look at him! This is the exact big eared cute little kid i wanted them to cast for Aang. He looks adorable and honestly his outfit is growing on me.

The glowing arrow looked cool as hell. I like that the light spread through his tattoo almost like veins. I'm still curious on how the full avatar state is gonna look, how they're gonna get the glowing eye effect. Please don't let it look goofy.

Y'know what does look goofy?

Is it better than the m night shyamalan appa? I guess. Does that mean it looks good? Well.... at least momo sort of looks cute instead of some folklore nightmare like in shyamalan's version. But also you can tell in this shot in particular that it's very green screen-y

Then we go over to the bending, the limited shots we have of it. Mainly firebending was shown (a little airbending too but kinda hard to get a stillframe for that one)

Idk how to feel about it. In screenshots it looks alright but the shots while they were moving looked a bit off, especially the one where zuko's kicking. We only got very limited shots and that's intentional. I feel like the bigger cgi fails are gonna show up once we get the full show. If the bending looked good all the time i feel like they'd be showing it off by now.

What i don't like, is how apparently they're gonna SHOW Zuko getting burned. Like sure in atla they didn't bc kids show and Nickelodeon wouldn't allow it, and netflix can take darker turns if they so please. But i personally always felt that scene made so much impact because we didn't see it. Iroh is telling it from his memory and he didn't look when it happened, so we don't see it either. It's like a courtesy the show extends to both Zuko and the audience. We just hear the harrowing scream, and that's enough to know how devastating it is. I don't need a dramatic overlook so we can see the whole thing in detail, netflix.

Another thing is the hair in some scenes.

Daniel dae kim looked better in that promo photo, bc here you can just see how the bulky goatie was glued on. And then Sokka's hair..... where's the ponytail? It's laying completely flat against his head... why? Is it bc that's Ian's hair and they didn't know what to do with it? Literally get a comb and tease that bitch. This is like the complete opposite of Jackson Rathbone's hair in the shyamalan version, and somehow that full maybelline ponytail makes more sense than this sad excuse of a tail. Either way at least Suki looked dope.

Another thing i found weird about the trailer is the narration. I think it's either Iroh's voice or maybe Gyatso's? (I haven't heard Iroh's actor talk yet so idk, but it felt like it was being said TO either Aang or Zuko) but the lines they gave him... it felt like some weird mumbo jumbo tbh. Something something about the past and present being the same and it's up to us to know the difference and be the difference? It's saying everything and nothing at the same time and it felt kind of out of place. They're probably saving the iconic opening narration done by Katara for the full trailer (i hope???) but still they could have just gone with music, or maybe just a few iconic existing lines?

The music? Fire. Nothing needs to be added there. Was i kind of hoping for a different soundtrack? Maybe a bit. But am i mad? Not at all. They clearly took the nostalgia route with the more epic version of the avatar theme, and i can only respect them for that.

So far, very mixed reviews for me. I'm morbidly curious and very nosy by nature though, so i'm absolutely watching.

[flockrest]

this one's to the lovely who dropped an entire essay back @ me in the inbox! i've decided to format the post such that i can answer some portions directly so none of us get confused, hope you don't mind! anything indented is what you sent in, the rest is part of my response :) it's another doozy but we love those, don't we? asflkdj here we go!

Hi, hope you're doing well! I'd been the anon giving you asks more on Revali's personality and his behavior around the Flock and the Flock's reaction (mostly Tulin's) towards him. Also, the 1.6k did not overwhelm me- if anything made me very happy and overall more curious ahahaha. If anything- thank you so much for accepting and taking the time to answer these asks. Can relate to the unhinged feelings over the lonely rito- I could be hours and hours thinking. That gif of the guy with a board behind full of clues and trying to connect the dots- that's currently me.

hello, welcome back! thank you, hope you're having a wonderful time too!! ♡ also gotta thank you again for sending these in, i genuinely get so excited to see things like this in my inbox!! your passion is so great to see! i'm glad you enjoy my answers, and that they make you all the more curious and open to sharing with me ♡ what a huge mood though afklsjdg this stupid bird just has So Much to him

I've re-read your post various times and even tried organizing my thoughts in paper. And there is so much I want to ask... What caught a lot my attention- was how you spoke a bit of Rito village during & after the Calamity; ofc we don't really get a clear picture of the before even with AoC's light but we do get the clearest view of the aftermath of it (ofc 100 years skipped). I do feel (Pre-Calamity) Rito Village had a larger flock(?) compared to the village we get exposed during BoTW/ToTK events. In a way feels the loss of their Champion & Calamity's wrath- made them all realize the importance of that sense of unity.

yes, exactly! you get it! it's a natural outcome from suffering any huge loss...and while it comes from a place of tragedy, i just. really appreciate how homely and cosy rito village feels in both botw and totk because of it — you get that sense of nobody is genuinely uncared for, even link! and this isn't to say that the other peoples of hyrule don't care for their own, it just! hits different with the rito. like you get the impression that everybody interacts with each other everyday! you literally can't go from the top of the village to the bottom without seeing almost every single resident; they're all practically neighbours! they're all, on some level, friends!

this significance on sticking together as a community is especially evident in totk. seriously, it makes me so emo seeing the kids step up to fill in spaces the adults did not mean to leave behind nor expect them to fill :') and their efforts don't go unrecognised, as they shouldn't be, but oh my god. on my hands and knees over how cherished the kids are in this damn flock!! nekk ( MY BELOVED ) puts it best: "they're the saviours of this village."

and like! they're going through extremely hard times with supply scarcities but still find the capacity to be so generous?? there are more things than i expected lying about that you can just grab — that they'll consciously let you grab! i'm going to need these folks to stop having such a huge collective heart fr it's making me feel A Lot 😭

( and in reviewing cutscenes from both botw and aoc in this context, i think we can safely say that their residential population was indeed bigger pre-calamity. there's more background npcs just chilling about in the memory "revali's flap" compared to most post-calamity cutscenes, and aoc literally shows that there are enough rito present for brigades! the reduced numbers we see post-calamity could simply be attributed to more rito travelling beyond their home and even hyrule, but then the calamity would probably be a big reason for that too )

Brings me back to ToTK, where I noticed most adults in a way spoke highly & relied (at least to me) a bit on Tulin's ability to use wind magic- after all it's been a long time since they ever witness it. But also appreciated how Harth's dialogues which he praises the boy's ability but is concerned of how Tulin is taking certain approach (how at first he goes alone) and his overworking state. Even Teba & Saki recognize their son's abilities but as parents are concerned- I am pretty sure while they acknowledge him as a rito warrior, they also want him to continue living his childhood. (Link does too btw- sorry I don't mention them often)

OH, FOR SURE. you are right on many points here; for sure, the adults have come to see tulin as a young rito warrior in his own right and do trust him to contribute in a way they wouldn't ask of the other fledglings; harth makes it clear that even before link had come, sending tulin to investigate the cloud surrounding the stormwind ark was an option they weren't as opposed to as our introduction to the kid made it seem ( and it's not just his wind-gust technique they're so in awe of either! god. he really has worked so hard!! and everybody can see it! 😭😭 ).

with the worry, i believe the nature of it really depends! it's all completely warranted given how tulin's initial views on how "he doesn't need anyone else backing him up" has apparently "gotten him into trouble more times than [harth] can count" ( which is definitely concerning but also. it can't be anything worse than getting his bow stolen and being left with just his talons for defence in the face of a monster, right? because tulin. tulin. that could not have been your turnaround if you've been doing shit like flying straight into frost taluses solo or something sflkjd ) anyway, but it seems for teba and harth, it's more in a we're worried you're actively sabotaging yourself with your recklessness way.

saki had hang-ups about tulin losing his innocence too early in botw ( "he is such a sweet boy," she says, and it never fails to make me collapse on my knees because he so is and the best thing is he never loses that aspect of himself!! ), but does appear to have come to accept that her son's growing up in totk? i unfortunately don't have a screenshot of the line that indicates this, nor do i remember it verbatim, but the vibes i'm getting from her are i'm worried because you have not learnt enough to be as grown up as you insist you are ( which leaves you ill-prepared for the situations you're trying to fly into ).

ofc it all connects to a primary worry for his safety and his tendency to do way more than anyone would ask of him, but i do think they understand, on some level, that trying to completely stop him is ultimately futile and will only make things worse — in that he'll start deliberately pushing them away when he's only leaving them behind for now.

he's a tween! still a child but only ever getting older, and with how important it is to their culture, i imagine being a warrior isn't as mutually exclusive from childhood as it'd be for us. like tulin's an outlier because he's a prodigy who excessively worked himself to that title, but i don't doubt that compulsory education for growing fledglings would involve, among other things, learning how to at least hunt and defend yourself in the wild! so i don't think it's that they're scared of him growing up too fast at that point in totk — because while he's definitely matured more than his peers in some parts, he is very much still experiencing being a child no matter what he argues in many others aflskdj — just more like...they want him to grow up well. properly, for a lack of better words. WHICH INCLUDES NOT OVERWORKING. oh my god with the overworking

( also oh boy. very glad you brought up link! no need to be sorry! i can't say much on him because i'm not a link writer, though i do ramble about his dynamic with tulin, including how he potentially sees himself reflected in him, over here if you're interested! )

But this also sends me off to another "path" makes me think- What if Revali didn't have this type of support? And it made me think how similar were Revali's and Tulin's in some aspects but how different the outcome were for both- it's a bit tragic at least for me.

YES. YES!! THIS IS IT, YOU HIT IT ON THE HEAD!! i've said it before and i'll say it again: tulin and revali are essentially one support system removed from being each other! they share notable parallels!

just. the fact that harth notices the injuries on tulin's wings from pushing himself to the limits. we don't get follow-up dialogue on that, but there's such a high chance that Words are exchanged between them when link leaves them be because we've seen their relationship. we know how harth cares for tulin, we know tulin is loved for more than what he can do and looked out for. now juxtapose that with revali, thrown out of his own tornado, alone in that moment where he picks himself up as well — but way less likely to have anyone say anything about his wing injuries or to even let someone think he has them. [spontaneously combusts]

i would say more on this and why the sages of totk in general act well as foils to the champions of botw, particularly regarding themes, but that really does feel like a post for another time sdflkjd and it is tragic! it is very tragic! revali was doomed by the narrative in more ways than one :')

I remember the diary where he speaks how the town began praising him for his achievements- that type of validation can be good but to an extreme and left unchecked, it can spiral someone into depending of it. And yet at the end of that diary... he still spoke how he need to continue perfecting himself. Something that AoC made me think in more depth was how almost everyone was "chosen" by destiny (or have a unique ability) and carried a title. But when I look at Revali he seems somehow an abstract to them. Even though in his diary such things were not something he cared for- he mostly valued folks by their responses and actions. (Note: Found cute how he appreciated the scarf and gave one to his bow... It really meant a lot to him// Also I do think Revali appreciated all the Champions including Zelda & Link).

YEAH. YEP. and the way he at first speaks about it, how he contradicts himself in tone despite trying to sound so self-assured — "as one would expect" VS the "i...could get used to this." that follows in the same entry — that's the attention and glory he's always wanted! now he's gonna affix it to the meaning of loving and being loved. which he's also going to attach to his abilities and what he can offer, which is deeply connected to his perceived self-worth. and he's going to make sure he'll never run out of ( tbf real and well-earned ) confidence in that self-worth by constantly pushing himself to greater, more impossible heights. i'm going to put this bird in a washing machine.

he's literally just a guy!! it's one of my favourite things about him, he's Just Some Guy in the group of people who were born into wealth; powers; blessings; respect. they all had their trials, but he earned his place among them from the comparative nothing he started out with and he's justifiably proud of this!

i do think he's also insecure about it at first, tbh ( which he reacts to by laying on the conceit even thicker ), even though his belief in hard work being a supreme indicator of one's "true strength" isn't actually shaken. he is genuinely like i more than deserve to be here but he's also like. and there's nothing you can do about it. don't you forget it. don't you forget it. don't you ever forget it. i wouldn't say it mellows out, but the more he gets to see the champions in action ( thus confirming that they are on his level — that he's fit to make a constellation amongst these that've already been mapped ), the less inclined he feels to explicitly remind them.

and oh my god. the things i could say about what the blue scarf likely means to him. it was handcrafted by zelda, hyrule's princess, for him specifically. it's part of a matching set with other big powers of hyrule. titles and uniform do nothing for him, he claims, but isn't this like being told you are one of us? that you have much to offer? it's "meaningless pomp", he says.

it's also still a gift.

the cloth he ties to his bow is the same shade of blue. i should really make another study post speaking about this more in depth, but i've always interpreted it to be a memento the same way teba and saki's feathers on tulin's quiver are! in tulin's time, this might mean, "these people are always with me." in revali's time, on the brink of a calamity, i imagine it might mean, "( if i fall, you who finds me, ) i belonged with these people."

And yet when Teba & Tulin show up- there is this subtle change on him(?) I wished the game had dwelled a bit more on Teba and Revali. Seeing their interactions was always interesting and in a way, Teba seemed to understand the rito champion. While I felt Teba was that friend or even family member(?) that Revali needed in a way or I could be just over reading, ahaha sorry. But sincerely, I always felt Teba & Tulin were that family or friends- that in a way Revali needed and it makes me think so hard on the "What ifs" and "What could have been"...

what i wouldn't have given for more content and interactions between these three as well!! it's especially fascinating to think about it from teba's side — there is so much recontextualising he has to do and does do about revali, because the one he's grown up idolising and hearing Songs about is uh. well, he's certainly there in the revali he meets, but i doubt he's really prepared for things like how painfully young he is.

he handles it very well honestly asfklsdjg i would not have taken to the realisation that my champion is a warrior hardened only by constant work and the battles he throws himself into, and kind of a fucking brat because he's like the 18yo who thinks being 18 is a decade away from being 17, and died distressingly young back in my timeline with the same grace he gives when he says — of the entire wild experience that is aoc — "this has been enlightening".

you are not over-reading, do not be sorry fr!! i do think revali found an opportunity for companionship in teba that he couldn't find anywhere else when he's built relationships and dynamics he can't change because he has an image to uphold! teba already comes with a dire respect for revali, the knowledge that his story does not end nicely, AND HE'S AN ACTUAL DAD. that sort of thing can bleed into your behaviour and the way you process things without meaning to asflkdjgs

THE BIGGEST MOOD!! wow i'm so glad writers ( it's me, i'm writers ) can create literally anything they want and so can explore these what ifs and what could have beens and give a resolution to a story cut short. this is what my the champions survive au is all about, i hope to have you stay long enough to see these things come out of it ♡

As for the Flight Range & Saki's dialogue; I've always been emo about the F.Range specially when you walk in and hear his theme playing in this music box style... it's like part of his soul is also there but that flame that burnt passionately has subdued and waits to pass to torch to the next generation. In ToTK it made me cry- specially when Kaneli comments (when you pick the bow,arrows) how they been collecting dust... But on the bright side, made me happy that even with the damages- they still hold dearly to the place and is currently being used as training grounds for flight. Which... is what Revali wanted for his people for them to reach the sky and break the limits (or that how I interpreted it).

AUGH EXACTLY, YOU GET IT!! 😭 he never gave it his name but it'll always be his! it's the most melancholic we ever get to hear his theme, full of the wistful yearning that was definitely present but more muted in its botw version! it's lost potential. an unsaid goodbye. revali's gone. but it's also grounds for hope, a tiptoeing hello: his legacy lives on still! i will always go fucking feral over the music in these games!!

YES!! YEAH!! [HOLDING YOU BY THE SHOULDERS] he calls his journal "the diary of revali, the rito legend" BUT HE DOES NOT. GIVE THE FLIGHT RANGE LITERALLY MADE FOR HIM HIS NAME. because it was never going to be something solely for him. he loves his people, he was never going to stymie their prospects! this loser is so good at making me infuriatingly sad AUGH

Re-reading Saki's dialogue with the context you given me- hit me like a ton of bricks. Because it was a new pov. When I first read her dialogue, I took it more of a "Remembering our Champion- one we couldn't help" rather than "commemoration of what he couldn't do". But I also remembered how contrasting are Teba and Saki; Teba being a warrior with pride, reckless at times - who admired greatly Revali's feats and aspired once to surpass him. Meanwhile Saki is more calm and is concerned with the concept of engaging battle- nervous about the training her son was exposed to. So, when re-reading her dialogue I take it more of a wife and mother concerned of losing her companion/husband and son to a similar fate to Revali's.

i swear we are on the same wavelength. yes, exactly!

another thing about revali's landing that makes me so, so deliriously emo — it's a physical permanency given without request: in the best way they can afford to grant it. the rito notably have very little tangible representations of themselves. they don't have statues or effigies like the zora or gorons ( and why would they, when they have Songs and the Windlines and are also probably restricted by their morphology ), and revali does not have any family to be likened to. link remembers him through seeing the landing, which was there, a part of rito village, before it was ever deemed revali's. it wasn't made for him. but they gave it to him! and i'm!! [BLUBBERING]

Revali's love for his people and Rito Village- it breaks me. I can understand that sentiment of loving someone or something from a far (?) - Even when challenging W.Blight and listening to his lines (both english and spanish for me), one can hear that hidden sadness. It's hearing someone who wants to go back home. "But even so, it will always be my home." - the entirety of those lines really hit me so hard the first time I've heard them.

I KNOW. I KNOW. [head in hands] a century has passed and he can't fathom it. "there's no one left who would even know me." he sounds so struck by it, in both the original jpn and english audio, i want to wrap him up in a blanket and toast him like a marshmallow! how much of that is grief? how much of that is longing? how much of that is some strange solace, in knowing he's alone but there's nothing he could've done about it this time?

Also, it makes me glad seeing a Tulin who can see the good in Revali- even if the champion can have a bit of a thorn like exterior. I've read some of the threads! They been wonderful and brought me a lot of joy. It makes me happy to see Tulin taking flight and moving forward. When you mention your student-disciple, are you referring to Kido? I know there were two names but I've lost the post with the cups. I would love to hear about them all!

thank you!! it heartens me to know that you've dipped into some of my ic writing too! i hope you'll continue to enjoy your stay here!! ♡♡

SLFKJKSDLG SO I'VE CHANGED IT IN THE POST NOW, but i meant master-disciple! apologies for the confusion!! kido is an original character of mine who would actually rather fall into totori lake than be revali's student alfjsdkg but that's how it be when you're a kid with a complex, turned-less-than-pleasant background with the concept of revali. if you're interested and up for it, please do give his dossier and study tag a peek! this is by no means a request that you do; it's totally fine if you leave him be!

There so many questions and facts, I would love to talk about... but as I scrolled up- I noticed this is becoming a long one. I am so sorry. I'd been trying to simplify and cut a bit ;-; Plus, I know this blog is a multiverse but focused on Tulin and I don't want to bother. So once again, thank you so much for taking your time in answering these asks. If anything if you ever do the academic-paper length study on lonely birb, I'll run over to read it X'D !!! But I'd been enjoying everything of the meta- the studies on rito's culture and behaviour. Also been curious on your views on Kass taking the role of a bard... Yeah, looking forward to keep reading. Thank you once again.

please, never be sorry for giving me your thoughts, no matter how long they end up being!! i mean it! i enjoyed reading through every line, it means a lot to me that you'd take the time and energy to send something of this scale to me ♡ you did not bother and will not bother, i promise! any of my muses are up for discussion, and so are their people in general! i have an itch to talk about these birds at all times, lurkers like you give me a great scratch ♡

one more time, thank you for your kind words!! i'm so happy to know that my thoughts are received this well!!

KASS MY BELOVED. i'm not sure if you've seen my study on what Songs, Songkeepers, and Scriptweavers are, but if you have, then here's some paraphrased disco ramblings on my Thoughts on him! with how important a role he played in keeping and invoking memories of the champions in botw's dlc, i'm of the belief that he's rito village's primary Songkeeper! ahaha, on this note ( and this is more of a fun roleplaying easter egg than anything ): my botw verse is named Song of the Reclamation — i keep the headcanon that kass, specifically, writes this Song after the game's events tucked away with other misc. details that inform how i run things here :)

this is already long enough, so i think i'll end it here asfljkd but feel free to bounce your thoughts off me anytime! this has been an absolute pleasure, looking forward to seeing you in the inbox again whenever you drop by! thank you!! ♡

[kiwiorcore]

tomii hi!! hope you're good and i just wanted to know what you thought about the whole hamilton to ferrari thing? i still don't know much about f1 but even i felt like this was really important 😭 and i love reading anything you say too lol so it's better from you than anyone else 🫶🏽🫶🏽 also unrelated but please talk about tennant's macbeth i'll send another ask if i have to, i'm so curious!! love you and i hope you're doing well!!

hii! sorry for the late response

honestly i don’t think the reality of lewis moving to ferrari has well and truly set in. it’s just a bit confusing for me why he’s doing it cause merc doesn’t stink that badly and ferrari isn’t that good either. i don’t have anything insightful to say it’s just kinda like ‘wait is this seriously happening?’

spoilers for david tennant’s macbeth under the cut i guess??? can you really spoil macbeth?

so my drama teacher chose this production for out live performance review and oh my god was it good. like where do i even start

the staging was so good i loved it so much. i liked the like glass enclosure they had behind the stage. it was such an interesting staging decision. the lighting as well was sooo good. it’s such a joy to analyse. the live music they had added so much to the production it would have not been the same without it

someday i wish to be like max webster because only he could’ve come up with the idea to use binaural sound for the whole production. the witches at the beginning??? i jumped i loved them so much

david tennant was so good for the role of macbeth. he’s got a very insane look about him and he plays macbeth really well

on the topic of macbeth, cush jumbo played lady macbeth so well. i loved lady macbeth in this actually. everything about her made her feel like and outsider from her northern accent when the others had scottish accents and the fact she was the only one wearing white. just ugh i love it

malcolm and macduff had bigger roles in this production than others. i wish ross did as well because i love moyo akande but oh well. the time she was on she was really good she’s literally my idol

the actors playing malcolm and macduff must have had bills due during the scene ross comes and tells macduff his wife and kids are dead because that was the make gut wrenching thing i’ve ever watched. noof ousellam (macduff) portrayed macduff’s emotions so well and ros watt (malcolm) really convincingly made himself seem as if he was on the brink of tears

speaking of ros watt, omg ros watt. i loved everything about him. his physicality during the 2nd prophecy, his pleading with macduff, god everything was perfect. ros watt was perfect to play malcolm especially considering he’s smaller than the rest of the cast. just delicious. he’s got those big sad eyes that i love

noof ousellam as well. big massive sad eyes like that’s baby girl (he’s over six feet tall). when he was all up in malcolm’s face shouting, dear god i loved it. my little pea brain starting whirring. something about their height difference does it for me.

this is getting long so let me finish quickly. lady macduff, her screams were fucking bone chilling. the porter was so funny. his actor does really well in comedies. banquo was so fit omg. the child actor they had playing like all the children (and he died so many times poor kid) was surprisingly good as well

i desperately want to write about this version of macbeth/the cast (the guy playing donalbain has a podcast called putting it together and his interviews with the other cast members are really good) but i fear no one actually gives a shit

[bokksu-vs-sakuraco]

Sakuraco Box #3 Review: Kyoto Leaves

Ah, Kyoto. Gliss and I actually visited Kyoto earlier in the year. We only stayed for a couple of days there, but in that time we went to the huge sweets floor (Isetan Department Food Floor) under Kyoto Station at least 3 times. Highly recommend.

Theme: Kyoto's Crimson Leaves

Arrived: October 26

# of Unique Snacks: 13 + 1 tea

Household Item: Brocade flower dish

Shipping Info:

Received Email - Oct 15

Shipment arrived in the US - Oct 17

Shipment made it to USPS - Oct 25

Delivered - Oct 26

Ok, to the box.

Yeah I probably don't need to say any more about that. Maybe I wasn't gentle enough peeling it off this time.

What I will say though is that they changed the sealing sticker! I do like this one better than the clear seal they used before. Although you might notice that it looks like there are two stickers, one on top of the other.. And peeling back one revealed

Which kind of made me raise an eyebrow, but it probably just means that for some reason they had to open and reseal the box in their facility.

I actual hit the image upload limit in this blog so I'll omit a picture of the back of the postcard this time. Although maybe starting next time I'll cut down on the outer box pictures. Anyway, this month's household good is... the Brocade Flower Dish!

Microwave and dishwasher safe. It's a bit bigger than the plate from last month and feels a bit more substantial overall (whereas the plate was comparatively thin and light). When I saw the images online I wasn't hugely enticed - it looked somewhat brittle in their pictures - but I actually like this a lot now that I have it.

—

Let's move on to the snacks.

A quick comment, but one thing I've noticed is that white chocolate strawberries used to be an exclusive to the Bokksu Seasons of Japan box, which is why I was very surprised last month to see Sakuraco include white chocolate strawberries as well. (Maybe they recently scored a contract with the white chocolate fruits manufacturer? Unless I missed that Sakuraco actually has had white chocolate fruit before.) In any case, that's why seeing these White Chocolate Fruits: Banana, caught my attention.

These were really good, actually. Taking a bite, it had a somewhat crunchy texture that melts in your mouth, with a flavor like a homemade banana smoothie. And yet, by the time you swallow, it feels like you just ate a piece of banana. I think I liked this more than the white chocolate strawberry because of how the texture adds to the experience of eating it, complementing the flavors and making the snack more memorable.

At this point, I became somewhat curious what that unlabeled, opaque package in the lower left was...

And it turned out to be the Soba Cookie.

From the name, it sounds like it might be savory but was basically like a vanilla cookie except it was very gently sweetened, letting other, subtle flavors stand out more. It had a nice texture and the right amount of crunch.

—

This helix looking thing — the Hinerinpon — also caught my eye. That is, a fried, savory arare. I'm not sure how they did it but it's pretty fun to look at.

I wouldn't say the flavor was anything particularly special (a rice cracker flavor similar to other snacks we've already tried), but I enjoyed it nonetheless.

—

Hm. So, this one looked a little broken, and when I took it out of the package, I could confirm...

It was pretty broken. It turns out this is this month's surprise snack, the Lemon Vinegar Arare. The name is really accurate and would probably be enough for anyone familiar with arare to know what to expect. It had some pretty strong lemon & spice seasoning on the outside while tasting more like standard rice puff on the inside.

—

Now one snack that I really wanted to try were these Matcha Cream Cookies.

That was the nice one. The second one also came a little broken but still kept itself basically together.

A bit of crunch on the outside (with that egg roll flavor) and on the inside, matcha cream with it's gentle flavor and slight bitterness. It really wasn't very sweet - the roll was definitely sweeter than the cream and I'm here for it. The creaminess of the filling paired very well with the shell.

—

We have a returning friend here. Thanks again to @Tsukana for commenting that last month I got this jelly instead of the September peach jelly! It really cleared up my confusion.

It turns out that these Adzuki Pear Jelly are actually supposed to split into two layers.

Surprisingly, I think this jelly is the sweetest thing I've had so far by a lot, an impression I didn't really get in the last box, maybe because everything else was so sweet this wasn't as sweet in comparison? Although it was still very enjoyable, of course.

Tea interlude

Now, I just wanted to point out that the tea instructions are more detailed this month! That's nice. It's also nice that I have two tea bags, each making 240ml (or about 1 cup) of tea. I bet Gliss will go 'UGH' when she sees this ha. [Note from Glissando: It is very annoying yes. 😐]

I'm still no tea expert so I can't say much besides it had a bit of a roasted grain flavor but also that herbal tea flavor? No bitterness though, and I thought it paired well well the snacks.

Back to the snacks...

This Momiji* Cookie looked similar to a cookie we got back in the Osaka box 2 months ago (except this time we only have 1), so I was expecting it to be the same flavor, but actually this one was a little bit different. It was a bit smaller, ever so slightly sweeter but not too sweet, and had a slightly more satisfying crunch/texture.

(*Momiji refers to Japanese maple leaves. Source: booklet.)

These hearts are the Heart Wasanbon** Senbei.

(**Wasanbon refers to Japanese sugar. Source: booklet.)

The senbei was pretty light, like a rice cracker with just a bit of sweetness dusted on the outside.

—

I was eyeing these Sansho*** Arare because they look pretty unique, kind of like squid if you know what dish I'm talking about.

(***Sansho refers to domestic Japanese pepper. Source: booklet.)

The first one I had was alright, a cracker with some soy sauce and pepper? I couldn't quite articulate all my thoughts on the flavor, so I went for a second one which ended up being... *yikes*!! I'm not sure how much pepper congregated onto that one but the pepper was way too strong and it numbed my tongue for a solid 10 minutes. It was that kind of numbness you get from eating a non-ripe persimmon or from some types of spicy dishes. That was a bit much for me and this is probably the first snack that I didn't want to finish because... *yikes* Maybe it would be unique and enjoyable for other people though.

—

These Nikki Yatsuhashi came a little broken too, but I didn't particularly mind because I feel like it made it easier to share.

They were sweet with a strong cinnamon taste. Enough that you kind of get a gingerbread impression, but the texture is different: it's hard, thin and kind of sticks to your teeth after chewing.

—

Yuzu Dorayaki

Similar to the pancake from the previous month, but this one was a bit more moist maybe, and it had a white bean paste filling. I felt like over all, the bean paste and cake went together pretty well. Not too heavy, but still a bit rich.

—

We actually got another filled pancake snack, the Uji Koicha Bouchée. (below, on the right).

The cake on this one was puffier and a bit more dry, with a matcha cream filling. I'm not really saying anything much about the yuzu or matcha flavor because at this point in my snack tasting, my tongue was still kind of numb from the Sansho Arare and I probably wasn't picking up the nuance of the flavors that well? Like I had a hard time detecting the matcha at all, but that's probably not on the snack itself. [Note from Glissando: I would not take that bet. These cake filling snacks show up often in Bokksu and the fillings almost always have trouble coming through in flavor.]

—

Asobi Arare

A bag of assorted rice crackers. The light one was sweet and salty, the dark one to it's right is covered in seaweed, the one below that one was more puffed while the others were more like thin crackers, etc. It was pretty fun to taste them and pick out their differences in flavor.

—

Candy bowl! Specifically, the traditional handmade Kyoto candies, Kyo no Ame.

I'm not a candy person but they looked so well made. Here's a close up of one.

The yellow one (ginger flavored I think) even has little sesame seeds in it. I ended up having the one in the picture above and at first it just tasted like a fruit lollypop, but then I'm sitting here typing this with it still in my mouth and it suddenly starts tasting a bit salty and tangy (??). Here I was thinking that they didn't really do anything with the flavor, and I stand corrected. That was actually a pretty fun surprise.

—

Alright, something new.

This time we'll also be counting grams of food provided, which could help with our comparison of food quantity. It won't be the only thing we take into consideration (the different types, variety of flavors, sweet salty ratio, etc) when comparing quantity but I think it might help to have. A quick comment though, on the bottom row of the nutrition sheet above I'm seeing a "Sakura Kompeito" listed on there, which wasn't in the box and also isn't in the booklet? So maybe that was a mix up with the bonus snacks and they meant to put the Lemon Vinegar Arare on mine.

Anyway, after doing some counting... It looks like this box has the following stats:

Grams of food: 384g. This is not including the Lemon Vinegar Arare (although that snack was very light). The tea bags were 3g each. Sweet-Salty ratio: 8 sweet, 4 salty, and 2 that I don't really feel like belong in either category.

While it still looks like there were a lot of sweets in this box, many of them weren't 'too sweet' for me. Which I actually really appreciate. As you probably know by now (or maybe you don't), I'm really not a huge fan of things that are too sweet, and last box was *very* sweet. I like how this time they took a step back and let some other flavors shine.

Another noteworthy thing is that it felt like there were a lot of bite sized things this box. So maybe more variety but less quantity for individual snacks, which I didn't mind. Partly because some of these flavors were already familiar to me so I didn't particularly mind only having like one cookie.

Ok that's all for now. Half way point in our 6 month subscriptions!

Have a good one.

—June

[the-firebird69]

This is a series of lakes in Central Florida and it's right in the town of lake placid Florida and there is one also just to the east and it's the largest but it is a chain of lakes and it's all one bunch about five or six lakes that comprises of the immediate entry to the womb of the gigantically over inflated female Godzilla and she's over inflated with offspring she's gigantic still they've been doing it for years and hardly touched on it who create a massive storm the DC would want or Tommy f and refuse to do anything like it. And my son husband husband he says emperor as true to and I'm as empress and he says here we go.... Strap yourselves in for the ride.... Get ready bring food and beverages lanzo fill a backpack you're here for the duration... The two are finally coming back boy were they out there crystal meth or something something geez so public spectacle. The water there is full of stem cells as well as blue green algae and they go together when in combination you grow very fast some people grow to 20 foot in about 10 minutes if they're consuming food as well and no they don't consume food that gross people and they debone people in seconds and they eat and eat and eat and drink and eat and don't get very sick because of the blue green algae we've seen people become 800 ft tall in 1 hour at all the lakes and they did figure it out but not many of them and the big lake has the most stem cells in it and it does go all the way down there there's a tunnel tommy f it's going down there once a week. Almost nobody else is trying and that Godzilla is gigantic 385 mi high. When you go to the lake there's a lot of crazy people that jump in and they get sucked in and out comes offspring some of these Godzilla were still in the faces of maturation their normal heights would be the height of the mother and there's millions and millions of them at 10 ft and it can be trained at that height and it would grow up I'm becoming 385 385 ft tall it's a massive Cajun and there's others that are 20 ft 80 ft 100 ft majority of them are 10 ft. Tons of foreigners were hit today mostly by Tommy f is trying to cause chaos and trying to get people topside hit

Hera Zues

We're off to the hole and we're going to find Tommy f stuff again and we want it we need it we need to talk it's up there somewhere probably that crappy house we're going to go raid it we're going to go check it out and up there in minutes this is like like Okeechobee but the monster is much much bigger it's severely bigger and he's prescribing ring dings ho-hos and mostly ladies and gentlemen funny bones we're going to buy as many as we can last time we had a problem because we could only find a few we don't want ones that are healthy we want the ones that they have and we see there's a truck loads coming and a lot of us are in Miami as a teenage mutant Ninja party but Godzilla is much more interesting to us and Jason is too he's the one who played Godzilla and he wants to talk to people in Miami and ask him not to jump in but to look for the tech and what happens is a punch jump in and we try and grab the monsters so we don't want him to talk

Cork

My talk canceled I was psyched. He says he should do it in Japanese format and talk about the powers of a Godzilla and where the originates and what she can do or he and what the superpowers are and kind of like powers and why it flies and bubbles and things like that and people are curious about all that stuff and they can identify you then or later as the famous person who played Godzilla you can have a little placard so I'm going to head to do that and I'm going to review my place my little 3x5 index cards. He says he's going to get me a phoenix for doing the talk if you do it right if not they're going to become MLK so I'm laughing and that was a cork again saying have you say that cuz I saw it beforehand and I saw it before him too so I'm going to get not trying to convince him but tell them what it can do we're going to have that little Godzilla party now it's a good idea Chris and I thank you you're welcome Jason and we're off

Jason and yes is one of those guys are the close salon it's in suicide squad so I'm going to go up there and what you say is it's hit with a meter but you don't have to hit it that hard if it's a person the club goes off then you shoot the person what it looks like is a nail that with an emitter and it roasts the head solid which should not happen so they're probably robotic people and we agree

[raedear]

ball-do?

‘And you can’t just…use it yourself?’ Nicky’s trying very hard not to get lost in picturing Joe reviewing sex toys.

Joe cringes, full-bodied and agonised, his shoulders rounding with embarrassment.

‘It needs two people for the full effect,’ he mumbles. ‘And you can’t…insert it, without, you know. Filling it.’

‘What kind of toy is this?’ Nicky really had been trying so hard not to picture it, but now he can’t seem to drag his thoughts away. ‘A strap?’

‘... Kind of,’ Joe says, with a twist to his mouth and his eyebrows, like there’s something he's not saying. ‘You could call it an…extender? Maybe?’

‘And it extends…?’

‘Your balls.’ Joe says, all in a rush, lifting his glass to his mouth even as he’s speaking. He takes a deep drink and drops it back on the table.

‘Your…’

‘I know!’ Joe drops his face into his hands. ‘I know, I know. But I pitched it when I was still with Skye and I thought it would be a funny thing for us to try together. Obviously, that isn’t an option anymore, and now I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to pick someone up and ask to use it without sounding like some kind of deviant.’

‘Try it with me,’ Nicky says, his voice coming from somewhere far away from his sense of self-preservation.

Joe fumbles his glass, narrowly avoiding spilling cider across the already sticky table.

‘Nicky?’ His eyes are so big. Nicky has so many regrets.

‘Try it with me,’ Nicky says again. His regrets laugh at him as they get bigger.

‘What are you-?’

‘You need to try it with someone else,’ Nicky interrupts, his mouth moving faster than his brain. ‘And I'm curious now. It doesn’t have to mean anything, we’re friends, aren’t we?’

[beeshavethrees]

I jusr found your blog, I'm very curious about your jamilton au with the winged!Alex. How does your AU work?

TL;DR: Alexander is an ezfi (person with wings) who is snatched away from his home and sent to New York City. There, he’s auctioned off and sold to Thomas. At the same time, some of the other Hamilton characters have decided they’re fed up with society and are going to start a revolution. You can read more on this Tumblr tag, or you can read the story here!

Now onto the real answering of your question involving the “how” things work! I mean, a question that I can use to dump a ton of world-related information onto? Count me in! It’s going under the cut, though; it got a little bigger than I was expecting.

Deep inhale

I’m going to preface this by saying that the Hamilton Clipped AU is based on an original story called Clipped featuring a completely separate case of characters (although two of the characters have the names Elizabeth and Alexander as a nod) that @gsstar534 and I have been working on for around the last year or so. For the Hamilton Clipped AU, we merely transferred over some worldbuilding and borrowed the plot, changing little bits and pieces here and there so that it fits well as a Hamilton AU. With that in mind, there’s a lot to talk about, so I’m not going to go into a ton of detail here and attempt to keep things brief and summarized (especially considering that a good bit of this hasn’t been covered yet, so I’ve got that little TL;DR at the top that explains the bare minimum for what you might want to know going into the AU. Everything else will be eventually covered by the story, most likely.)

Alright, so there are two main kinds of people in this world. We’ve got humans – pretty standard – and ezfis, who are…less standard. Alex, for example, is an ezfi; they’re generally smaller and lighter-weight than humans, obviously have those large wings, and many other smaller and less physically noticeable differences. These less noticeable differences include things such as some slightly funky ways of dealing with storage, metabolizing, etc., as well as things such as behaviors designed for wing care (although in the case of wing care, that’s a learned behavior).  There’s also a large amount of variation between them, but wing patterns and such are usually traceable to certain regions. All of the characters are either one or the other; there’s a prezygotic barrier between humans and ezfis that allows them to have sexual intercourse, but does not allow for anything viable to come about as a result of that.

Now, to the world. There’s a lot going on here, so I’m just going to keep it simple for now. Basically, the standard country/province/state/whatever lines are…a little not there anymore. Most regional dialects are intact, and you still have the various areas that will speak one language over another (as discussed here). The main population centers are known as cities (such as New York City), and they’ll have their urban centers with less-densely populated land around them. They’re pretty high tech; food and power come from sustainable options and renewable sources, for the most part, as they’re the cheapest; these are usually located in that less-densely populated surrounding land. Although, as a result of this, beef and pork are often pretty costly to get. For NYC, since that’s where the AU focuses on: the city is divided into two main areas, just referred to as “uptown” and “downtown” for simplicity. Uptown is where most humans live, and has a heavier business district. On the other hand, ezfis usually live downtown, where things are more industrial. In the city, everyone wears armbands (which you can read more about here), which are basically like phones for the wrist, and ezfis are required to wear wing bands (which you can read more about here), which are like handcuffs for wings and stop ezfis from being able to fly.

Outside of cities, you’ve got the towns/villages, or whatever you’d like to call them. If you’ve ever read the Portal fanfiction Blue Sky, you can compare the technology of the town that Chell lives in to the sort of technology those living outside of the cities have access to. Some of it is surprisingly advanced, and some of it isn’t anything better than what we have today, or even worse. It’s a very “cobbled-together” sort of feeling, I suppose. Now, humans will live together in these villages more often than ezfis, although obviously for various reasons that’s not a hard rule, but one that is generally followed. Ezfis will usually live farther out, just as they can fly to where they need to go, and can cover larger distances with ease, so there’s less pressure to live right in the villages. Even then, families and such will often live near each other. There are cases where ezfis will have their own “tribes”, you could say, instead of being more split up; it’s more of a case-by-case sort of thing.

Now that we’ve established our basic world, let’s, uh, move on to the actual plot. I can’t write a ton here as I don’t want to spoil anything, but I’ll share what I can. So, Alexander is living in Nevis. Not the easiest life, but he’s got plans to get out of there and find a new life, likely on the mainland. He achieves this, but not through his plans coming to fruition; instead, he’s kidnapped by what are essentially slave traders (which you can read more on here), eventually making his way to NYC all beaten up with wingbands on. He’s tossed in a cell before going through processing (Where Aaron Burr and the Reynolds work). Now, after processing, ezfis are divded into three subgroups. You’ve got those who are taken first by King George and his personal ezfi Samuel; they’re sent off to an auction house. This is the path that Alexander takes; he’s eventually bought by Thomas and brought home. The Schuyler Sisters are also sent to auction, and are bought by other people. Those that are chosen second from the remaining pool brought in by the traders are sent to Lafayette (read a little on him here); they show the capability to go into scientific or similar careers that require more education. Those left behind join the general workforce.

The relationship between Alexander and Thomas is…not the smoothest, to put it delicately. Thomas has his reasons for finally deciding to purchase an ezfi, and it’s a huge change of pace and lifestyle for Alexander. And, to Thomas as well – in the eyes of the law, he now owns Alexander, and the ezfi is not the softest, especially at first.

At the same time all this is going on, we get Lafayette, Laurens, Hercules, Washington…basically our Act I revolutionary people, sneaking about, stealing documents, and deciding they’re going to change how NYC functions and stop the discrimination and such.

From here, we’re basically caught up with what’s happened in the story, so I think I’ll stop, haha. Most of what I post on Tumblr for this AU is answers to questions I get on the AU, snippets of Thomas and Alexander being happy together and just living life calmly, and various bits of fanart. One-shots are both here and on AO3, with AO3 also hosting the main story, as mentioned earlier. Browsing through the Hamilton Clipped AU tag will get you some things I haven’t mentioned/linked to here as well, but that’s mostly little details relating to specific characters as I’m questioned on them. And as always, I’m happy to answer any other questions people have, although I may not go into much detail for spoiler-related reasons.

Alright. Well, oh my. That got a little long-winded. As I said, we’ve done a good bit of worldbuilding for this, so I can talk a lot about it, haha. I actually cut out chunks of this as I was writing it to try and slim it down, but it’s still pretty long, and it’s perfectly possibly I may review this and decide to add a little more for clarification. Hopefully I more or less answered your question, somewhere in here?

A bit related, @gsstar534 and I have been working on setting up a little ask blog for the cast of the Hamilton Clipped AU; it’d be going alongside the main story in terms of the timeline! It’s still in it’s infantile stages, but it’ll hopefully be up and running soon enough – if anyone has interest in us doing that kind of thing, of course. And I can imagine it’ll likely center on some guys more than others too, haha.