#I wanna sketch smth more dynamic of her working

[otwdfanfic]

A chilly Thawfest season sketch of Siri @artinandwritin !!

This is the only idea so far that I could clean up enough to post + that feels sufficiently Siri to me. Inspired by the cozy coat I see her in a lot but with springtime elements based on her adorable flower hairstyle, it’s a bit fancy thanks to the embroidery but too cute to resist. Her earrings are also meant to match Astrid’s in my chieftess sketch and I think they’d probably be stamped with some sort of subtle nadder design since the cousins have that in common

In otwd/itpn she’s about 35 and works with Ruffnut as a midwife, along as just a general assistant to Ruff whenever she needs a hand with any healer stuff. This def isn’t how she dresses while working haha but perfect for perusing the market w Astrid or Ruff on a brisk spring day ❤️

[gojande]

NCT U - Baby Don’t Stop translation [+ songwriters’ comments]

I thought the official english translation of Baby Don’t Stop in the album booklet was subpar, and since this week the songwriters who did BDS’ lyrics posted a video explaining their writing process, it made me realize again how much I love this song and its beautifully poetic and lewd lyrics. 🤓

So here’s my entirely unsolicited (but imho 100% accurate) translation and analysis of the lyrics!! I put explanations for my translations and included the songwriters’ comments, since AFAIK they haven’t been translated?

Since I first saw you, I’ve been feeling That there’s no more need for trivial justifications. Every one-hundredth of a second can be felt in the magic of this one finely-detailed minute.

The songwriters paraphrased the above line as “one minute that seems like its every hundredth of a second could be felt.” So unlike other translations, I think “magic” is intended as an adjective for “minute” and not a standalone noun.

“섬세한 1 minute” seems best translated as “finely-detailed minute” b/c it means something delicate, subtle and detailed. In other words, it’s a minute that is delicate because it’s so fleeting, and detailed because it’s broken up into every 0.01s.

The songwriter said the opening beat to the song made her think of a clock ticking, and she wrote the lyrics with the themes of “moment, tremble, tension, clock, tick” in mind. The verse gives the sense of being hyper-aware of the present moment. This one minute feels much longer in the way time seems to slow down when you get an adrenaline rush.

Every one of my nerves is on edge; I want to know you. Everything is being communicated, Down to your strange and subtle quiver.

It’s unclear if the last two lines are about the singer or his partner. But I think it makes more sense if it’s the speaker perceiving his partner’s trembling? Because the speaker wants to know his partner and does that by reading the “signs” of their body, all the way down to their slightest quiver.

The last line can be less poetically translated as “your unfamiliar and subtle trembling” but I like the alliteration and ‘quiver’ sounds more erotic, doesn’t it? heh heh

Stop, baby don’t stop Don’t stop, baby don’t stop That special sign that only I would recognize Right now, it’s just the two of us

Baby don’t stop Stop, baby don’t stop The secret sign that only you and I know Every one of those perfect signs is beautiful So baby don’t stop

The songwriters said: “I don’t think there’s another company like SM for which you have to do so much research and study so much about the artists. To find out their ‘worldview’, you have to familiarize yourself with everything, search and read... because SM is a company that always produces things with particular detail... it’s impressive that the other songs also coming out [in NCT’s album?] capture that ‘worldview’ so well in the lyrics. Integrating that is really difficult. Respect!”

For BDS specifically, the songwriters said they worried about how to make the original demo lyrics less explicitly sexual and more refined, while matching NCT’s image. So what exactly are they not supposed to stop? That sign! “Don’t stop giving me that sign” is the less explicit sexual metaphor they chose to use.

(Uhh also I actually thought the “sign” was like a safeword or smth when I first heard it? so... it fits NCT’s ““worldview”” aka BDSM themed lyrics tbh, 10/10 research and writing effort by these women 👌👌)

Play play play play play I’ll play in the Paris Stay clay sketch dirt dough I’m gonna knead your body Rothko, Auguste Rodin, Claudel I’ll sculpt you in warm colours All day, holding Hold me tight, all day

Rothko was an abstract expressionist painter whose paintings conveyed emotion through large geometric blocks of color. Rodin and Claudel were sculptors that were famous for having a more dynamic, rougher style that emphasized physicality and sensuality. Claudel was also Rodin’s lover and muse -- meaning he sculpted her body, in a sense. Really on-point artistic references by Taeyong!

Taeyong’s verse references the process of sculpting (sketch, dirt, clay, dough) and then compares himself to a sculptor and his partner’s body to the sculpture he “kneads” into shape. But unlike Rodin and Claudel who didn’t use color in their work, he sculpts “in warm colors” like Rothko... thus infusing some sentimental tenderness into their, uh, carnal relations?

Also as an aside, I like that Taeyong expresses this consistent theme of being an artist/collector with his partner as his artwork. An NCT worldview that appears across many songs! Such as:

Baby Don’t Like It: “I’ll give you the role of a picture”

Whiplash: “My otaku tendencies are still alive / you are my pro model** / You adorn a part of my collection / When I work, I measure you in centimetres / Margin of error is only a few millimetres” 

[**pro model = pun on plastic model, which sounds the same in korean and refers to plastic model toys collected by otaku]

Baby don’t stop Come on, come on Come on, come on Baby don’t stop

The flame reviving even this withered flower is undeniably you. So surrender your body to your senses, Rely on your bleary vision and Come to me.

I wasn’t sure if the 2 lines before “come to me” are referring to the speaker or his partner since there’s no pronouns. But since the last line is a command, I assumed they're also commands to his partner rather than statements about himself? Although if they were first-person statements it would be Taeyong singing some super subspace-y shit which would also be qUITE ALRIGHT WITH ME.

Others interpreted 번져가는 눈빛 as “gaze that spreads out”, but it’s 번지다 as in liquid spilling/smearing across a surface; and a 눈빛 that’s smearing would be the glint in one’s own eye -- so it’s having blurry vision! (any scholars wanna fight me on this) Taeyong seems to be saying to trust your senses and come to him by relying on your blurring vision.

Ok also the songwriter claimed she was inspired to write the “withered flower” line b/c of her dying unwatered cactus... 🙃but I remain convinced that "you’re the flame that revives even a wilted flower” is CLEARLY meant to be a cheeky double entendre about erections. let’s be real

In the narrow distance between us, The tension only keeps rising. I feel so right; Sweeter and sweeter, ’til thoughts grow hazy.

아득하다 means being physically dim, hazy, distant. It also refers to having a disconnected, foggy, or light-headed mental state, such that it’s hard to think or act. The lyrics seem to suggest it’s getting harder to think as that sweetening tension climbs (to its climax, ya feel??).

I have no comments about the rest of the lyrics except the random Spanish is the highlight of the song:

Stop, baby don’t stop Don’t stop, baby don’t stop That special sign that only I would recognize Right now, it’s just the two of us

Gonna gonna gonna gonna get that I won’t ever lose you Gonna get that Gonna gonna gonna gonna get that I won’t ever stop Gonna get that

Cotton wind blow blouse Hair flower aroma scent Cold eyes ice dive Touch warm melt lips Baby baby I just feel so right Baby I just feel so nice That most perfect Sign Oh baby give it to me

Stop, baby don’t stop Don’t stop, baby don’t stop That special sign that only I would recognize Right now, it’s just the two of us Baby don’t stop

I’ll fly faster to reach you Mi amor Even if you’re on the other side of the sky, I’ll always look for you Just get yourself around it now yeah baby don’t stop and no Estoy loco mi dulce coco baby don’t stop today

[Repeat hook]

Stop baby don’t stop x5

Please let me know if you have questions or if I’ve made any mistakes!