#The very form here has to change to another medium

[letrune]

How I would adapt House of Leaves to television

A miniseries with three segments:

The Navidson Record. It is this found-footage-esque horror of the weird house itself.

Zampanò's comments and reenactment of the Navidson Record.

Johnny's vlogs and reenacted events and stuff that happened to him.

As the episodes go on, these three parts shift between each other. As in the book, more and more screentime is taken over by the third one, eventually forming a meta-arc.

An entire episode that starts with the Navidson Record, interjected by Johnny's in-the-corner commentary, which eventually turns out to be longer than the actual footage of the Navidson Record in the story itself.

Screen next to screen, with multiple different arcs going on at the same time.

Will Navidson says a sentence, cut to Zampanó's reenactment of the same scene being different, which stops mid-sentence to Johnny's comments, which then turns into a short story, then we DON'T finish the second layer of reenactments.

Maybe even a fourth layer on top, a "making-of", which starts straight enough, but turns out to be a fictionalised version of the very series itself.

But that is just my take. Maybe others got better ideas. I mean, there is a reason why Mark Z. Danielewski doesn't let us into this house.

[cottonlemonade]

Hi there! could i get a medium to large mango with boba for tsukishima! i really love your work

Just A Dream

word count: 806 || avg. reading time: 3 mins.

pairing: post-time skip husband Tsukishima x chubby!Reader

genre: this has it all - for some reason, fluff, a pinch of angst and a dash of spice

warnings: mdni, nsfw

request: fluffy-spicy, clingy husband Tsukishima

Kei woke with a start. Fumbling fingers reached for the glasses on his nightstand. It was absurd, of course you‘d lay next to him when he turned around. Right? He swallowed and looked over to the other side of the bed. Sure enough, in the dark he could just make out your soft curves under the blanket, gently rising and falling in a deep peaceful sleep. He let out a sigh. It was just a dream. You hadn‘t really fought, he hadn‘t made you cry, you hadn‘t been disappointed in him. You hadn‘t left. But nevertheless, the panic in his chest felt real. He should make sure to prevent his nightmare from ever becoming reality. What an absurd thought. Or was it?

He leaned over and, his eyes now accustomed to the night, admired your features. The cute chubby cheeks all smooshed together, making you look impossibly adorable. How he ever got you to fall in love with him he‘d never know. He felt like going down that road of thought was not exactly safe for him. Your husband brushed a strand of your hair behind your ear and with a touch light as a feather kissed your temple before getting out of bed.

First things first.

He headed to the kitchen to grab some water, emptying the cup in deep gulps, feeling his pulse settling down.

Quietly, he reached into the cupboards to set the table for breakfast the next morning and once he was satisfied with his work, grabbed his phone. He had used this service many times before but it had probably been months since the last time he even got you flowers. He bit his lips, scolding himself, as he selected a bouquet of your favorites to be sent to your office some time next week as a surprise. Then he stood in the dimly lit living room, looking around for inspiration. What else could he do? What would Tadashi or Akiteru do?

Didn‘t his friend just tell him last weekend that he always included a little love note in his wife‘s lunch box?

Now, Kei, as gifted of a man as he was, didn‘t cook that well. He was decent with ramen and could fry a mean egg but his skills were definitely not enough for a bento. Plus, technically it was Sunday tomorrow and it wouldn‘t make sense for the lunch box to sit around a whole day. But… he could do the love note. How cheesy. Would you even like it if he did? He sighed again. Only one way to find out. He rummaged around in his desk and found a little note pad you had gifted him as a joke last Valentine‘s day - two brachiosauruses forming a heart with their long necks. He cringed when he reached for a pen. But it had to be done. No stone should remain unturned in his endeavor to prove his love for you. With gritted teeth he wrote one note after another, but they all sounded too out there, too much, insincere.

So in the end after several crumpled dino post-its he wrote I love you, x K and, before he could change his mind, quickly stuck it into your day planner for you to find on Monday.

After another thorough check on the kitchen table to make sure he didn‘t forget any dishes, he made his way back to the bedroom. His feet, cold from the wooden floor, slipped underneath the blanket and he pulled you close to wipe away the very last remnants of panic clinging to his heart. You were right here in his arms, still asleep, still unbearably gorgeous. Kei buried his face in your hair and took a deep calming breath.

He supposed there was one more way he could show you his love tonight…

Kisses pressed to your shoulder and neck made you stir against him.

“Kei?“

You turned around, sleepily rubbing your eyes. He brought his hand from your hips up to your breasts and squeezed them gently, just the way you liked, ghosting his fingertips over your hardening nipples.

“Mmh… Kei… what?“

“I need you, sweetheart.“, he muttered. You couldn‘t know that he meant it in more ways than one.

You let out a tiny sleepy giggle. “Is that so? Well, no complaints here.“

He kissed you, elated when you immediately opened your mouth for him to deepen his affection.

“Can I … ah, y/n… can I be inside you?“

“As if I could ever say no to you…“

He raised your nightgown above your head, relishing in the sight before him - his beautiful naked wife smiling up at him.

When he entered you slowly a few moments later he felt beyond relieved. It had all just been a dream and yet, he still couldn‘t believe his luck.

a/n: this one got away from me - I’m so sorry for the added angst! I hope it’s still fine. Thank you so much for your request and your kind words and I love your writing, too!! 🌱

for requests see here

[bazookaboi]

Ok here are those cool facial structure facts I wanted to highlight… :] (uhh shitty drawing warning)

Seen above, the most basic components of an Ivilitium’s facial features. (Like, really basic, lol). Self explanatory. These are consistent in all Ivilitium species. I plan to make a in-depth explanation/naming for each of these in the future… after I semi-finalise their design. I must show you guys their teeth- or should I say… blades heheh.

This is also a rough draft. (Intended so that I can make a better one in the near future). I would be happy to receive your opinion on what you would change/add! Do you see anything as impractical? Do you have Any questions? Suggestions? I am very open to constructive criticism!

everything has its use… or will be assigned a use eventually, because if not I will be pissed. Not a single thing can only be for design purposes.

——————

-The first and most beloved cool fact I have about their facial structure is their facial disk, which extends from the sides of their face, starting at the jawline and ending under their outer ears. Their outer ears aren’t connected to it, allowing for them to rotate and collect sound better from other areas. their natural resting position aligns neatly with their disk, though. The facial disk’s main purpose is to capture sound waves better, enhancing the Ivilitium’s auditory sense. It is analogous to how you cup your hands behind your ears to hear better. The Ivilitium’s brow ridges also play a part in directing sound waves that have made contact with the face towards the ears. I have made a simple GIF illustrating how the shape of the their facial features smoothly guide the sound waves into the ears… sound waves that diverge from the face are all captured by the facial disk. And curiously, right before entering the ears, sound waves from the facial disk will perform a little “loop” of sorts. (It is explained best by the GIF).

- don’t be fooled by their ‘nose’! Their real airway entrances are placed at the sides of the neck, near the face. They are positioned snugly between the sternocleidomastoid and the brachiocephalicus, and given form by a muscular ring capable of closing. These spiracles are equipped with a filtration system, (that’s for another post), and their distance from the lungs gives time for the inhaled air to be warmed by the body’s natural heat.

- They have an olfactory system located at front of their face, separate from their respiratory system. (I have multiple ideas for the reason behind this separation, but I’m still deciding which one I should choose).

- They have two pairs of vibrissae (whiskers, rictal bristles, whatever you want to call them.) located just above their brow ridges. These are for stimuli detection purposes. Their vibrissae help detect faint vibrations caused by movement in the surrounding environment, which is very useful when navigating and hunting for prey, especially in the dark. (Ivilitium hunt nocturnally). Ivilitium vibrissae are not as sensitive as a cat’s or dog’s.

- their facial disk and head plates are neither fur, scales or feathers. Instead, they are something in a completely new category. I like to call them plates. These ‘plates’ are a  slightly thick and stiff. The plates on an Ivilitium’s head will naturally always grow away from the face, and can also be found on the back of the neck. They can be moved… for example plates could be moved in a way that might look a bit like bangs to us. It’s not a common occurrence for Ivilitium to do this, though. It is seen widely as impractical in most cases.

- Their eyes are larger, have a higher rod cell density than ours, and posses tapetum lucidum, a reflective membrane behind their retina. (Ivilitium have much better night vision). They have a slightly wider peripheral vision than humans due to their eye positioning on their face, and good binocular vision and depth perception, which is crucial as a predator.

- They have a medium-length snout and a flat/smooth-ish facial structure (regarding the forehead and jaw specifically) for a more efficient bite and minimal strain, since strain is more evenly distributed when force is exerted. The snout tapers a bit at the end with round edges.

——————

I am definitely forgetting something or getting some information wrong because I did not proofread this enough times lol… Plus normally I do my extensive beforehand research but with school I half-assed this one since I wanted to get it out of my brain 👍🏼

[verathena14]

sooo i may be working on making a bunch of aa cats... oops :3 this first batch is phoenix, some of the feys, and the trilogy prosecutors (except payne because i dont ljke him /lh)

(its funny cuz when i got into aa i was like "im good enough at drawing humans now, im not gonna make cat versions of them! aaaand here we are)

ALSO! if youre new here, this is what i do lmaoooo i take human characters and i zap em with the cat-o-matic (not to be confused with the cat-flap-o-mat, that's not in this trilogy)

a lot of thought went into these designs, so i have details below the cut cuz some of them go into spoilers

Phoenix: I wanted him to be kinda blueish, as a reference to his signature blue suit. He's kinda stocky, with large paws. He's got very spiky fur on the back of his head, to replicate his signature hairstyle, and though the design is based on trilogy!phoenix, I gave him the little stray strand of hair from his aa5 (i think) design. I will admit, I kinda stole the badge-collar from another catified ace attorney design for him I saw, but I don't remember whose it was. His markings are pretty simple, and he's got a white heart-shape on his chest as a nod to the warrior name I gave him. And of course, he's got the little mouth scar from eating glass.

Maya: I wanted the Feys to be very visually distinct from everyone else, so I decided that the Feys would all have complex tabby patterns and distinctive curls in their fur shapes. Maya's Warriors name, Lilacpaw, inspired the shape of the tabby markings, as they form almost petal-shapes. She's purple-tinted, both as a nod to her AU name as well as to the purple medium outfit. The small star on her chest symbolizes her status as the Master of the Kurain Channeling Technique.

Pearl: Like Maya, she is very fluffy and has curly fur. Her large ears are both a way to keep her looking young and cute, and simultaneously represent her human verson's hair loops. However, unlike Maya, her tabby stripes are fairly basic, and will develop into a more distinctive pattern with age.

Mia: Unlike Maya, who has a very short and fluffy form, Mia is taller, more slender, and her fluffy bits are relatively concentrated in certain areas, like her chest. This is done in order to show how she has left the Fey clan, but she still retains elements of the Fey signatures, as she has not completely cut ties with them. She pins her attorney's badge on her scarf, and her magatama is partially hidden by her chest fluff. Design-wise, she and her mother Misty are very similar.

Misty: Regarding the hairdo, I honestly had no idea how to translate it to something that would make sense for a cat, so I decided to abandon realism and just give her the same hair. As mentioned previously, she has a similar design to Mia, to symbolize how they both left the Fey clan. Her tabby stripes are wispy, referencing her name Mistystar. The star on her chest is partially hidden, symbolizing her attempts as Elise Deauxnim to hide her true identity.

Miles: Miles' design is fairly simple, as the main idea behind his design was to strike a balance between him sharing some of the von Karmas' traits while still remaining distinct from them. His chest, like the von Karmas', is very fluffy, as a reference to his cravat-jabot thing. The darker coloring under his eyes is meant to resemble eye bags, since he often suffers from nightmares. His Warriors name, Winterheart, is also significant, with a double meaning. The more obvious one is that he is distant and cold to others (especially early aa1), with a "cold heart." The second one is a reference to the DL-6 incident, which happened during December, and changed him as a person forever. One could speculate that he took on a new name under von Karma's tutelage, in order to ensure he didn't forget the incident.

Manfred: Yes these are out of order, but to understand Franziska's design one must understand Manfred's design. The von Karmas are designed as blue-grey colorpoint longhair cats, purebreds, as a nod to Manfred's obsession with perfection. They have tall ears, long tails, and sleek fur. Manfred has the same fluffy chest as Miles, referencing his cravat. The small scar on his shoulder is again a reference to the DL-6 incident, but it is mostly covered with the fluffy chest fur. His name, Thundersnap, is inspired by his commanding presence, and how in-game, his snap quiets the whole courtroom, as well as the scene where he straight-up tazes Phoenix and Maya.

Franziska: Her design much mirrors her father's, with the same tall ears and fluffy chest. Her chest fur differs from Miles and Manfred's, however, since she wears a large bow instead of a cravat. The dark patch on her back has two meanings; the first is a simple reference to her black vest. The second is a mar on Manfred's perfection; her markings are not expected of a purebred colorpoint, symbolizing her struggle to achieve a level of perfection like her father. Another point about her design is that she is slender, but with large fluffy parts, in order to make herself look bigger. She does this in-game too, with her puffy shoulders and large cuffs.

Godot: Out of the prosecutors, Godot's design was probably the easiest for me. I wanted him to be a white cat, but with bits of dark brown as a remnant of Diego Armando, and also because somehow his beard didn't turn white when the rest of his hair did. His eyes are drawn differently than my usual style, showing how his eyesight is very poor behind the mask. Also Redmask isnt his real name, he just chose it to be edgy & to conceal his identity

[foxy-alien]

taz graphic novel thoughts… I’m putting it under the cut because… spoilers silly.

Forewarning this really got away from me and is unfortunately pretty negative. read at your own risk

Huh, this really is an adaption? After the eleventh hour this is a really big let down tbh. Just so much was cut and it felt SO rushed. In the first 3 scenes we lose taako’s “because I’m afraid no one else will have me” and practically ALL of Magnus and the void fish swimming.

Obviously things need to be cut, it’s a completely different medium, but all the emotional payoff was ruined. I was never scared they were going to lose something great, I didn’t even cheer for them when they killed Edward. All the sacrifices are so minimized FOR GOD SAKES MAGNUS AND GOVERNOR KALIN WAS CUT. Are you kidding me? One of the most important sacrifices and emotional moments of TAZ.

With every cut there is a cut to later payoff, in the eleventh hour that was balanced well but here it just doesn't work. So much is cut out of tsg that as a reader there were no stakes to win or lose. I knew they would win because its their story but i didn't care what would happen to them.

So Wonderland was too short, why do I care? because the very heart of the suffering game was lost.

This is the thesis of the suffering game summed up best.

What did they learn in wonderland? How did they change? They don't really. Taako doesn't choose the mission over himself, Magnus doesn't give up his main purpose in life, Merle doesnt lose his faith.

We don't get to see them at their worst because there is no one in Wonderland who their actions effect. I always, ALWAYS tear up at Rowen's "why?" after they go through their round with the monster factory. This catalyses Taako into later choosing to sacrifice his beauty. With the stakes cut we lose the emotional payoff of later scenes.

The solution of the suffering game being too long was not to cut out all of the spinning. It needed a restructuring. Heart attack has every interesting character moment cut, its barely a drive by of the original scene, why not just cut the moment entirely? It doesn't say anything about the character's emotional insights and True sight could have easily been cast at another moment.

Some moments have been adapted beautifully but they ended up reminding me what is lacking. Arms outstretched has great pacing that I had come to expect from the team. But compare that to Magnus's sacrifice and its just... nonexistant.

There was a way to trim down suffering game to fit it and the reunion tour that didn't require cutting every interesting sacrifice.

Now the reunion tour... what a mess. they cut out our narrator to show our plane being cut off, but this section dearly needed some narrative guiding. So much running back and forth in time and locations to make it run smoother but again, they needed a whole restructuring. Which some parts got but for all the wrong reasons.

I was happy that they cut the whole act with Magnus being dead when they get back to the campus because it barely works in audio form. But instead the campus is cleared because of the storm but then its packed for one panel when Carey and Killian cancel their side mission? why have the side mission at all? I'm assuming to drive Carey's and Magnus's friendship but it is a really clunky addition.

Everyone drinking the voidfish ichor separately is visually and narratively frustrating. It happens on a smaller scale in the show but by this point griffin has taken the reins back of the narrative and guides us through it seamlessly.

Griffin's final narration, has been separated and mutilated for what? it barely exists at all. its been replaced with an odd speech from Lucretia being happy about their return.

Its such a confusing moment to end on when you could have had idk THE ORIGINAL BELOVED ENDING?

"And from those pillars, the Hunger’s armies have begun to manifest, marching outward to raze the world below. It’s the end of the world. Again."

Tldr: bruh just read it, but seriously idk the changes made are clunky and dont make sense. and all the moments that are cut ruin the pacing of the rest of the book. It's especially confusing as this is probably one of the most straightforward arcs since petals to the metal and it is the most confusing adaption.

[arlechinav-blog]

Mediterranean Trance Drumming

(Pictured: Yours Truly posing with a selection of drums that I use for trancework.)

Trance drumming is a completely separate skill from performance drumming. Knowing how to drum and having the muscle memory to carry a rhythm is just the beginning. The type of drum you use makes a difference and the drum used for most Mediterranean trancework is a sort of frame drum--specifically a headed tambourine type of instrument. Every culture has their own version of this instrument which is why I say tambourine-like. The secondary percussion instrument used is a large, barrel-like double sided stick drum. Again, each culture involved has their own name for these.

When it comes to picking your frame drum, aim for something between 12" and 18". My preference is for a 16" drum. The larger the drum, the slower it moves but the deeper the sound. The smaller the drum, the faster you can go with it and the lighter it will weigh but the sound will also become higher. Whether the drum has a synthetic head or natural head it will not affect the efficacy of the trance but it will impact how much skin you can potentially lose while doing this. A natural goatskin or fishskin headed drum will take the skin off your hand if you play it long enough. It is very efficient at it.

Most trance drummers who play in this style have spent time developing calluses to protect their hands and even then a lot of us end up just wrapping our striking hand in a bandana or handkerchief to save our skin. I recommend that those who are new to this style of drumming use a synthetic head and wait until they have built up some calluses before trying their luck with a natural head. On particularly humid days, I have had my calluses rip off completely and it only takes a few moments beyond that before blood starts running. We call it a drum kiss and it is supposed to be good luck in certain types of trance sessions--not all though. Take care of your hands if you can, there is no need to get juicy over this. But if it should happen, recognize that it is bad form to stop drumming before the current piece has ended. You will have to wait until the proper stopping point and then switch out with someone else if you want to take care of your hand. Plan accordingly.

Another thing to consider when it comes to picking your drum is what kind of music you will play. Serious topics call for the low voice, love and most things in life will call for the high voice. Occasionally you will get to use a medium voice for things that are difficult to place in one category or another. Most will be low or high. The bigger the drum, the deeper the sound. In my aesthetic opinion, deep sounds compliment a deep voice. The size of your drum is mostly up to you and occasional bits of peer pressure from the Aunties/Uncles and ancestors.

Which brings me to my next point. The vast majority of traditional active trancework in the Med is sung. It is not just drums. The lyrical components are what I like to call "load bearing." A load bearing practice is something that you cannot cut out or change without setting off a ripple effect that will impact how your trancework functions on a fundamental level. Lyrics are one of the big 3 defining techniques of Mediterranean trancework in the form of legomena--things recited. These are trigger words embedded within the lyrics that contain hypnotic reminders to perform specific actions. If your trancework does not involve lyrics, you won't get beyond basic trance. Contemporary practices may allow for it but not traditional ones.

(Pictured: A bendir from the Maghreb. The metal on this drum is hidden on the inside of it in the form of 1 to 3 wires running along the back. It is very snappy and it is fun to spin on your thumb. You can listen to it here.)

Most ritual drums have metal somewhere on them and if there is none on the drums used by the other musicians, the lead musician will still wield some kind of metal instrument. This can be something as simple as a sistrum or handheld cymbals. Iron is the best and most traditional metal but all metals have the properties to pull it off. Ringing metal against metal is used to compel and control spirits in a ritual context. Even if the ritual does not directly interact with spirits, trancework itself is a journey through the spiritworld and it is expected that spirits are ever present. The metal drives away the malicious ones or compels them to dance--depending on how it is used and the type of ritual. The idea of a trance ritual done without metal ringing somewhere makes me wrinkle up my nose as if I smelled something really gross. It is spiritualy unhygienic.

The three main types of drum designs that I see are the tambourine types (like a tammorra), the snare types (like a bendir), and the chain types (like a daf).

(Pictured: Persian Daf. Get a group of these together and it literally sounds like an army marching down on you. A very beautiful army. Listen to a performance of it here.)

(Pictured: Tammorra Napoletana. This is the best drum to use for Hellenic style trancework because it was designed to compliment Hellenic style trancework. You can listen to it here.)

They each have traditional ways that they are played so whatever you pick, you would do best to study that style directly to get started. That will also narrow down what kind of music you play with it and what kind of songs you may want to use. I can and do play all of them but my favorite is the tammorra so I am going to focus on that one for the rest of this post. Once you know how to play one of these drums, you can improvise and play around with different styles.

If you want to learn more about trance percussion, give this a read.

Enough Preamble! Let's get to the "how to" bit!

When I teach Mediterranean trance drumming, I use a system of glyphs as a mnemonic device to remind students of the rhythm visually. These are the core glyphs that I use. The top line relates to where on the drum you are striking. The middle and last line relate to how you move your hand when striking.

Doum = Center (played with the dominant hand)

Tek = Side (played with the dominant hand)

Ka = Top or Bottom (played with the off hand)

Wrist Snap = Twist the drum in your off hand and basically high five the drum with your dominant hand, furthest point from you and then closest to you.

RTC = Rolling Triplet Center. Lots of methods for making a rolling triplet so there are other options. Strike with the flat length of your thumb, then do the same with the side of your index finger, then flip your hand around and chop the drum with the side of your pinkie finger. Repeat over and over very fast. Way faster than what you might be thinking.

RTS = Rolling Triplet Side. Same as above but instead of doing it in the center/ doum zone of the drum, do it to the side in the tek zone. This is a lighter sound and you can weave back and forth between center and side to create your rhythms.

Bounce = Using the meat of the hand just below your thumb, reach to the furthest side of your drum and bounce that part of your hand across it twice, pulling your hand towards you and then slap the tek zone with your fingers. This is also done pretty fast.

Slap Tek = Drop the drum into your open dominant palm (don't let go!) then quickly bring the drum back upright and give it a tek slap.

Double = Strike the drum quickly with your thumb then pinkie or pinkie then thumb (order is not important) in the tek zone.

This set of striking patterns works to create a system of double and triple beats that you can then weave together to create your trance rhythm. Most Mediterranean frame drums are done in a single handed style. There are some exceptions like the daf or riqq playing styles. The classical Hellenic way of doing it was a single handed style though so that is what I largely focus on. It depends on the song I am using and the type of ritual I am doing though.

One hand to smack em all!

If you want to get the same sounds out of a different type of drum or using a different striking style, you are in for a wacky time. Best of luck on that.

This is what a drum sequence looks like using my little glyphs. Well, these are 3 different common rhythms. These rhythms are used all over the Med, no one culture owns them exclusively but each culture has their own way of expressing them and their own terms for them. I was working with a Greek crowd when I made this illustration so those are the terms that ended up on it. The size of the glyph tells you when a strike is emphasized (louder) or de-emphasized (normal or quieter). The distance between each glyph tells you how close each strike is to the next one. A space implies a rest beat while no space implies no rest.

Here is a fun one using the rolling triplets. There are literally hundreds of Dionysian rhythms but they all weave around something like this, which is why this is the one I teach first. This would be a tarantella rhythm.

And this is a tammurriata rhythm. All of this is one repeating rhythm. It is a whole process. There are loads of different rhythms for tammurriata as well.

I made a little tutorial for these over a decade ago. The camera is a bit blury but the material is still helpful.

Rolling Triplet Practice

Double and Triple Strikes Part I

Double and Triple Strikes Part II

Now that we have gone over how to drum and make the right sounds we can get into what you need to know to make trance music specifically. This is written for lead musicians. Musicians who are in a support position can just trance out while playing. They don't have to do any of this fun stuff. The lead musician is the one who has to remain conscious and react to what is going on around them. To avoid repeating myself and making this even longer, check out my write up on what a lead musician is responsible for.

The only way to learn how to drum for the entranced is to drum for the entranced. Ideally under the direction of someone who already knows how. It takes years of active study and experience to learn how to read the body language of the entranced so that you can respond to it with what they need.

Most trance rituals will call for only a handful of songs but it depends on how long you will be trancing and how many people you have to lead through it. An experienced dancer can get in and out of an altered state in about 6-10 minutes but newer folks can take up to 25 minutes. That is per person/ per song. I don't let the newer folks go over 25 minutes because we do need to keep it running along smoothly. The longer you go with someone who doesn't know what they are doing, the greater the chances of them injuring themselves.

You want to see them drop into a relaxed floppy/bouncy body state and stay in a relaxed and floppy/bouncy body state. Only the most essential muscles should be engaged, everything else is at rest (unless you are doing spiritwork). If you see the dancer go rigid or wake even slightly and then go back into a floppy/bouncy state, recognize that they are going to give themselves whiplash and will be very sore tomorrow. Your goal is to keep them plugged in and their body flowing from start to finish. If you see it happen three times, slow down the music to a crawl and bring them back to a waking state. The monitor should then guide them away from the rug/active trance space and let someone else have a go.

To keep a dancer in an altered state you have to make the music interesting. There are heavy hitting rhythms that you can use to get them hooked and then you can build on those, making them more elaborate, speeding it up and slowing it down slightly. Keep building towards a crescendo. Ideally they will follow the sound and react accordingly the whole way through. When the dance and music have reached their apex, they will drop on their own into a PTFO (pass the eff out). This is a dramatic collapse that signifies that they are done.

At that point you immediately drop the rhythm into something so slow that it cannot reasonaly be danced to. You do not want them to get back up and dance again. Just keep the rug vibe calm while the monitor takes care of them and once they are off the rug you can begin again for someone else.

If you are singing, the dancer may respond to certain lyrics more than others. Observe closely and feel free to repeat those lyrics as much as you want. You do not have to sing your verses in their proper wakeful order once you have made your first full pass on the trance song you are singing. Do it properly once to set a baseline and then do as you need to in the moment to keep that dancer moving.

If the dancer's movements and energy start to plateau, you can either kick it up a notch or you can switch to a different song that uses the same rhythm. Group your songs together by rhythm so that you can more easily craft medleys for this. If you make no changes to the soundscape, this isn't going to go anywhere productive. They can go forever at a medium pace with no PTFO in sight. Always be chasing that PTFO.

Any further advice I could give on this topic would depend on the type of ritual you want to do so I am going to end it here. If there is an interest in how to drum for specific types of rituals, let me know in the comments. Good luck out there.

[sirfrogsworth]

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but what I believe OP is referencing that in Fine Arts and other similar 2D drawn/painted/etc arts, the general goal of taking photos is to keep the light as flat as possible so that the photo itself has no change in values aside from the actual ink/paint/etc. I.e. in taking a picture of the Mona Lisa, you generally don't see a cast shadow from, say, a tree branch (ignoring that it's in a museum, of course with minimal lighting for preservation reasons). You don't want to see shadows from where an artist may have pushed down the pencil too hard on the paper, or the crags in oil paintings (typically). It's why scanners got pretty encouraged for high res/no shadows/etc in early online art communities.

However, I would also like OP to check out art from the 60s and 70s I believe, where a lot of artists did play with the reflection of light and shadow in their works, and while a good lot of them are 3D or Installation artists, there are others that working more 2D, and also more contemporary artists that specifically use light and shadow play in their work (I forget the artist's name, but there's one who uses lights to create window glows in his ink and pencil drawings), and how shadow puppetry with flat, hinged cut outs was a very early style in animated films.

So please, play with shadows and light in your flat/drawn artworks if it makes you happy! Art is made to play, and there are some extremely unique ways to incorporate your surroundings into that work. And who knows, you could be the one to start another movement. That flat lighting has its place in college portfolios, but not every piece of art can be so neatly packaged.

Art preservation has two main ways to document fine art. Scanning or photographing.

The standard photographic way is typically to use a very high resolution medium format camera (Usually a Phase One) with a lens with minimal distortion. Two lights are placed on either side of the painting angled at 45 degrees toward the center. And this creates a very evenly lit photograph with minimal shadows. Color charts are placed near the painting in the same light so the photo can be calibrated later on.

For museum quality documentation, this process may be done in a stitched panorama to increase the overall resolution. But there are also pixel shift technologies where the camera can offset the physical sensor by one pixel in any direction to allow capturing maximum detail. A 100 megapixel camera essentially becomes 400 megapixels. It's a very finicky process requiring concrete floors and sturdy mounts (any microscopic movement will ruin the process), but it produces amazing results when captured by an experienced professional.

Scanning is best if the form factor of the artwork allows for it. There are high end "touchless" scanners that run the art through on a conveyor belt system. This also results in a pretty flat looking representation.

One technique that is becoming popular is 3D microscopy. This allows them to capture the fine texture of the painting. They can also put the painting in any lighting environment after the fact. So you can do shadowless, even lighting or you can do a side light that rakes across the texture, allowing you to see paint cracks and brush strokes more defined.

Here is the Girl with the Pearl Earring's eye catchlight, which apparently is a bit of a glob.

There is a video on this process including a huge 3D print where people can physically experience the texture of the painting.

And you can check out the 3D scan of the Girl with a Pearl Earring here.

With VR headsets growing in popularity, I imagine these professional tools for creating 3D representations will become more accessible. And people will be able to scan their own art in a similar fashion. Canon is already developing a dual lens system that might be applicable.

[rom-e-o]

I was just considering: If Belisma was an orphan when she was found, who named her? Was she found with a note/licence (alà Santa Claus is Coming to Town lore)? Did someone in the Watch name her? Was it Vorgoth?

I need the 411!

So, ngl, I took some time to think about this. Because even though the canonical Rook Ingellvar story is that they are discovered as a foundling in the crypts, their name is left pretty open.

'Belisma' is a shortened form of 'bellisima', which is Spanish for 'beautiful.' And since Spanish verbiage is confirmed in Veilguard (thank you, Lucanis) I like to think that names carry over as well.

That being said ... I absolutely hc that Vorgoth named her.

We know Vorgoth likes art, especially paintings (and especially landscapes). It wouldn't shock me if they found this infant with dark, downy hair and eyes like sodden logs, and it reminds them of those moody landscape paintings they collect. Their collection has been called many things. 'Beautiful'. 'Lovely.' And...

Vorgoth: ... BELLISIMA. LIKE THE NEVARRAN WOODS AFTER RAIN. COLD AND WITHDRAWN. MUD SATURATING THE CREVICES OF DECAY.

Watcher: ... It's moody, that is for certain. But it's not really a name, is it? It's an adjective.

Vorgoth: BUT WHAT IS A NAME, TRULY? ARE THEY NOT JUST WORDS, SAME AS ALL OTHERS?

Watcher: ... Well, that's fair. But perhaps something a little less ... haughty? How about Belisma? A little simpler, but the same sentiment. Plus, it's pretty for a little girl!

Vorgoth: .... A FITTING NAME.

A little girl is a little more active and vibrant than a framed painting, but Vorgoth tends to her all the same. They expose her to art, encourage her dancing, and definitely challenge her skills when it comes to her status as a Watcher. Isma does not get off easy just because her mentor/parent is a omnipresent mist being.

Watcher: Her magical skills are good, as is her dexterity. Perhaps Master Volkarin could see to her? Distract her from those foolish dreams of going to the ballet.

Vorgoth: VOLKARIN'S TIME IS BETTER SPENT ON NAVIGATING THE PERILS OF OUR CHANGING TOMBS. HE SHOWS MUCH PROMISE, IT IS NOT TO BE INTERFERED WITH.

Watcher: Are you sure you wouldn't just miss your little girl if she left too soon?

Vorgoth: ... IF SHE IS TO LEAVE, IT SHOULD BE TO PURSUE EXCELLENCE, NOT THE ATTENTION OF ANOTHER.

Watcher: Ah.

Vorgoth: BESIDES, SOMEONE MUST MIND JOHANNA.

Watcher: Yeeesh, very true ... But she must grow up sometime.

Vorgoth: TIME WILL PASS. THERE IS NOT NEED TO RUSH THE INEVITABLE.

Vorgoth is definitely her parental figure, even if she's on a first-name basis with them. Isma, also being 35, has had some time to grow and develop a bit. Her dynamic with them is more akin to a step-parent in terms of dynamics, but when she gets married or becomes pregnant, Vorgoth always seems to find a way to be near. Always watching, sometimes attentively, sometimes dotingly. <3

Oh, and finally. The girl herself (in the MEDIUM graphics setting because the hair physics are hardware-melting, lmao):

My sister: She looks stressed.

Me: She is.

Sister: ... Is that blood?

Me: For all other Watchers, yes. But it's Isma, so here, it's raspberry jam.

(Censored nudity under cut)

(Her chest size is at -80%, and damn. THAT feels personal.)

[kevin-ar-tuathal]

"Béarlachas"

I've been meaning to write this post for some time now. As a person from the Galltacht (English-speaking Ireland) living and working in the Gaeltacht (Irish-language Ireland), and operating most of my life through the medium of Irish, I can honestly say that English-language Ireland, Second Language speakers of Irish and Learners of Irish tend to have a really skewered understanding of a) what Béarlachas is, b) the different forms it takes and c) what effects/damage/meaning each of its forms holds.

Contents of this post:

•Perceptions of Béarlachas

•Loanwords Vs Béarlachas

•Different Languages, Different Sounds

•Language Purity Vs Language Planning

•Conclusion

Perceptions of "Béarlachas"

Outside of the Gaeltacht, most people's understanding of "Béarlachas", or "Anglicisation" in Irish (which I am deliberately putting between inverted commas!), is the use of so-called "English-language words" in Irish. The usual list people like to list off include:

• Fón

• Teilifís

• Giotár

• Raideo

• Zú* (see Language Purity Vs Language Planning below)

• Carr*

*The ironic thing about the last item being that 'carr' (the word for a personal vehicle) is older than the English-language word 'Car' 🚗.

Second language learners with a bit more exposure to the language deride native speakers, particularly speakers from Conamara, for "using English words and adding '~áil' at the end to make a verb". Several examples being:

• Gúgláil (Google-áil)

• Sioftáil (Shift-áil)

• Sortáil (Sort-áil)

• Péinteáil (Paint-áil)

• Vótáil (Vote-áil)

• Focáilte (F*ck-áilte)

• Supósáilte (Suppose-áilte)

(⚠️NB: it is HIGHLY SIGNIFICANT that I spelt these words in these specific ways in Irish - to be explained below!⚠️)

Other so-called "English language words" in Irish include:

• Veain • Seit • Onóir • Ospidéal • Aláram • Cóta • Plaisteach • Leictreach, 7rl, 7rl...

And what about: "Halla" or "Hata" ??

Loanwords Vs Béarlachas

Before I explain where I'm going with this, I am going to introduce some words that have their origins in other languages, like:

"Seomra" from the Middle French "chambre".

"Séipéal" from the Middle French "chappelle".

"Eaglais" from the Greek "ekklesiastes".

"Pluid" from the Scots "plaide".

"Píopa" from Vulgar Latin "pipa".

"Corcra" from Latin "Purpura" (from before Irish had the sound /p/!)

"Cnaipe" from the Old Norse "knappr".

"Bád" from Anglo-Saxon "bāt".

ALL of these words, like the ones above, came into Irish via the most natural means a language acquires new words: language contact.

The reason WHY the word gets adopted is usually -and this is very important - the word is for something that the culture of the language Borrowed From already has, which is introduced to the language Borrowed Into.

For clarification, what I am trying to say is that languages NATURALLY oppose cultural appropriation by crediting the culture they got a word from by using their word for it...

I.E. "Constructing" a new "pure" word for an item that has come from another culture, is, in effect, a form of cultural appropriation - which is why institutions such as Alliance Française and Íslensk málstöð are at best puritanical, and at worst xenophobic*.

*There is nuance here - there is a difference between institutional efforts to keep a language "pure" (re: those such right-wing English/British and American opinionists who claim that the English language itself is endangered 🙄), and language planning (which also falls under the remit of Íslensk málstöð).

Furthermore, there is also such thing as "dynamic borrowing". This is where technically a language has adopted a word from another language, but has changed its meaning/adapted it to its own need. Let us take two Irish language words for example: "Iarnród" and "Smúdáil"

Iarnród is made up by two words taken from the English language: Iarann, from English language "iron" and Ród, from English-language "road".

Together, these two words mean the English-language term "Railway" - but English has never had the term "Iron Road" to refer to this object.

Similarly, Smúdáil comes from the English-language word "smooth". Only adapted to Irish, and adding the Irish-language verb suffix creates a word which means "to iron (clothing)". 😱

Different Languages, Different Sounds

Every single language on this planet has its own sound system, or "phonology". It is VERY rare for a new sound to be introduced into a different language, and some languages are MUCH more sensitive to what speakers of another language would consider a "subtle" difference, or not a difference at all.

Now...

IRISH HAS DOUBLE THE AMOUNT OF SOUNDS AS THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE!!!!!!!

(^roughly ~ish) I am making this simplistic statement to DRIVE home the fact that what English-language speakers and Learners of Irish hear as "the same as the English", Irish speakers hear a SIGNIFICANT phonetic difference.

All consonants in Irish [B, bh, c, ch, d, dh, f, fh, g, gh, h, l, ll, m, mh, n, nn, p, ph, r, rr, s, sh, t, th] - and YES, séimhiú-ed consonants and double consonants count as separate consonants - EACH have at least TWO distinct sounds. Ever heard of that old rhyme "Caol le caol, leathan le leathan"? Well, the reason why it exists ISN'T to be a spelling tip - it's to show how to pronounce each consonant in a word - which of the two distinct sounds to say.

What I mean to say by this is that, when we adopt a word into Irish, we aren't just "grabbing the word from English and hopping a few fadas on it"; we are SPECIFICALLY adapting the word to the Irish language phonetic system.

I.E. when an Irish language speaker is saying the word "frid" THEY ARE NOT USING THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE WORD "fridge" !!!

The sounds used in the English-language word belong to the English language, and the sounds used in the Irish-language word belong to the Irish language.

As a linguist I get very passionate about this distinction - the AMOUNT of times I have come across a self-important Irish language "learner" from the East of the country come to a Gaeltacht and tell native speakers that they are not using the "official" or "correct" version of a word in Irish just GRATES me to no end. PARTICULARILY as these so-called "learners" cannot hear, or typically have made NO effort to understand phonetic differences between the two languages. (Though honestly, on that point, I cannot wholely blame them - it is a fault on Irish language education as a whole that the differences in sound are hardly, if ever, mentioned, let alone taught!)

Language Purity Vs Language Planning

Moving on, as I mentioned earlier, it is very rare for a sound to be adapted into a new language. As many Irish language speakers and learners know, there is no /z/ sound in (most of the dialects of) Irish.

And yet, somehow, the official, modern translation given for the Irish language for "Zoo" is ...

Zú

Whenever I think on this given translation, I am always reminded of a good friend of mine, a lady from Carna, who used to always talk about "Súm" meetings she used to go on to talk with friends and family during COVID.

This woman only speaks English as a second language, having only ever learnt it at school and only ever used it in professional environments. She does not have the sound /z/, and as such, pronounces words that HAVE a "z" in them as /s/ sounds, when speaking in Irish OR in English.

As such, I often wonder how An Coiste Téarmaíochta can be so diligent in creating and promoting "Gaelic" words for new things, such as "cuisneoir" instead of "frid"; "guthán" instead of "fón" (which is actually pronounced "pón" in Conamara, as that suits the sound system of that dialect better); or "treochtú" instead of "treindeáil" ... And then turn around and introduce sound and sound combinations such as /z/ in "Zú" and /tv/ and /sv/ in "Tvuít" and "Svaedhpáil" 🤢

It's such this weird combo of being at the same time puritanical with regard to certain words, dismissive in regards to vernacular communities, and ignorant with regards to basic linguistic features of the language.

(Especially when, i mbéal an phobail, there are already such perfectly acceptable terms for these kinda words, like Gairdín na nAinmhithe for "Zú; Tuitéar and Tuít for "twitter" and "tweet"; and Faidhpeáil for "Svaedhpáil".)

Conclusion

This really prescriptivist approach by Irish language institutions needs to end. Not only is it not addressing or engaging with the Irish language as it is spoken by vernacular communities, it is creating this really twisted dynamic between second-language Irish speakers who apparently "know better" than first-language and native speakers of Irish.

This is what "Béarlachas" is. Not the natural adaption of words from a language with which Irish in the present day has most contact with. Not the dynamic inventions of native speakers, and even Second-language-as-vernacular speakers, utilising all the linguistic features available to them, whether that be their own dialects of Irish, English, or whatever OTHER languages/dialects are available to them.

"Béarlachas" is the brute enforcement of English language mentalities and an obsession with "purity" onto Irish, a language that has FOREVER adopted and integrated words, features and people into itself.

Gaeilge, like Éire of old, like the Ireland I want to be part of today, is open, inclusive, non-judgemental - knowing where it is coming from, and knowing that its community is its strength and key to how it has and will survive!

[kn-1013]

Sal Headcannons: Part 2

I've decided to make another headcannons post, so here's part 2 of my Sal headcannons. CW for mentions of self-harm.

His favorite skirts are long skirts.

Sal really enjoys urban exploration, and as a result of chronically breaking and entering into locked up, abandoned or condemned buildings, he has been arrested 3 separate times for trespassing. He's gotten really good at breaking into buildings, though, especially with Larry's help.

He wears long-sleeved rash guards whenever he goes swimming, partly to protect him from getting burned, partly because he's insecure and wants to cover up his self-harm scars.

One time he went to a thrift store and found a pair of low-rise women's jeans that he tried on, and they changed his life. Before, he mostly assumed that women's jeans weren't that different from men's jeans, but quickly found himself completely wrong, and he really enjoys the way women's jeans fit and shape the wearer into their form.

Despite Larry's initial complaints, Sal loves girlpop artists like the Spice Girls, Solid Harmonie, Britney Spears, Mariah Carrey, and more. He's generally a fan of all kinds of feel-good pop. He really enjoys practicing his guitar to them and doing little metal covers for himself and his friends.

Sal is not very good at singing in any way other than the styles and techniques most commonly used in rock and particularly metal. He doesn't have the most control over his voice melodically outside of the basics, (as in, he can sing on-key), but outside of that, he can't sing a song without everyone knowing that he's primarily a metal singer.

Sal has small hands, and as a result, the guitar he plays is actually a kid's size guitar because the neck of a typical guitar is too big for him.

Sal is well aware that his mask is very unnerving to a lot of people, which is why he generally tries to make himself as approachable as possible to other people. That said, if he feels like he needs to be for whatever reason, he has no trouble turning that back in order to make himself as unnerving and intimidating as possible. Typically he does it in order to get other people to fuck off, but it's also very effective at creating awkward silences if he ever needs to produce one.

Due to his brain damage causing a lot of difficulties reading, Sal prefers visual or auditory mediums such as film or TV, and radio or audiobooks. Another bonus to not enjoying reading very much is that he can practice his guitar while engaging in these hobbies much more easily than he can when reading.

Despite his troubles with reading, Sal still has a lot of journals that he's kept over the years as a part of emotional processing. Some of them are full, some of them are half-full, and he has trouble journaling consistently at times. They're full of writing as much as they're full of sketches and scribbles. The most common method of journaling he employs is stream of consciousness writing, which leads to some truly incomprehensible entries due to ADHD, and it gets even more so around dates related to traumas that he's experienced.

For a long time, he thought about going back to Jersey on some kind of special trip with all of his friends, to show them things like where he grew up. It would've been a trip symbolizing his own personal growth, and sharing something deep and incredibly personal with his favorite people.

Due to his experiences with doctors, he strongly advises his friends against going to doctors alone, and hates going to doctors for checkups and the like. He'll put off going to a doctor until he's incapacitated if he can, and it's a huge reason that he isn't in therapy.

The only psychiatric help Sal gets until 1999 is the psychiatric medications, which he has a bit of a mixed history with. He has a tendency to go on and off his antidepressants, mostly just due to forgetting but other times it's due to what he talked about in episode 5, where they cause numbness and other emotional side effects. This can cause a lot of spikes and dips in his mood at times, and it's part of why Ash wasn't incredibly shocked that Sal wasn't on his meds at the time of the murders.

He had a difficult time trusting Dr. Enon at first because of his distrust of doctors, but after a certain point, he broke through it because he realized exactly how much shit he was in, and how much more shit he would be in if he didn't talk.

I like to think that at some point, Sal does make the connection that the cult is responsible for his mother's death and what happened to his face, and that there was an incredible breakdown in the aftermath of that discovery because it suddenly became a lot more personal than he'd ever realized it would be. I think it would've been at a point close to when the murders happened, and that on top of the darkness and his lack of meds, it all contributed to Sal's feelings of dread. Ash did not know that this discovery had been made at the time of the murders, and had to figure that out by going through Todd and Sal's notes with Neil afterward.

When he lived in Jersey, he used to go up to an abandoned/squatter house near his own and he would punch the walls until his knuckles bled as a way of dealing with his frustrations at the time. It's because of this that there are some old scars on his knuckles, but he hasn't done anything like that in a long time.

Sal has a bit of a codependent relationship with Larry that Larry enables due to his own issues. Sal relies pretty heavily on Larry for support, and Larry, being such a strong figure among his friends sees Sal as someone in need of his help. He somewhat infantilizes Sal while feeling obligated to protect/help him to the point of exhaustion. At the same time, Sal is genuinely someone who needs a lot of support with his disabilities and mental health issues, but he has no idea how to set boundaries for himself or the people supporting him, and has few coping mechanisms for himself to ensure those boundaries are stable. He struggles to rely on himself and find strength within himself to handle when the bad thoughts get worse. This all comes together to create a somewhat codependent relationship between the two of them because they both need therapy and won't get it. It's not severe, but it is exhausting for the both of them at times.

In a similar vein, Sal is acutely aware of Larry's mild infantilization of him, and he hates it a lot. It's something that negatively impacts his mental health, and he's got it from a lot of people, his friends included, over the years, but he's afraid to bring it up because he's scared that they won't take him seriously. It's not something they're actively aware of or doing on purpose, it's mostly just a result of them being worried about Sal and wanting to take care of him, they just end up trying to take care of him a little too hard. This is fed into somewhat by Sal's fear of setting strong boundaries with other people.

This is part of what draws Sal to Travis in the beginning, though. Travis is an asshole who treats most people rather poorly in an effort to push them away, and Sal isn't anyone special to him. His general bluntness and serrated attitude draw Sal to him greatly because he's not afraid to be mean to Sal. Sal quickly develops an attachment to Travis because he wants to Fix Him, because Sal copes by getting into other people's business and he has 'I Can Fix Them' syndrome.

He can't, though. He can barely fix himself, let alone other people. Lol.

[blackjackkent]

So, battle against Zara is definitely not difficult on easy (I'm actually going to go ahead and kick back up to medium after this fight until I get stuck on something again). It mostly involved her hanging out in her blood pool and summoning a bunch of Venatori adds (who may or may not have also been also hanging out in the pool?) to help her.

I more or less tried to keep Helena out of the blood, but Lucanis had no such qualms and went charging straight in at Zara.

Didn't take long to beat her down, and once we did... her tune changed dramatically.

"So serious, Lucanis..." she wheezes, her blood-caked hands leaving smears on the column as she tries to steady herself against it. "Why don't we talk?" She makes a weak attempt at an ingratiating smile. "I can tell you much about Venatori... and our pet Crows."

"No..." hisses Spite inside Lucanis's head. "I want. Her heart. Quivering. On our knife."

Zara sneers. "You want to know who betrayed you, don't you? Who sent you to the Ossuary?"

"Talk." Lucanis's voice rasps painfully.

In spite of her wounds, Zara laughs. "I knew you were--"

A lithe, dark form drops from the room's rafters and lands lightly on the stone floor.

Illario straightens up, a dagger from his belt clutched in one hand.

Lucanis's head snaps around. "Illario!" he cries.

Illarios's lips purse tightly. "I told you. This is Crow business," he says coldly.

Then he turns to face Zara.

"Amatu--" she starts to say.

And Illario sinks his dagger into her chest.

(A/N: Yo whaaaaaaat.)

Everything suddenly happens at once. Light flares around Lucanis's whole body, the magenta energy of Spite within his body. His eyes glow with it, and the demon screams. "NO. MINE!"

He screams, and Spite's wings burst outward from his body, knocking Illario and Helena both off their feet. Helena's head smacks smartly against the stone floor and she lies there dazed for a moment, dimly aware that Lucanis (or his body at least) has surged forward to pin Illario to the ground, his own dagger lifted to strike.

Illario barely manages to get his hands up to push the blade back, and for a moment the two of them are locked together, neither one able to gain the upper hand. Lucanis's head twists and he gasps out to Helena, his voice his own for a moment--

"Get... Illario... out..."

"What?" Helena mumbles, staggering unsteadily to her feet. "No--"

"Rook, I can't--" Lucanis screams in agony as he struggles against himself.

And then Illario clutches at something on his chest with one hand. "That's enough!" he barks.

Another sudden burst of energy knocks Lucanis back and onto his rear. His eyes clear, the wings fading, and for a moment silence falls except for the two men gasping raggedly for breath.

Helena, still a little dizzy from her impact with the floor, watches them both warily.

Slowly, Illlario clambers to his feet, and reaches out the palm of one hand towards Lucanis.

"Relent..." he hisses.

Lucanis, on the floor, shudders and says nothing. His eyes are wide and staring past Illario's shoulder.

"What did you do to him?" Helena asks, slowly steadying herself, easing her hand from her own dagger on her hip.

"Nothing," Illario snarls in her direction, backpedaling a few steps. "I don't know what happened any better than you."

Helena frowns slowly. He's lying - or at least she's almost certain he is. And he's a very good liar, one of the best she's ever seen, but she knows what she saw. He did something to knock Lucanis back, to silence Spite.

And she knows what she heard, too. In the moment before Illario's dagger found her heart, Zara was starting to say the word amatus. She doesn't know if Lucanis knows the word - but Helena does. It's a Tevene word.

And it means lover.

Illario doesn't give her time to argue, though. He turns at once, stalking away into the shadows and disappearing like a wraith. "You have to get him out of here, Rook," he says in a low growl over his shoulder as he goes. "Keep him away - from Treviso, from the Crows. He's a danger to the family."

-----

Back at the Lighthouse, Lucanis disappears into his hideaway in the pantry and stays there for a long time. To Helena's surprise, the first time she tries to check on him, she finds him sleeping, fitful, restless. But when she goes back later, he's up on his feet and comes to meet her.

"You're awake," she says, watching him noncommittally.

"Yes." He looks at the ground next to her boots with a heavy breath out. "I've been trying to figure out what to say to you," he adds quietly after a moment. "And there aren't words enough to apologize." His gaze lifts to hers, and she's surprised to see a trace of fear in it. "It's never been that bad before."

Helena sighs. She'd like to be able to give him a sympathetic pep talk, but the truth is - seeing him like that was distinctly worrying. They're supposed to be working towards more stability, not less. "The way you're dealing with Spite," she says flatly. "It's not working."

"I know," he says quietly. A pause. "We need to talk about Illario."

Helena shrugs. "He wants you to stay away from the Crows. He... thinks you're a danger to your family."

(A/N: Why why WHY can I not comment on the amatus thing????)

"He's not wrong," Lucanis says bitterly. "If I cannot stay in control..." He trails off, and his throat works as he swallows. "He used blood magic to control Spite."

Helena blinks. That at least answers the question of what Illario did, more or less. But it doesn't explain why he lied about it. And also-- "What? How?" she demands. "He's not a mage."

"I don't know," Lucanis mutters. "But something's not right."

Helena hisses a breath out between her teeth. The clues are starting to add up to a picture that she suspects Lucanis is not going to like. "The night you were captured," she says carefully, "did Illario know you were boarding that ship?"

Lucanis doesn't meet her eyes. "Yes."

"And..." Nothing else for it, she has to just say it. "If it turns out he betrayed you?"

A very dark, very bitter anger sparks for a moment in Lucanis's eyes. "Then Maker help him," he growls.

Helena nods slowly. About the response she expected. About the one she'd have in Lucanis's place, probably. The Shadow Dragons have had no shortage of turncoats - and they never last long.

"Rook," Lucanis says abruptly, after the silence has stretched for a while, "you did not need to come with me on this. But I'm grateful that you did."

Helena gives him a slight, cautious smile. "Are we... good? Or better, at least?" She knows Lucanis has blamed her at least in part for what happened at Treviso, and knows too that it likely contributed to his preoccupation at Weisshaupt. And if she's honest, that's been bothering her, too.

He nods slowly. "You and I, yes," he says quietly. "But Spite and I... we cannot go on like this. I have to find another way."

[stardustizuku]

PART 1: How did we get here, again?:

The origins of Villainess Stories

Villainess Stories are an interesting phenomena that took a chokehold of the mainstream anime community, right around 2020, thanks to a little anime named:

“My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom!”

I say this, but while it was popularized in 2020, that’s not where this is even close to starting.

I always find myself having to remind most people that: The anime is rarely the origin.

I’ve stated plenty of times before, animation is expensive. More often than not, animes are a commercial of sorts, for manga, light novels and merch. It isn’t until the source material has proven to be successful on its own, that it gets an adaptation.

A risk of this magnitude had to come from somewhere.

That somewhere was Shōsetsuka ni Narō.

Much like many of your favorite animes, My Next Life as a Villainess began as a web novel in the site “Shōsetsuka ni Narō”. A self-publishing Japanese website that brought you “Didn't I Say to Make My Abilities Average in the Next Life?!”; “Log Horizon”; “I Was Reincarnated as the 7th Prince so I Can Take My Time Perfecting My Magical Ability”; “I’m in Love with the Villainess”; and for anyone who follows my page: yes. Ascendance of a Bookworm.

Among many others. Like seriously, a bunch of the most popular animes you’ll find being broadcasted in the latest part of this decade - started in Naro from 2012 - 2016.

“My Next Life as a Villainess” was published in 2014, and it ran all the way until 2015. With the Light Novel running from 2015, to this day.

Unfortunately, if you try to find a bit of a timeline as to where the genre came from, you will find a loud crowd that claims that all these mangas are a rip-off of one another, that have no basis on video games. That’s a blatant lie, born mostly out of a complete disinterest in the genre.

The villainess genre has a long, convoluted and frankly complicated story.

Unlike western media, in which you basically take one of the mediums (film, animation, or gaming) and more or less see it evolve with little to no influence of other mediums - Japanese media takes inspo from other mediums all the time.

What do I mean by this?

Let’s take animation. Film animation has a very linear timeline. It starts with Disney, moves to Pixar, moves to Dreamworks. It references almost only itself. If Hollywood does something you can barely feel it film animation. If something becomes popular on the small screen and tv, or streaming services, Film Animation has no clue.

Japanese Animation is different. Manga, webnovels, and games tend to influence each other all the time.

This is why you have extremely popular animes that have a mix of other medium in them. Like, Sword Art Online, which involves mixing elements of video games mechanics with anime tropes. As well as adaptations across the mediums: manga being adapted to animes, live action, musical theatre and even games.

This makes trying to analyze just anime, a fruitless endeavor.

In part too, because the ones who determine what anime becomes an anime, is in large part the manga industry.

Like the BIG THREE are the big three, not for any issues related to the anime, but because they saved Shonen Jump - a manga magazine. Sword Art Online too, became popular due to already popular JRPGs and MMOs. At the same time, it’s undeniable success, and change the course of history forever - came first in the form of a Light Novel (yes SAO was also originally a Light Novel entered in a contest in 2002). So it comes as no surprise that the first to feel its impact was the light novel industry.

The existence of “My Next Life as a Villainess” has then to be divided Parts. The Isekai Part of it, Game Part of it, and the Manga/Anime. Which melted together in the form of a popular webnovel.

Now. Isekais are weird.

People will always point and laugh about how the “original Isekai” is Alice in Wonderland or Wizard of Oz.

But Isekai is a hard thing to define, specially its origins. At it’s core, Isekai is just “Being sent to another word” and that’s as universal as of a trope as any other. After all, it’s the first step of A Hero’s Journey taken to its most literal of interpretations. Crossing the Threshold into a New World is pretty much the beginning of any adventure. It stands to reason that this “New World” is a literal new one. This leaves everyone guessing as to what you’d consider the “first Isekai”. Some will point at Urashima Tarō, some at the Super Mario Bros movie, some will point at Superbook, or Mashin Hero Wataru.

That said, nowadays, “Isekai” became a genre of its own. It has a very specific aesthetic, tropes and characters.

So rather than to try and find where it originated, it’s more productive to see when it started to take the shape of what we would nowadays consider to be the essence.

And something to notice too, is that the trope varies greatly depending on what current you take. You could consider Digimon a precursor of Sword Art Online, but that would have very little impact on Villainess tropes.

In this sense, I would consider Vision of Escaflowne (1994), Inuyasha (1996) and Fushigi Yugi (1991) as the pioneers of what it is now Isekai Shoujo.

They all talk about high school girls being transported to another world. They all talk about destiny and fate, and whether we have to follow the path someone else has set for us.

Vision of Escaflowne presents the idea of fate. It involves also war and the nature of trauma. It’s a slightly more mature story. But it cements this idea of “the chosen one”.

Talking about Fushigi Yugi, it’s often considered to be the first “transported into a novel” Isekai with a shoujo romance focus. I wish I had read it or watched it because a lot of the tropes that eventually become a staple of the Isekai story come from here. Including the predestined story, someone being told they have a role to play, the jealousy of someone trying to steal your position, as well as a romance based around saving the world.

And I cannot possibly understate the influence of Rumiko Takahashi’s Inuyasha. This woman quite literally created the concept of a harem and reverse harem romance with Ranma 1/2. She’s the queen of love triangles. While it would take a bit more for the Isekai genre aimed at women to fully take off, it’s undeniable to anyone who’s watched it how much contemporaries borrow from it. Not to mention, it’s perhaps the most famous one. While Escaflowne and Fushigi Yugi are both relatively unknown, specially in the west, everyone knows Inuyasha. It had 164 episodes, 5 films, and even a recent sequel.

Parallel to this, games started to transform too.

For villainess characters in otome games have been here since literally the inception of the genre.

Angelique, the (by and large) considered to be the pioneer or inventor of the genre, was released in 1994. This game has a villainess character, in the name of Rosalia de Cartagena. The game is about the Queen that rules the Universe, deciding to chose a new ruler, via a competition. She chooses two Queen candidates: Angelique and Rosalia. Rosalia being the rival, you (as a player) are supposed to defeat.

Surprisingly, though, when the game comes out, Rosalia becomes hugely popular with audiences. “How popular?” You may ask.

Well, popular enough that in 1998, KOEI released a game named Angelique DUET, in which you can choose to play as either Angelique or Rosalia.

Yeah, so you may considered that the villainess as the main character trope dates back for as far as 1998.

But…well, I’m twisting the truth just the slightest bit.

While the original Angelique story, is about two rival Queen Candidates competing for the throne, and yes, you will lose the game if you let Rosalia win…- Rosalia is never a full fledge villainess.

Yes, she’s a a rival, but not a villainess.

She isn’t evil.

The original game had two (main) endings: The Queen Ending and The Love Ending.

And in the Love Ending, which was still a Good Ending, Rosalia would become Queen.

You could quite literally, only choose between love and duty. And if you chose Love, you were letting Rosalia win.

She wasn’t evil. In fact, she’s described as talented, smart and was literally trained to be a Queen. It’s just that in the framing of the story, you have to defeat her to become Queen.

And even if you win, in Angelique Special 2, (where you play as the successor to Angelique) it is more than hinted that Angelique and Rosalia are friends - even when Angelique became Queen. Which is supported by the fact that the player can actually GAIN friendship points from Rosalia in the original game, by going into her room and chatting with her.

So, Rosalia is not evil, not by any long shot.

But this game cemented the idea of two Rivals Queens, an extensive Harem of Men, and the idea of duty vs love.

Albarea’s Maiden, released in 1997, also introduced the concept of the Saintess or the Holy Maiden, set to save the world by competing against other girls. With one of them being a counselor-type supporting character, and your active rival.

Later famous Otome game, Tokimeki Memorial Girl’s Side, released in 2002, popularized the concept of Friendship Routes. You could avoid the Rival Mode and befriend Shiho Arisawa, Mizuki Sud, Natsumi Fuji or Tamami Konno, instead of the Love Routes.

So you have these two genres, and both are growing in its own ways.

Otome series keep gaining popularity, like massive amounts of it. Obviously, it grows so much that it creates its own ecosystem. Varying from school romance, to historical fantasy, and all the likes. Games like Brother’s Conflict, Diabolik Lovers, Uta no Prince-sama, among others exploded in popularity around 2010-2012.

Meanwhile shoujo is also thriving as its own thing. Developing its tropes, one of which will come extremely handy later, that involves the “pick me” girl Japanese Version. Series like Kimi Ni Todoke, Kaichou Wa Maid, Special A, become extremely popular too around this time.

Finally, Summer of 2012 rolls around and.

Oh how I dread this.

As much as I would like not to talk about Sword Art Online, it’s unfortunately enough, a critical piece for most of anime history.

I cannot understate how much this anime changed the game. It wasn’t the first to introduce the concept of video games and anime - with The World Only God Knows coming out in 2011 - but it was the first to (in the first season) take its premise extremely seriously. It was the first to combine Isekai with gaming, and a power fantasy that many would soon find themselves indulging into. That’s it, a world where what makes you a loser, is your biggest strength.

Which launched it to popularity.

It became a sensation; a phenomena.

It opened the flood gates for many others who would try to combine anime, gaming and the Isekai concepts.

In the webnovel sphere, meanwhile, you could see that Magic Academy Stories and Historical Fantasy with the Princess archetype were fairly popular already. But it’s way harder to distinctively examine them for one reason.

Simply put, uhm. It’s, ah, sexism.

While a lot of stories aimed at boys would often get picked up without a second thought for an anime adaptation - the same could not be said of stories aimed at women. Be it webnovels, light novel or manga, it takes extreme power for a shoujo to get picked up. So, these stories simply don’t get an anime, which means we don’t get adaptations, which means no translation or English documentation.

And honestly? There’s just so far as my Japanese friend’s broken English and Google translate can get me.

It’s easy for me to analyze Angelique’s influence because there’s English archieves of it!

The same cannot be said, of what’s essentially a fanfiction website filled with self indulgent writing. As much as it is a treasure trove of why the genre blew up - I simply cannot access it.

But what from what I can see Isekai Villainess Stories exploded in 2014. You could already see it bubbling up in 2013. Notably, for anyone reading this from the AoB tag, Ascendance of a Bookworm came out in 2013. An Isekai story that heavily focused on Royalty and the “Holy Maiden” archetype.

It took just the right tweaks to get it right.

The first to appear, from all the digging I could find in English Archieves, was in 2013 with the “I Will Live with Humility and Dependability as My Motto” novel. It was discontinued in 2017.

It is nothing like “My Next Life as Villainess”. The protagonist was about to enter elementary school when she dies, the story told is one of a manga she was reading (not a game), and it lacks the harem aspect that would later be so cliche it borders on brain dead. But you see a lot of what would become essential. A heroine with a goal different to romance, an original villainess that bullies the heroine, and a wish for a simple no-problem life.

After that, most of what followed were novellas and small short stories, much which are now discontinued or on hiatus. Which is to be expected. Naro allows all types of stories in its website. And back then there was no format. No tropes, no guidelines to what works and doesn’t.

Trial and error landed us with “My Next Life as a Villainess”. And I mean a lot of trial and error. From what has been archieved and translated on English, there’s easily 15 stories with a similar premise that were published in 2014. Which may not sound like a lot, but that’s only what has been popular enough to be saved into English. I cannot imagine how much got lost in Japanese.

But, there you have it.

First, the sudden explosion of Isekai Gaming with the popularity of the Sword Art Online Anime.

Followed by a growing interest in Otome Games. An audience prepped by the original 1994 and 1996, to be endeared by a rival/villainess character.

An audience of Shoujo fanatics which grew up with Isekai shows like Escaflowne, Fushigi Yugi, and Inuyasha in the late 90s.

And an audience of webnovel enthusiasts, already in love with princess aesthetics and magical academies.

Anyways.

Once that reached the main consciousness, all hell broke loose.

After “My Next Life as a Villainess” blew up, it was only a matter of time for countless of self-published stories to follow suit.

Obviously, I’m glossing over a lot of history. I wasn’t able to touch upon the Light Novel and Visual Novel games, mostly because that’s a massive sinkhole you’d need a MASTERS to sort through. Made, entirely not easier, by the fact that mediums keep interacting with each other. Visual novels get picked up, turned into anime, which inspires the next batch of game developers and artists. And the feedback loop is somehow even quicker there, for some reason.

Like, My Next Life debuted in 2014, we got the anime until 2020, and its popularity only reached anime-backed levels of explosion until 2024. It took ten-fucking-years for this to become a thing. Whereas shonen and shonen manga has maybe 5 year gap? Shonen Jump spits out anime adaptations almost as fast as it cuts anything that isn’t OnePiece levels of popular. Again, it’s a can of sexism worms I’m not interested in today.

“Wait,” you ask. “I still don’t get it”

What do you not get?

“Well, I understand we’re the Isekai aspect comes from. I understand the gaming and all. But wasn’t Rosalia a good girl? How do you go from the Rival-Everyone-Likes in the game, to the horrible Villainess that The Original Catherine is meant to be? Her description of a the game’s villainess is far meaner than Rosalia was”.

Alright, so, you remember how I named these series “All Girls Dream of Cinderella?

“Yeah”

Well. We now have to talk about Cinderella.

PREV << MASTERLIST >> NEXT

[laundryandtaxes]

I think it's interesting that, a decade ago, I saw a lot of mainstream pushback against the very concept of butch flight (loosely, the concept that what proponents claim is an alarmingly large portion of very gnc women were beginning to form new identities in which they no longer considered thenselves women) and especially against the concept that an alarmingly large portion of very gnc women were beginning testosterone use and surgical interventions to cope with their gendered discomfort. I saw with my own eyes many an indiginant person shout that they knew many, many such people, and almost none of them were either forming new identities and/or turning to medical interventions, and that this was proof those changes were only occurring in people who had some inherent need for them. When I spoke with a professor about a paper I was working on on butch identity formations in a particular time period, she gave me a few potential sources and added blithely and presumptuously, "And I'm assuming you don't want to read anything about butch flight or things like that." I took note of these things even as I have been very clear for years that I think there is, in fact, something to see here. Experiences and cultures vary. While I did not see many people who lived in places like myself- big or medium cities, or citylike pockets near universities such as college towns- take so much issue with the concept, but I could not factually know what portion of us was affected, and where, and how.

Over that same decade, I have seen group after group after group of women like myself be affected by what I think is a real phenomenon- the spread of one particular way of coping with gendered discomfort among a population of people riddled with gendered discomfort, for whom entering an Uber, or presenting a passport in another country, or showing up for an interview, or going to a women's spa or changing room, can be nerve wracking experiences loaded with the weight of the quick, often totally unintended but sometimes outright cruel assumptions of other people. I have known one by one by one by one women who've decided, for various reasons, to end their testosterone use, or that they don't have a gender identity in a meaningful sense, or that they do and that identity is "woman." And I've watched as the phenomenon has become so commonplace that I've seen queer spaces shift their language on detransition- from "exceedingly rare" it has become "uncommon" for someone to stop because they changed their mind on continuing, or one totally benign form of identity exploration that a person was simply "wrong" about, and I have not seen the famous 1% "statistic" floated out by them in large pushes, as I used to. I have never argued before and will not now that it inevitably ruins a person's life to decide to stop a medical intervention, or to choose a medical intervention they come to regret. I have never argued before and will not now that looking uncommon for one's sex is a bad thing, or that the scar of detransition lies in one's ability to be accurately sexed by strangers. To be clear, the uptick in detransition and reidentification is not the point of this or my point- it is simply an inevitable consequence. Even if the 1% stat were correct, 1% of 1000 is still more than 1% of 10. That is, it is simply one of many byproducts of the increased change in identity among this population to begin with.

Now, in 2024, I honestly don't think I know anyone in my own country, especially anyone who lives in the kinds of places in it previously mentioned, who will earnestly decry that there is simply nothing to see here, and that the experience I'm detailing here is totally unfamiliar to themself and to any of their friends at all, and they have absolutely no idea what I'm seeing. I know some people who will chalk it up to increased public acceptance of transition leading to increased internal acceptance of transition and trans identity among people who were actually trans the whole time, and who argue that no one's identity has been actually influenced by what they are seeing and experiencing every day. I know some people who will chalk it up to increased information and access to medical interventions, where applicable. I do not buy that such a massive portion of this group was simply truly trans the whole time, but at least this argument attempts to account for the uptick. But I don't know any people who know a large number of very gnc women in similar social situations to myself who claim, out loud, that this isn't happening at all.

And yet the number of people that I see openly discussing the topic is just about the same, and the general hushed tone on the topic is just about the same, among LGBT people now as it was a decade ago, despite the decade of new inormation and experience. I don't individually have the way out of this cultural moment for us, and I admit that there is a real (if minute) possibility that the arguments that account for this by saying this was functionally inevitable/just a matter of more of us accepting that we require these interventions could be correct, but I think it's important that I continue to name the reality that I think I am seeing with own eyes. Doing so does not deprive anyone of dignity, does not deprive anyone of choice, does not deprive anyone of the ability to self determine or make their own medical decisions. It simply means not lying by ommission.

[orsan1070]

Alolan Raichu's Dark Origins

Yes, the title is kind of clickbait. No, it’s not incorrect. Bear with me here. It’s rare that a theory like this holds water.

Alolan Raichu is a sweet, fairly unassuming mon on the surface. However, with new information that has surfaced from the recent GameFreak “Teraleak”, its behavior and origins are painted in an… interesting light.

This post kind of got away from me. If you don’t care about the nitty-gritty, here’s the TL;DR: Alolan Raichu adapted from a diet of alien drug pancakes. No, this is not a joke.

First, let me preface this. I do not speak Japanese and do not claim to. All translations shown here are done in DeepL and/or Google Translate, or an amalgamation cross-referenced. While I have verified that my ideas hold water with someone who does speak Japanese (@kiskeym on Twitter / @boh.nonso on Medium), I do not have a full direct human translation.

Okay, so, let me provide some background. Some of the documents contained within the Teraleak were development profiles on Pokémon from gens 3 through 7. Of particular interest are the gen 5-7 ones, which contain information that came back later in various dex entries (particularly, I’ve noticed, in SwSh and SV) and other tidbits supported by canon. As these are from close to release and have come back later, I think it’s safe to say that the lore in these is canon. Most of the changes between these profiles and release comes from gameplay changes– I’ve only managed to locate one lore change, and that’s in Golurk. By Alola, these profiles were even being done alongside the concept art, as Palossand’s directly references it. Ergo, I’m treating these as canon. (Not 3 or 4, as those are too early in development, have a lot more changes, and don’t cover every mon in their respective gens.) I’d like to do, or help with, a full deep dive into these at some point in the future, but for now, I just wanted to get this out there.

That said, the information I’m providing here is frequently alluded to in various tidbits in games released after SM– I will provide those sources when necessary. This is almost certainly canon, outside of its scrapped gameplay integration.

(One more sidenote-- I've put leaked profiles in blue, official in-game content in orange, and supplementary material-- in this case, websites-- in green.)

Okay, enough preamble. 

Alolan Raichu’s adaptation is, in the games, played off as somewhat of a mystery, oddly enough. The Sun and Moon website says “Even Pokémon researchers don’t know why Raichu’s form changed in the Alola region.” Sword also says “It's believed that the weather, climate, and food of the Alola region all play a part in causing Pikachu to evolve into this form of Raichu.” Both of these have some sort of uncertainty to them– while there’s folklore about Raichu’s adaptation, the true cause is only through belief. The only consistent factor brought up is Raichu’s diet. The leaked profile expands upon this in an… interesting way. The Japanese text is as follows:

幻とされるデザート『スペシャル・パンケーキ（仮）』を食べることで進化する。

パンケーキに必要な食材はウルトラホールに起因するとされるもので、アローラ地方にしか存在しない。食材は熟練の職人により特殊な毒抜きをしない限り可食できず、そのレシピも、アローラ料理界において秘伝とされている。古老による口伝で語り継がれるのみで、知る者は極めて少ない。

A rough translation of this is:

It evolves by eating the mythical dessert "Special Pancake (tentative name)". 

The ingredients needed for the pancakes are said to come from Ultra Wormholes and only exist in the Alola region. The ingredients are inedible unless a skilled craftsman removes the poison in a special way, and the recipe is also considered a secret in the world of Alola cuisine. It has only been passed down orally by elders, and very few people know it.

This is already hugely interesting, regardless of the later conclusion. Even if you disagree with said later conclusion, this is still definitely fascinating info. It does mention a scrapped evolution item, the ‘Special Pancake’, but this is far from the only case of scrapped and altered evolution methods in these profiles– another example is Alolan Grimer originally being planned to evolve by use of a crystal shed from Alolan Muk. However, we know from Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee that the Special Pancake still exists in the lore:

It loves pancakes prepared with a secret Alolan recipe. Some wonder whether that recipe holds the key to this Pokémon's evolution. 

So, Alolan Raichu adapted because of extradimensional pancakes. Crazy.

It gets weirder. Another excerpt from the profiles says

ほっぺのでんきぶくろを揉みしだくと、カスタードクリームと洋酒（仮）が混ざったような甘い香りがすることで有名。その理由は解明されていないが、サイコパワーを高めると香りが強まる為、超能力に由来する現象とされている。その香りには謎の中毒性があり、愛好家は感電防止の策を講じてそれを嗅ぐことに臨む。

Which roughly translates to

It is famous that when you squeeze the electric sac on its cheek, it gives off a sweet scent that resembles a mixture of custard cream and liquor (tentative). The reason for this is unknown, but since the scent gets stronger as the psychic power increases, it is believed to be a phenomenon that originates from psychic power. The scent is mysteriously addictive, and enthusiasts take measures to prevent electric shock when they try to smell it.

The Japanese word used for ‘addictive’ here is, in fact, a word frequently used to describe addictive drugs. This addictive scent has been alluded to in games after this, also, particularly in Ultra Moon:

When you rub its cheeks, a sweet fragrance comes wafting out. However, you'll also get a light shock! 

The aforementioned Pokemon Sun and Moon website also relays this information:

Raichu has electric sacs on its cheeks, and rubbing them causes a sweet aroma to be released. The mechanism behind this is not clear, but it’s thought to be connected to the psychic power that Alolan Raichu possess.

This directly reflects the profile. So, the pancakes made with ingredients from Ultra Space made safe for eating by an expert, give Alolan Raichu psychic powers (since it adapted to have them as a result of this diet) that are directly correlated with an addictive scent. The profiles also specify one more detail, this time about Alolan Raichu’s personality:

実際の性情も大人しくボーっとしたもので、何事においても動じず、常に笑みをたたえている。

This roughly translates to:

Its actual nature is also quiet and absent-minded, unfazed by anything and always smiling.

This is in direct contrast to Raichu’s usual nature, characterized frequently in the Pokedex as becoming aggressive when it has too much electricity stored:

It turns aggressive if it has too much electricity in its body. It discharges power through its tail.

When electricity builds up inside its body, it becomes feisty. It also glows in the dark.

These specific instances are from Brilliant Diamond and Let’s Go Pikachu and Eevee respectively, but there are several more. This means that Alolan Raichu’s personality changed with its adaptation as well.

So, in short, we’ve got pancakes made with poisonous extradimensional ingredients, purified by experts, that give Alolan Raichu psychic powers connected to an addictive scent and make it quiet, absent-minded, and unflappable. While nothing is explicit here, outside the mention of the scent being addictive, this is certainly reminiscent of common portrayals of various kinds of drugs.

Alolan Raichu is on drugs. Canonically. Probably. Alien drug pancakes. What has Pokémon lore come to

(Thanks again to Kiskeym for verifying this information, and to MewMallow for pointing out some of the similarities here and making me realize what’s going on.)

[ril-sillyart1st]

BATMM FF! AU: Blaze Flarelyn

A full information of my FF! AU Blaze!

The reference sheet:

 More info under the cut! (flashy and colorful blinkies ahead!)

Rules about making fanarts of my AU version:

Note: that chin part is actually my art style and is NOT part of his design!

Do's:

can interact with anyone! SFW drawings ONLY! You can change their outfit as long it's not NSFW! (Note: his style is mainly scene and emo but can be wearing other style)

Don't's:

NSFW art Shipping MY AU version with other characters Making them skinny Removing their boobs Genderbending them

Full information about my Blaze:

Name: Blaze Gloria Lazare Flarelyn Gender and pronouns: Male Intersex (Genderfluid) ★ he/they/she but mainly use he/him pronouns Sexuality: Bisexual Age and Birthday: 38 ★ November 17 Species: Fire species Powers: fire breathing (when in dragon form only), shapeshifting, Blazing Speed, teleportation Height: 29'0 ft (Dragon form: 49'6 ft) Occupation: Racer, mail truck, firetruck, police officer, nurse or/and ambulance truck origin live: Seoul, South Korea Current live: Broomsom Taillights, Axle City (US)

About him:

Doesn't usually join in official races anymore as you would see him and his hubby in the crowd cheering for their daughter. Scene and emo truck Crusher's ex-enemy. Married to Crusher and have (biological) daughter named Fiar. Likes zombie and horror stuff. Neurodivergent (Autistic, ADHD) knows Korean, English, Spanish (a little bit), French (a little bit) and Japanese. Just some random fact: if he's bored, he may play the harmonica (he doesn't know how to play it) to annoy Crusher with his "symphony" music. Has an collection of fidget toys. (especially chew toys, paci and slime) Very much a sweet tooth just like Crusher and Fiar. Doesn't like spicy food. Doesn't know how to roller skate. Knows sign language of English and Korean (vehicle and a little bit of human version as well). How they could teleport: they use their blazing Speed and their mind as they spine in circles while concentrating to where he exactly want to go until he goes into another place (or even world). They rarely use this power.

Personality:

Blaze is mixed of seriousness, kindness and silliness. This type of Blaze is a real goober than other AU Blazes out there. /j /lh /t He mostly show his weird and silly quirks towards Crusher and Fiar (and the rest of his other fam). He can be also clumsy sometimes especially playing sport games with his friends and family. Crusher describe him as "secondary Pickle" due to the fact Blaze likes to annoy and be mischievous towards him sometimes. He may act like an animal (his dragon/dog instinct or something like that) sometimes mostly when he's in his dragon form.

Appearance:

Blaze was an male intersex (both having male and female parts). He had top surgery when he was 23 years old because he always wanted to breastfeed his future child. He rather wears more masculine clothes but does occasionally wears feminine and neutral clothes. Anthro Machines form: His body type is fat/plus size, medium chest with top surgery flamey design scars.

Blaze's lore can be read here!

credits: SFW interaction only divider, fire divider, blinkies

[lastdaysofwar]

The one with the prompt month

First of all, I was not expecting as many people to vote on that poll as they did. With just under a day before it closes, we’re at almost 200 votes, which is…several times more than what I expected. Now, I was prepared to run this even if it only got 20 votes, so Last Days of War January 2025 is absolutely going forward now. 

With that in mind, I’ve put together this post with some questions I think might need to be answered in regards to the event, though if anyone has anything else to ask, please feel free to! 

The Questions: 

What is a prompt month?

It’s the same principle as challenges such as Inktober, really. A calendar of prompts is released prior to the event itself, with a prompt or several prompts to each day of the challenge month. 

The prompts will be kept fairly loose to ensure that they’re suitable for whatever medium people may use, but as many of them as possible will be Pacific Rim themed, taking inspiration from the first movie as well as the comic books. 

The current plan (inspiration providing) is to assign three short prompts to each day in the month of January, which participants can pick and choose from, or try to use all three! This is, of course, dependent on having more than ninety prompts of a good quality, and that plan could still change. At the very least, there will be one prompt for each day. All going well, the prompt calendar will be made and posted by early November to maximise prep time.

How to take part? 

There’s no sign-up necessary, so you participate simply by following along with the prompt calendar throughout the month! 

Make sure to use the tag  ‘#last days of war 2025’ and/or tag @lastdaysofwar on tumblr so that others can find your posts and the mod can reblog them onto the event page! 

An Ao3 collection will also be made for the event so that anyone who posts over there can add their works and make them easier to locate. 

Rules/Guidelines: 

Honestly, it’s a bit of a free for all. The mod (hi!) is mostly here to facilitate the event by doing the prompts, answering questions and reblogging posts. The people have the power in this one. 

All I will ask is that everyone be respectful to one another. If someone posts something that you don’t personally like, don’t harass them over it, just scroll past. We’re all here to have fun and enjoy the event in our own way. 

Also, please try to interact with each others’ posts! Take a look through the tag to see what others have made, and make sure to let them know if you enjoy it. We all love hearing that people liked our stuff. 

Further Questions?

If you have any further questions about the event, you can DM or send an ask to this account (@lastdaysofwar). The mod is more than happy to answer any questions you may have, so fire away! 

There is a google form for this event that you can find here. It's quite short, and mostly to gather opinions from people who want to participate, so be sure to fill it out!