#also just mute Link

[hualianisms]

verified ways to donate to gaza directly

[this post is outdated. up-to-date version here.]

Donate to a Palestinian family directly:

gazafunds.com - Donate directly to a Palestinian family in urgent need of evacuation, medical treatment, daily necessities or more. Site run by Palestinians, all GFMs verified (full list here). Spotlights 1 stagnant GFM at a time. (*If you can't decide who/where to donate, just go to gazafunds.com & donate to the 1 GFM they show you!)

masterlist of 200+ verified Palestinian families' GFMs: Operation Olive Branch

Help provide tents:

The Sameer Project: Currently providing tents & transport for families in Rafah who urgently need to evacuate to Deir Al Balah. Has a team on the ground in Gaza who have supplied tents to 1% of the displaced population in Rafah. Run by Palestinians. (paypal) (gfm)

@helpgazachildren: Currently helping Palestinians in a refugee camp in Rafah flee the Rafah invasion to Khan Younis. Funds go directly to Hussam, a Palestinian in Rafah who hosts a refugee camp. Funds will cover the cost of tents & transport fuel. Managed by a Palestinian @.fairuzfan. (gfm)

Food:

Care for Gaza: Palestinian charity on the ground in Gaza distributing food, cash, medicine & other essentials to displaced families. Proof of their work found on their Twitter. (paypal) (gfm)

We Feed Gaza: Team of Palestinian volunteers in the heart of Gaza distributing food & water to 344+ families. More details & proof in their gfm. Vetted & promoted by LetsTalkPalestine on IG. (gfm)

Direct Aid for Gaza: A Palestinian activist on the ground in Gaza distributing food, cash & other essential supplies to displaced families. Proof of their work found on their twitter. (paypal) (gfm)

Water (*urgent and crucial!)

Gaza Municipality: The official Municipality of Gaza is doing vital, life-saving work to rebuild the water pipes in Gaza City to restore access to clean water & waste management services for the people of Gaza.

eSIMs (*very urgent):

guide to buy & send esims to gaza

Crips for eSims for Gaza: donate any amount to this team of volunteers who pool funds to buy & maintain gaza esims regularly (see their financial accountability document).

Medical Aid:

Gaza Wound Care: Palestinian doctors in central Gaza treating injured/sick children & mothers in neglected displacement camps far from hospitals. Facing a severe shortage of medicines, equipment, and medical supplies. Currently raising funds to support their efforts to battle infectious diseases in refugee camps. (gfm) (paypal) (gogetfunding)

international charities: Palestine Red Crescent Society, Palestine Children's Relief Fund, Medical Aid for Palestinians

How to help if you can't donate:

Share & amplify Palestinian fundraisers in your irl & online circles

Organize or help to run an online/irl event to raise funds for Palestine

Boycott

Get involved with a protest/strike/direct action in your area

Contact your reps

Educate yourself & others both irl & online

Daily clicks on Arab.org

(you can even adopt 1 fundraiser campaign to regularly boost it & make materials promoting it online, or print posters/flyers about Palestinian fundraisers to encourage others to donate. (poster/graphic about gazafunds.com: here, flyers about esims: here, flyers about gazafamilyfunds: here)

(longer masterpost of all ways you can help)

(*all these links and more now in this rentry page. will no longer be updating this post, instead refer to the rentry page)

Last updated 3/6/2024 with Gaza Wound Care & We Feed Gaza. Wanted to focus on Palestinian-run grassroots initiatives that will actually reach Gazans on the ground, so all of these except eSIMs, PCRF, MAP are by Palestinians. Donating to international orgs is not ideal rn as aid is still being stopped at the border. Please focus on Palestinian-run initiatives on the ground in Gaza.

Remember, small donations really do add up. Any amount counts, even $1!

[gaylactic-fire]

Conflicting emotions about EoW reusing the toy style ngl. On the one hand, that's my absolute favourite artistic direction they've had in a LoZ game, and I adore it aesthetically. On the other hand, what made it so special in LAHD was how it cleverly connected to the story. Making Koholint look like a plastic diorama - contrasting heavily with the anime-style beginning cutscene - teases LA's big twist right from the very beginning. No other Zelda game has ever been able to do that with its art style alone. I do worry that Nintendo are seeing the toy style as a potential new norm for the 2D games (much like they stuck to the toon style in the DS era) and that it may eventually diminish just how clever and creative LAHD is.

[science-lings]

dipping my toes back into the zelda/LU fandom bc there's some good ass fanfiction that I haven't reread in a couple years and remember when people got pissy when Wild's child soldier status was explored as if that isn't an extremely fascinating thing to consider about the character.

Like sure some of the links were young on their adventures and that's great trauma for them but for some reason it was annoying when people mentioned that Wild pulled the sword way before the calamity struck and was forced to train and be very visibly in the public eye from a young age. Like the pressure of being the hero everyone needed him to be impacted him so much that he went mute, he was a weapon the king was trying to forge to face the calamity and his mere existence is an omen for oncoming disaster and even with all that time to become the best warrior the kingdom has ever seen, it was still not enough and he didn't even make it to the castle.

That's amazingly devastating, it's such an interesting subversion of the zelda formula of 'surprise, normal kid gets a sword and is sent off to save the world'. Sure, at some point he was just some guy but it wasn't like completely a surprise attack like it usually is. There was a prophecy and warning signs and time to try to prevent the calamity and it was all destined to not be enough. No matter how much he trained or how many weapons they had on their side it wasn't going to be enough and that's so important to the story.

My only pet peeve about the stories that do touch on Wild's past is the implication that he's somehow worse than the Link that fled the calamity. As if his work to regain his former strength and skills really meant nothing and the guy before, who remember, DIED BECAUSE HE WASNT STRONG ENOUGH, because that guy has years of training and a more soldier-y disposition he's a better fighter than Wild, who has the same skills but isn't restrained by protocol or proper technique.

[blueskittlesart]

no pressure at all, but i was wondering how you think Zelda would react to a mute/deaf link? i bet she originally thought he was conceited but had the gut punch realization that he couldn’t help it and that she had spent all this time judging him

struggling to figure out how to word this but i think this is.. essentially what happens in canon? canonically, link is selectively mute, which essentially just means that physically, he can technically speak. there's no physical problem with his vocal chords, hearing, etc that makes him mute, it's a mental block instead of a physical one. that doesn't mean that it's something he can control, though. I've heard it described as being like your vocal chords just "stop working" in certain situations, whether due to anxiety, trauma, overstimulation, or some other trigger. meaning you still physically can't talk, there's just no anatomical reason for the mutism. so whether he's deaf, physically mute, or selectively mute, i think zelda still has the gut-punch oh shit, he couldn't help it moment and that she DESERVES to have that gut-punch, because that realization that she'd been projecting her own insecurities onto him and refusing to take into account his situation is an important kickstarter to her personal growth and development. But i guess what i'm saying is i don't think her reactions would change very much if you change the way he's communicating with her. With selectively mute link, i do like to think that he eventually becomes comfortable enough around her that he's able to speak for short amounts of time and begins to communicate that way, as is implied in canon (but that's never actually outright stated, just that he "opened up" to her eventually, so it's possible he never actually TALKED to her at all and communicated some other way.) sign language, written language, however he decides to explain what's going on to her, he still was physically incapable of speaking to her before, and she still judged him heavily for it. so tldr yeah, i think no matter what form of mutism you want to give him, she always has to have that moment of shock and realization that she was pushing her own insecurities onto him and that she was downright CRUEL to him. it's one of the most important moments of her arc!

[party-pixie]

got cooked by the qadistu so bad i had to close the game to process the embarrassment, so i added tabs to the notebook in the meantime

it was actually kinda hard to do and i might adjust the colors on them a little, but i think i like how it turned out so far

[socialc1imb]

It’s hard knowing that everything will be okay but not being able to explain why

[waywardsalt]

gonna be a hater in tags real quick

[stellar-jay]

i think i'm just gonna have thus always to tyrants on repeat until my copy of fools errand comes

[sapphuric-acid]

I have even more questions now about what the fuck a platonic bond is supposed to be

Because some of you (alloplatonic folks) immediately latch onto others and go "you are my family now" without knowing shit about other people

And some of you just go "yeah we're basically just aquaintances"

Those are two fucking separate things why are you using the word "friend" so loosely

Like if the definition of friend can just be "I like your vibe" then how do you even differentiate a friend from an acquaintance? Why would you even bother at that point?

And if the definition of "platonic bond" and thereby "platonic attraction" is so loose, then how the hell do you distinguish between people who experience platonic attraction and those who don't?

I know that the human condition or whatever defies categorization but this is simple fucking language we're talking here, we literally have words for all of these things so why are we muddying their meanings

[muninnhuginn]

Li Tianchen and Li Tianxi timeline

This is my attempt to piece together what I think the most likely chain of events is regarding the twins from the evidence we have as of season two episode nine.

X years prior to present day

Li Tianchen meets Liu Xiao at the fountain. Liu Xiao says that you have to really gun for what you want. He speaks of how the world is a "jungle" and only a few can evolve and become "hunters", else they must be prey. Li Tianchen internalises this.

Seven years prior to present day

Li Tianchen and Li Tianxi live with their parents. Their father (Li Fan) hears rumours of their mother (Liu Lan) cheating on him (rumours which their neighbour stoked - he's one of the rumour birds in ep 9) and uses it as an excuse to physically abuse her and threaten them all with a hammer when they try to help her. Li Tianchen and Li Tianxi flee to the other room. At this point, Li Tianchen and Li Tianxi are touching each other (but not Liu Lan) and Li Tianxi is clutching the photograph taken earlier that day. It appears as though Liu Lan (possessed) takes the hammer and approaches Li Fan but we don't get to see the full scene before CXS is thrown out of the dive and there is no knife involved at this stage. When we return, Liu Lan is dead by knife and Li Fan by hammer. Li Tianchen later claims to Qian Jin that he killed both of them. However, we haven't seen what actually happened and Tianxi's later retelling has a flashback of Liu Lan apologising to her which must happen sometime in the blanked out scene.

The twins meets Qian Jin at the site of the crime scene, who takes them both on board and modifies the police files relating to their case. The twins have their police files erased and vanish and Qian Jin quits the force.

Y months prior to the current day

We next see Tianchen and Qian Jin at a meeting with Liu Min. This appears to be several years later as Tianchen seems much older. Liu Min says Qian Jin has already helped "resolve matters with that woman" (I do think he literally means in a lawyerly way in retrospect rather than a murdery way, especially when QJ's first response to him asking to take care of the online attacks is to say "I'll send them letters".). As Liu Min has use of his legs at this point, this places this scene at prior to season one episode one and so months before season two.

Liu Min is asking QJ and Tianchen to target his "haters", that is, those who talk badly of him or spread rumours about him online, and his first target is Tianchen's former neighbour. It seems that the neighbour hasn't changed his rumour-spreading ways. Tianchen laughs.

Chronologically alongside and after season one episode one

Liu Min tries to threaten Emma after the games company news breaks and his embezzled money is at risk. It gets out of hand and he ends up with a crashed car and paralysed legs. Emma heads to the bridge, intending to commit suicide, but is stopped by Cheng Xiaoshi. Emma is then possessed via photo by one of the twins and leaps to her death, Cheng Xiaoshi as the only "witness". (The story currently wants us to place this as Li Tianchen doing the possessing and given red eyes speaks this does make most sense but I'm keeping my options open. Tianchen's powers at least include touch possession though and we saw him receive Chen Bin's photo not long before his potential possession.)

End of season one/start of season two

Possessed Liu Min abducts Xu Shanshan and is invited to CXS's "game" the next day. When they show at the photo shop they're trapped in the developing room where they mention that they were "only an agent" (because they were carrying out the killings on behalf of someone else?) and that they would never kill "innocents". Once CXS reveals this was all a trap to get a confession, red eyes then retreats from Liu Min. Liu Min is taken into police custody.

Later that day, when CXS jumps back to try and save Emma, Qiao Ling is possessed and stabs Lu Guang. When CXS returns, possessed QL claims that CXS "cheated" in their game and lets slip that CXS's powers "also" involve photos, with the "also" having heavy implications.

Liu Min is possessed again and made to commit suicide. It's unclear in which order Lu Guang's stabbing and Liu Min's "suicide" happen and whether they occur simultaneously or not.

Happening chronologically alongside season two episode two

Qian Jin retrieves a photo of Chen Bin and passes it on to Li Tianchen.

Chen Bin is (potentially) possessed, confiscates Liu Min's phone and passes it off to Xiao Ma (Qian Jin's lackey). He then falls from top of the hospital building. (Note: Tianxi's telling of her backstory shows a shot of Chen Bin apologising and crying. It could technically have taken place at any time, but it makes most sense it fits here)

One of the twins at the staircase asks Xiao Ma for Liu Min's phone. They don't speak and even though at a glance the fringe seems to resemble Li Tianchen's it seems to make more sense at this stage for this to be Li Tianxi. This occurs chronologically before the scene in the next paragraph as Xiao Ma is confronting CXS and QL when LG tries to leave his hospital room and is arrested immediately following the confrontation.

Lu Guang tries to leave the room and receives a photo from what appears to be Li Tianxi. This has a photo of Liu Lan and Li Tianxi on the front and the back says about not wanting to lose a good brother, with a childish doodle next to it. The Tianxi delivering the photo wears a blue jacket and a mask which appears to match with the twin on the staircase.

Season two episode four

A few days appear to have passed since episode two as Chen Bin's funeral has now taken place.

Qian Jin speaks to Xiao Ma and realises that one of the twins took Liu Min's phone. (He updates Liu Jing on this after the funeral though he may have known of it before). Given Tianchen and Qian Jin appear to still be in cahoots as of s2e9, this points to it being Li Tianxi who intercepted the phone.

"Li Tianxi" phones Qian Jin. QJ asks "have you found him?" (I'm using Funi subs here so can't confirm but about 90% sure it was translated like this because the Chinese subs used 'ta' (他) which does mean 'he' but sounds identical to 'ta' (她) which means 'she'. In other words, it could just as easily be "have you found her?" and the og subs used the male 'ta' for ambiguity) Qian Jin comments that this (plan) is "pretty risky" but so long as it's carried out before the police realise it should work. Most likely this is Li Tianchen disguised as Li Tianxi soon to walk straight into a police station. This Tianxi is wearing the pink hoodie as far as I can tell.

This all implies that Li Tianxi is "missing" already and when this is put together with the hospital scenes in episode two, she likely went awol back then or not long after. Li Tianxi fled wearing a school uniform rather than the hoodie of the hospital scenes and it is in this that she is later found.

Qian Jin and Li Tianchen discuss the specifics of Li Tianchen's escape from the police station beforehand. Qian Jin lays out all the instructions of the plan so Tianchen just has to follow them and retrieve CXS.

"Li Tianxi" shows up at the police station and asks for CXS.

Season two episodes six to eight

Tianchen-as-Tianxi uses CXS's sympathies to get him to touch him whereupon he possesses him. He then also possesses Wang Juan and together they leave the police station. Tianchen makes it to the docks but isn't able to take CXS. Instead, LG is taken himself.

Miscellaneous notes

Clothing-wise, in s2, we appear to have Li Tianxi wearing a blue hoodie and a mask at first during the hospital scenes and then later a school uniform when she decides to flee. This is copying Li Tianchen's outfit in the meeting with Liu Min (and his general colour scheme prior to that).

Li Tianchen wears a pink hoodie and when disguised as Li Tianxi he also adds a mask and wig.

In both cases I suspect the mask is used to obscure their identity. Tianxi retrieved the phone as Tianchen and Tianchen infiltrated the police station as Tianxi.

Whilst this layout of events places Liu Min's phone with Tianxi, at the time she is taken into police custody she no longer appears to have it. It may be hidden somewhere important to her or in the place she was found.

I can't place exactly when Li Tianchen meets Liu Xiao again, but am reasonably sure the chronology in the episode is accurate here and it's before LTC meets Liu Min for the first time. Liu Xiao said that LTC would have opportunities to "hunt" in the near future and there Liu Min was. Also, we know that Liu Xiao was studying abroad around the time of the present timeline so it has to have occurred before then (from the 'will we meet again' and 'it's almost time' I'm tempted to say this scene is just before LX leaves for abroad honestly).

Also, LX says the difference between a 'hunter' and a 'beast' is that a hunter hunts even when not hungry - this is where the scales get tipped from self-defence to actively killing - it's an important mental shift for LTC.

[gloryseized]

@perditos liked this for a cuddle starter!

Link had one leg tucked up under his thigh with the other straight out to the side, Zelda resting comfortably in between them. She was surveying, she'd told him once before, her pencil idly sketching out the landscape and paying particular attention to the different hills and rock formation especially. She'd told him once that based on the land, a seasoned archeologist could spot the remains of an old settlement just by looking at the landscape. Link privately thought she just liked drawing and needed some purpose to justify why she might just enjoy something.

Either way, he was more than happy to give her time to do something she actually enjoyed. Idle fingers carded through her hair, starting out her crown and working down to the very ends, repeating the motion over and over again. If he were braver, he might attempt a braid, but he wasn't sure he should be trusted doing a braid to anyone's hair, let alone the princess.

[teaandinanity]

I'm gonna wind up learning CSS entirely against my will because my fucking 'send this shit to the shadow realm I don't want it' skin is NOT blocking a thing I need to kill

my kingdom for a native site blocklist that did not involve learning to code I am too stupid for this

[cloudbends]

I got so absorbed in the game that I forgot to post about it. oops

[science-lings]

If you're still doing the three sentence ask game: amazing

'Look-Okay?' Link signed with his eyebrows raised in question, trying not to press his lips together to keep the fresh lip paint from smudging.

"You look amazing little wolf, there's no way she's going to recognize you like this," Urbosa assured him, pinning the last piece of his hair away from his face, completing the look.

'Thank you' he motioned after a moment of thought, the Gerudo chief had sensed something fruity about the hero for a while, so she refused to call out the way he tried to repress the ends of his mouth from quirking up when he examined himself in the mirror.

[tiresomespaceplant]

you know what maybe i Should make this into more of a personal blog

[mokureen]

so like i’m fairly sure the four sages are played by the same voice actors as the champions in botw and that has Destroyed Me