#i wrote sumi for the first time!!!!! which is interesting

[orcelito]

Oh yeah I finished scene 1 of libero a due (chapter 2) today, with 2.2k words. I'm hoping this is a good sign.

[senblades]

hi! i love fftsr and i really enjoy the dynamics between everyone and their personas so i wanted to ask how you decided to characterise the personas/their dynamics and if you had envisioned how the other thieves interact with their personas as well?

sorry if this question is weird 😭 keep up the good work!!

interesting question...

(uhhh I didn't think this would happen with this question but SPOILERS FOR UP TO CHAPTER 46 OF FFTSR)

To be honest, the ony dynamic that I put a real degree of thought into is the Akechi & Robin & Loki dynamic- I wanted neither persona to be entirely good or rational, or one side representative of 'being evil' or whatever. Akechi's problem, is that his thoughts, feelings, and ideas so often contradict eachother, and he is entirely unable to reconcile that. So even when Robin and Loki do agree, Akechi is more likely to ignore them than take thier advice.

Of course, just because I didn't put too much thought into it doesn't mean I'm pulling all the other dynamics out of my ass lmao:

Sumire takes second place for "Persona who talks the most"- Ella, for the most part, is a supportive force that also isn't afraid to call Sumire on her bullshit. Whether or not Sumi listens is another matter entirely. This sort of stems from how Sumire's third awakening is her final resolve to stand on her own, to reject Maruki's reality despite all it could give her, to be unapolagetically Sumire for the rest of her life- So her persona is a force to remind her of that vow, when she starts slipping into her anxieties and her tendency for avoidance.

Haru doesn't get a lot of POV scenes, but her awakening was very fun for me to write. Since I've taken Haru in a direction that is distinctly angry, I wanted Milady's words to reflect that anger at her circumstances, and the need to break from it.

Ren doesn't chat with Arsene often enough for me to remember much of what he says HAHA- he doesn't have the same influence on Ren's character the same way that Akechi and Sumire's persona's do. When he does talk, however, it's usually to quip or be a smartass- a trait which I've quietly yoinked from how people tend to characterise Arsene/Shadow Ren- as, simply, the essence of Joker.

And, now that Ren has also resolved the whole Crow situation, his dynamic with Metatron is pretty much that Metatron is a forceful reminder of the kind of thinking that got Ren to make poor descisions in the first place. Metatron often speaks up any time that Ren tries to justify taking Maruki's deal, spoken with all the snark and fury of the real Akechi.

Most of the PT haven't had POV scenes, but Futaba and Makoto certainly have!

For Futaba, any time Necronomicon speaks up is usually when Futaba is trying to avoid something. Stemming from her awakening, Futaba's vow to never allow lies to decieve her again is reflected in her persona, and especially when she tries to decieve herself.

For Makoto- I actually can't remember if Johanna has spoken in a previous chapter, or if she's going to speak in an upcoming one, but Johanna's shtick also stems from Makoto's awakening. Makoto's vow was to not be trampled by authority, to ensure that she can be herself even in a society that aims to push her in a box. Johanna will speak up if Makoto is becoming complacent, if she tries to take the easy way out.

Uhh that's pretty much it! For the other PT's personas, I would similarly draw from their awakenings to decide what I would want them to say. For the most part, though, everyone's personas start getting chatty when their wielders aren't being true to themselves.

FUCK I FORGOt about Maruki. HAHA I wrote Azathoth as being a cryptic peice of shit, mostly. That kind of 'cult leader talk' is the kind of shit he pulls in canon, and I saw no reason to change that.

Shadow Maruki, on the other hand, is a more true reflection of the man himself- an echo of who he was in the original timeline. Shadows and personas are two sides of the same coin, but how they present themselves does vary. They're archetypes, rather than a 1:1 of their wielder's personality.

aaand that's all I got! ty for the ask! <3 <3 <3

[ruiniel]

Hey, dearie~ Apologies for the random Ask, but am curious as to your thoughts on a particular subject (and… may or may not need them for fic reasons 🤐): Does Alucard actually consume blood? Human and/or animal.

Aside from those stores in his keep under Gresit (which are… bizarre in and of themselves, honestly 🤔) and a comment to Trevor about 'killing and eating' him which could be interpreted in different ways, there doesn't appear to be that much canonical evidence to support the idea. Took my noob ponderings to the world wide web, but with little success. Most offered info from his game counterpart, which states that he apparently has consumed in the past but dislikes the taste? 🤔 If correct, one could fill in the gaps with info from similar sources as such, of course, but I personally still enjoy reading others' takes on the question. 😁

And it's naturally a fun idea that the fandom seems to eat up; him drinking from his partner 'cause c'mon, you have a half-VAMPIRE boyfriend/husband! Bu~ut, what if he doesn't like blood? What would the reason be? HAS he perhaps consumed in the past but no longer does? Share with me your wisdom!... Please. If it's not too much trouble. 😊

Hi! Finally got to this, thanks for asking! This'll be a long-ish one.

From your note I take it we're mainly interested in 'show-canon' here, and that’s the lens I’ll filter this through but I'll refer to other media from the Castlevania universe on this topic.

Yes, as you wrote, the show-verse interpretation of him has some references to hematophagy:

The presence of these in Alucard's private Keep:

Considering Alucard was in pretty bad shape after the first confrontation with Drac, and IF we assume those contain blood, it seems implied it was used in some manner as part of a healing/reanimation system OR, maybe, as sustenance during his Sleep ... The provenance of it? We (I) don't know, the show doesn't focus on that.

Alucard heals speedily when wounded as evidenced in the show a few times, and the fact that the chest scar remains after Dracula fights him in season I suggests to me just how close to kicking the bucket he might've been, if we think about who wounded him in the first place. So, maybe this was a one time case of needing this extra support? But don't know. In the speculation business here.

Just a fun thing, they make me think of these health bars in the games:

2. Again as you mentioned, the 'kill you and eat you' banter. It's hard to tell but my take is Alucard simply played on Trevor's preconceptions there to get a laugh out of it, since he was aware of the prophecy as shown when he asks Sypha here 'do you know the whole story?'

(can we pause to appreciate Sypha's blush for a moment aww)

And (I think) that when he saw them and heard their reason for coming, he likely knew, hence the 'do you care, Belmont?' questions. But he's a bastard(affectionate) and why not test a Belmont out because he can.

3. Adding what he told Sumi and Taka in season III:

Now, the statement might've been an extrapolation as a part of training, but do with that what you will.

It's a fun idea to eat up(har har) because blood drinking, or the symbolism of it - taking of one’s life force, has often been depicted as having a sensual side in certain literature genres and other media if the intent is not murderous (aka not a 'drink them dry' situation). It represents a physical and visceral connection between the (usually) willing giver and taker on a much deeper level than other pleasurable physical interactions let's say. It involves a huge amount of trust from one party, and the validation of that trust by the other.

I won't go into the wider discussion of the vampire myth origins and how it changed from its folkloric roots around the 19th century, though there is a lot to say. But the concept of vampirism has been around for millennia - as far back as Mesopotamia. Suffice to add that the contemporary Lestat-Dracula-Alucard types, the elegant, decadently flawless depictions of the vampire are a product of literary works gaining popularity at the time (rotting thanks to John Polidori, Sheridan Le Fanu and the like). Also! The term dhampir is not a Castlevania invention, but has its origins in Balkan folklore, with the same meaning.

Most offered info from his game counterpart, which states that he apparently has consumed in the past but dislikes the taste? 🤔 If correct, one could fill in the gaps with info from similar sources as such, of course

Right! The gameverse/Castlevania universe has some other references to it too, some I remember:

In SOTN he can activate a spell called dark metamorphosis, which in summary heals him if coming in contact with (enemies') blood 

Soul steal is another spell in the games that Alucard (and Dracula) can master, which is just that: healing by draining 'souls'/the life energy of those around them, dealing damage and healing themselves.

While neither of these are straight up 'blood drinking' they follow the trail of vampirism - draining the vital essence of the living.

And since we're here, lumping this together. A spinoff radio drama (Japanese) taking place after SOTN events deals strongly with Alucard and hematophagy. In Nocturne of Recollection Maria Renard is living with Alucard after the SOTN events (... nothing suggested they’re in a romantic relationship, mind you, at least it didn't seem like it to me).

The Villain of the story (incubus Magnus) appears to Maria and suggests Alucard won’t be able to control his thirst at one point around her, saying something like (paraphrasing) “why do you think he keeps a human around”.

She doesn’t believe him, but then asks Alucard about it, who admits he has consumed human blood in the past, but obviously doesn’t anymore. In the past he turned an old servant/friend (Lyudmil) into a vampire, which is strongly implied. It's also suggested that he struggled with his vampirism and legacy. I like to reference these bits in any ‘dhampir turns someone’ fic since it’s still in the Castlevania universe and Why Not.

Going back to the animated show, I’ve seen (and used) some common tropes in CV series fanfic:

drinks blood in dire circumstances: he’s gravely injured, usually beyond healing abilities for some reason and someone offers up blood to help him heal/get back on his feet

Sensual, usually blood kink/blood play, mostly in smutfic 

My headcanon of show-verse Alucard is he can drink blood, but he doesn’t need to, since we've of course seen him eat plain ol' human food. Nor is he interested, I see him presented as leaning more towards the human side of his legacy here. Anyway, this was the mile-long ramble, I likely missed some things but in the end it's up to you how you want to interpret it as an author, how much you want to keep to the fandom universe or expand beyond it.

I'm a strong proponent of 'it's canon if it works for me' in fanfiction writing tbh, and I've written AU show-verse Alucard drinking blood for various reasons/with various effects. Looking forward to how you apply it for fic purposes!

[ciaossu-imagines]

Of course 💕 You deserve it and so much more. Also, I'm glad you're enjoying the requests. It's truly a win-win. About the kids’ story, I actually finished it 20 October (I wrote the date down so I’ll never forget) and I’m still kind of mourning it. It was so fun to write but it had to end and I was actually crying while writing it, not only because of it coming to an end but mainly because of what I had to write. I  think I told you about the main plan I had for the ending and I wrote that and everything that happened afterwards and it was not pleasant to write but it makes sense and I don’t regret it. I also want to tell you something small that I kept forgetting to in our previous conversations so is it alright if I DM it to you at some point? It’s super heartbreaking though, so be warned. But I was excited about finishing it for sure. I even wrote a list of everything that I still had to write and made sure I wrote at least one chapter every day until the end. The reason I mentioned 20 February was because I posted my Yata story on 18 and 19 February 2022 so I’ll start posting it on the two year anniversary of that story and because this one is so damn long (484 pages 😅), I know it will likely take around 3 days to post since the Yata story which is 336 pages took two days.

And kind of. Two in fact, though I first want to finish or get closer to finishing some of my other WIPs. The first idea is a shortish story of Haruki and Miiko’s child, Sumiko. She’s someone I’d like to explore since I’ve already got ideas about what she’ll be like in my mind and I’d like to write them down and see how they turn out. I say shortish because I’ll probably write until she’s 20 or so so because I don’t want to kill anyone of the older generation and want to leave that out in the open. Also because ma’am is not someone who’ll want a long term relationship so there also won’t be a wedding to work towards. In other story the main character will be Hinata’s older sister, Naomi. I wrote in the kids’ story that she’s married and her husband appears in a few scenes and because they’re both such nice people, it’d be interesting to write about them. Though Noami is still Hinata’s sister (an Ishida) so I presume she does have a fighter in her even if she doesn’t tend to be aggressive.

You definitely did. You deserve a good life and the way you were being treated wasn’t helping with that. And good luck in your journey. Right back at ya. You’re amazing as well and I hope that no matter what happens in the future, you remember that.

Also, thank you for answering my ask about your pfp. I’ll definitely check out that blog and if I can, might commission her to draw one of my OCs (probably Kyashi since I’m the best at describing her).

C

I really am and I am glad you are considering it a win-win! Honestly, I worry my writing has lost some of it's original touch and appeal but I am just trying, getting back into the swing of things, and honestly just having as much fun with it as I possibly can so I'm trying hard not to let the worrying of it get to me. And wow, congratulations on finishing it! I know what you mean by still mourning it because it was such a big part of you and your writing for a long time, it was something fun and an amazing break from reality for little sections of your day, much like this blog is to me, and it feels like a loss and you need to grieve it once it's no longer there or once you have finished it! I can definitely see why you would have been crying while writing too, especially remembering the kind of plan you had for the ending and I look forward to reading it and crying myself! Also, it's oddly comforting to realize I'm not the only one who cries sometimes while writing angst haha. And I think that's so goddamn amazing, the posting it on the anniversary of your other story! I love that!

I'm glad to hear you have other stories in mind and plans still in the same universe as that. It would be fun and interesting to see how Sumiko does turn out, what kind of person she'll be and how her life kind of turns out! And I can get what you mean by not wanting until adulthood because it would force some deaths of the OG's and such and that would hurt a lot, both for the writer and the fans. And hmm, it would be interesting to see some of the side characters, like Naomi, get their own little days in the spotlight. That would be super cute and really delightful so count me a fan of both ideas!

And no problems about the pfp and, of course, you know you can always dm me or email me if you prefer! I am slow in answering messages but will definitely try my best!

[cttrajan1206]

#arrow sys#Love them#Absolute sweethearts all of em#And suoer fun to sprint with

FIRST OF ALL SOBS /pos

second,,, i know nothing abt twst or obey me but grabby hands at a ramble; i will absolutely listen if you wanted to talk about it :starry:

JSHDJF [WAILS ALOUD] I TOOK SO LONG SO GET BACK TO YOU THAT I FINISHED ONE OF THE WIPS IN THAT TIME LMAO!!

Well!! This is good promo! :> The one that i was typing up is finished now and it's the obey me fic! You can find it here:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/33644662

Mammon and Movies:

Basically! Someone read another fic of mine that included my self insert flappy stimming and also getting mental breakdown so it asked if i could include a couple other stims in another work since he enjoyed my first one! I. Took that request and made an entire fic dedicated to him lmao. So! I asked it later on for what it would like me to include and which character to use and here we are!

This is a 4K fic of Mammon from Obey Me paired with a Neurodivergent!Reader. The plot is that of him showing you a magic trick and smoothly whipping out a movie ticket!! You've been wanting to ask him to see a movie with you for a while so this is perfect! So perfect in fact that you're overwhelmed with happiness and have a brief moment of being nonverbal as you're overwhelmed with euphoria. Then the next day, you meet him at the venue and the date begins! Other scenes include him allowing you to hold onto his bracelets as it's one of your stims (he wears one of every texture to accomodate to your tastes), you dissociating out of anxiety in a movie theatre and him helping to ground you, and finally! Him sleeping on your shoulder before the movie ends.

Ik i kinda just said the majority of the plot lmao but! Its just a fluffy and sweet movie date! I enjoyed writing it a lot although i got about 80% of it done a month ago and tyn didn't touch it for like 2 weeks sjdbsjd i was p sad abt that. I like finishing things quickly esp when its for other people!! But it was a comfort during a hard time to write this work at 2am under the light of a night lamp and to the tune of street life ambience.

ALSO I FOUND OUT THAT MAMMONS OFFICIAL SONG "ARE YOU READY" LEGIT HAS NO HOURLONG LOOPS AND THAT WAS A HARD HIT TO ME BC LIKE I WANTED TO LISTEN TO IT ON TV BUT IT WASNT HAPPENINGGG TWT WHY DOES EVERYONE LIKE ALL THE OTHER OTHER BROTHER'S SONGS INSTEAD LIKE PLSSS

Anyway lmao i'm quite happy with this work, it feels very round and finished to me which makes me happy because it means I didn't need to worry about editing it to feel satisfied. The requester liked it a lot too! Which made me super super happy. :>

Now!! For the twisted wonderland!! That’s a comfort plotline of mine that doesn’t really have a title yet and is still a wip that is written through my friend’s DMs BUT! I will also take the time to promo my twst writing blog! It is dead QvQ On there, you can see a bit more about the self insert in question but for now, i’ll just put the ship name as the title.

https://twst-sumi-squad.tumblr.com/

Kalim Al-Asim X Sumi Bint Khattar (Plot line):

So!! This one stemmed from me drawing something out of self indulgence and to show it to my friend, I described Sumi B in full and then I told them about my ships and around that time I had like five love songs I was obsessed with. And for each of them. I had. A separate animatic. For like at least 1 ship, the average was two but one had three. Sumi B was the centre of the most ships but not the only one. Anyway!! I told my friend about this and asked if I could dump my ideas onto them! They agreed and I started with a summarised version but then realised I needed a bit more build up so I started to write it in a bit more detail. Hah. It ended up being a Lot More Detailed but even then, I would write the scenes in a much more fluid and descriptive way if it were Real Writing so! I call it a Plotline. It is very long.

The plot itself is. long now. it’s a slowburn lmao because most if not all of my self insert ships tend to be slowburns. But this one? This particular self insert? Sumi B? Yeah she’s the only one with trust issues so she mothers the BIGGEST slowburns known to history. It takes them a year before she even considers him a friend despite seeing him every day and also having multiple deep conversations with him. Anyway though, this one is a big comfort becuase it has something I didn’t really dare to do before. Kalim, the canon character, falls in love with my oc first. Normally I have it the other way round becuase I’m too scared to assume that I would be like, deserving or like desirable enough for someone to have a crush on me. But with Sumi B, even I have a goddamn crush on her lmao. I indulge myself a bit with this one and really play around with emotions and!! In the most recent scene! We have finally reached the part where she actually starts to love him back! :D

I started this one a loooong time ago, at least a month and maybe two? It was Intended to be finsiehd in one night and then i got carried away and my friend got invested and then I ALSO got invested and so I started to develop the plot further so make it more interesting and keep the buildup going. It’s very fun and though i try to limit myself to summarising actions and dialogue, i fail. very often. so it often has little tidbits of more beautiful sentences and tension lmao. 

This particular fic is based off of my imagined animatic for the song “Would you be so kind” by Dodie! I didn’t know about the song until i saw other people’s animatics and I ended up taking it and running away haha! I’m currently really happy with it however I am really dreading the day where I actually write it out properly. If I don’t? I don’t know. Maybe I’ll post the plotline by itself. I have another fic just like it, one with a different self insert who (in fact) is very very close with Sumi B and considers her his older sister, that i ALSO wrote in semi detailed plot lines in someone’s DMs. Both are massive comforts to me and though i love them, their plot lines are so goddamn long that i will dread the day i decide to write them all out.

So uhm!!! Yeah!! XDD Those are the two fics I was talking about! I hope you enjoyed my small ramblings about them haha. I’m starting college soon though so I fear I might have much more time for fanfic.

[thewritingginger]

Loved your recent Alucard fic! Really goes to show how quick something good can go bad without communication and/or trust within your loved ones!

In your opinion, would you forgive him for his actions, (In the ‘cheating/s*x part’, I know it’s kinda controversial from start to finish in the show) despite him being manipulated by Taka and Sumi and he only showed showed romantic interest when they “pursued” him?

And would there be a possible part 2?

Thank you so much, Lovely Anon!!! 🥺🥰💕

I'm so glad you enjoyed it!

To answer your question, that's hard to say tbh. I think in this scenario reader and Adrain are written as soulmates so separating wouldn't be easy by any means. The reaction I wrote for Reader was pretty much how I'd react I think. I think there would be a lot of healing needed and not just for the relationship. I think Adrian has a lot of unworked through emotional trauma that he hasn't had the opportunity to work through, which imo made it easier for him to be manipulated even with such a close bond to reader.

Kinda a self defeatist attitude + a "I will inevitably lose everyone I love" kinda thought process.

But forgiveness would be very possible cuz love would still very much be there but forgetting it can be hard even w/ the manipulation involved.  However, it could be a slippery slope of possibly becoming toxic with dependency so idk it’s hard to say. 

Also imo since he was manipulated and sad he didn't accept their advances bc he was interested in them, he did cuz he was kinda picking the lesser of two evils in that situation - dealing with it alone or grabbing for the thing that would make him forget his pain for a little. (the way I wrote it at least)

(Imma stop there cuz I could mindlessly ramble on for too long about this sad boy and idk if any of that even made sense lol)

And for your question about a Part 2, maybe.

There could defiantly be space to add about the after math of this story in different parts or connecting stories (of what idk lol). 

I was thinking, if I did write a P.2, it may be mainly capturing the emotions of that first night and maybe soon after.

But if you have any ideas to add to this I'd love to hear it!

Thanks again for taking the time to send a message :3

💛💛💛 ~

[sworntolight]

♦ What's an AU that you've always wanted? ⚜ What is the best time to write for you? Why? ツ Who has been your favorite muse to play so far? Why? uwu

Questions for the mun!

♦ What's an AU that you've always wanted? 

Honestly I don’t think I’ve got like, a set AU I’ve ALWAYS wanted? XD I think the closest thing to that I’ve had is the Phoenix AU I have with @soulburnings - It’s loosely based on lore I wrote for another OC on another blog in terms of it being a phoenix with a priestess, but otherwise built from the ground up between us with a different plot, motivations, etc. into something amazing between Mako, Takeru, and Kiku. I always love seeing things flourish over something small like that. <3

But since I don’t have an ALWAYS WANT AU, then I can say I’m a sucker for fantasy and what if scenarios! You can always catch me with AUs that explore the what if within reason, like... What if Earth hadn’t died? How did the plot change? I mean, I get picky on actual plot (things like ‘what if Yusaku joined Hanoi’ don’t really catch me because it feels like it goes against his character while something like ‘(...) Takeru never left his hometown’ makes more sense), but... Seriously, What if?

Honestly though, it all depends on where my mind is for what AU I could be interested in. Just ask Kasa, I can come up with a new one in under a minute in the right mood. XD Semi-sorry Kasa, Mew, Vel- XD

⚜ What is the best time to write for you? Why?

Of late, anytime between midnight and 8AM. I’m pretty sure anyone who knows me knows I deal with a LOT offline that’s out of my hands, but those are usually things that end up focused on during the day - Once the rest of the house is asleep, there’s nothing outright demanding I pay attention to it and my muses aren’t as muffled under everything else. Provided the day’s going well I can do a lot during the early afternoon, but I’m most likely to buckle down at night, when everything’s quiet.

ツ Who has been your favorite muse to play so far? Why? 

Mew how dare you make me pick between my children- XD I can’t pick just one? I’m sorry I just can’t - I love them all for so many different reasons. Which means I’ve gotta stick to this fandom and say Mako, Kiku, their kids Hiko and Sumi ( @valkyrianflame ), both Aois (Zaizen ( @cardrisen ) and my OC, Sakazaki ( @getyouraoion )), Ash ( @genierisen ), Rin, and Kazumi. Apologies for this being long XD

I’ve been with Mako and Kiku and their kids now for over two years and their story means so much to me, their growth and their fight to overcome, be it Kiku in her search for freedom from an overbearing family or Mako and her attempts to fight back against fears and nightmares to come out stronger and stand tall on her own. Even the kids deal with bullying (more Sumi than Hiko) and learning how to be themselves and unique and not let anything hold them back.

Aoi (Sakazaki), my GX/ARC-V OC, partly for being my introduction to the rp’ing side of the fandom after being out of it for 10 or so years, but mainly for her story of going from a happy go lucky dork to learning how to be mature and yet still never give up her smile, or what makes her, her, all while continuing to fight for those she loves, both friend, family, and found family.

Aoi (Zaizen) for realizing she made mistakes and trying to improving herself and make up for them, but also because a socially awkward muse has just been seriously fun to play? She’s awkward in ways Aoi Sakazaki and Mako aren’t and it’s been an interesting road in developing her - Especially where she’s the first muse I’ve taken and decided no, canon didn’t do you justice WE’RE FIXING THIS.

Rin for her already proven strength, but also because she takes her situation post canon and uses it as a reason to talk to Yuya ( @duelrisen ). She uses it as a strength and it’s nice? And even I’m a sucker for how cute she can be with Yugo XD Exploring her muse has been just as much fun as it has Aoi’s!

Kazumi, for being a complicated boy with a lot going on in his head he can’t handle, but does something I’m all too familiar with myself: Covering with jokes. He’s Windy’s origin and has so much going on post-canon but he refuses to let it drag him down and stop him and even on a hard day I can look at Kazumi’s muse and feel a little better about things and remember pushing through to brighter days is possible - Until he makes a bad pun about squirrels.

And Ash... Lordy, Ash - He’s special. I haven’t been making any secret about how Concrete Genie is a game that means a hell of a lot to me and I think everyone should give it a try, but Ash is a boy who dealt with serious bullying head-on and wouldn’t let it break him, not completely. He’s a boy who’s had a life very much like my own in that regard and he will always mean the world to me, just as much as all my muses do, and the ability to launch a blog for him and explore how he doesn’t sit down and take it, nor really forgive despite wanting to move on... Ash and the game Concrete Genie have been a blessing to me as someone heavily bullied most of my life and unable to properly handle it until this game.

Again, I love all my muses and Mew made me pick, it’s her fault. XD

[novawinter]

Lundy Vs Chronological Order: ENTIRE SERIES SPOILERS

Ok the thing about Seanan Mcguire’s Wayward Children series is that we’re only 4 books in and the chronological order of the series is already all over the place. The first book she wrote in the series, Every Heart A Doorway is chronologically 3rd. She has mentioned on tumblr that one of the last books planned for the series (starring Kade and his time in Prism) which chronologically will have to take place before EHAD and Down Among The Sticks And Bones the first two books in the series to be written and published.

So this is going to be a series with at least two recommended reading orders. Order in which the books were published (EHAD, DATSAB, BTSS and IAAD) or chronological order (IAAD, DATSAB, EHAD and BTSS for example). Someone might even come up with a third one. They like have for watching star wars movies. 

Now the reason I started thinking about this was after reading In An Absent Dream (IAAD) which in-universe happens decades before the first published book EHAD. If you read EHAD first you know that the character Lundy is doomed. She dies violently but it is also suggested that her quick death might have been more merciful in the long run than her slow reversed aging process. 

But if you read IAAD first it would be extremely easy to get the impression that Lundy will be a major recurring character for many of the future books. Then you read the next book she is in and she’s violently murdered. A deeply relatable character who you just spent a heartbreaking story with is just obliterated. I know if I read IAAD first I would be pretty mad on her behalf.

Her death in EHAD was shocking and horrible as it was intended to be. I actually find Seanan does character deaths really well. It always feels like there’s a hole in the world and the other characters lives were the dead character should be but was torn away.

I just find it interest to think about intended reading orders of series vs other possibilities from a narrative perspective. Lundy could appear in books released later set between IAAD and EHAD. Sumi got resurrected, but her world wanted her back so I think Lundy will probably stay dead. Maybe part of her soul has returned to the Goblin Market. I hope it has.    

[lifejustgotawkward]

My Favorite Albums of 2018

Now that we’ve reached the end of December, I’ve compiled a list of my favorite albums from this year. I’m particularly proud of the emphasis that I placed on listening to new music by women, which will be obvious as you make your way through the post. As I hope is the case every time I make these annual rankings, my goal is not so much that anyone should be awed by my short paragraphs of explanation (doubtful since my schedule didn’t allow me enough time to edit my writing too closely - let me know if there are any weird errors!), but rather that my mentions of these artists will spread positive awareness of them. If I can share my appreciation for a singer or band and subsequently inspire someone to become a fan, the work will have been worth it. Have a good time with this, everybody!

Tagging @shadowfaxstables, @entrancedintime, @mr-top-secret, @walkingwiththemoon, @thehoodedone, @yung-lawsuit, @oystersaintforme - I hope you enjoy the music!

15. Seinabo Sey, I’m a Dream

Standout Tracks: “Never Get Used To,” “I Owe You Nothing,” “My Eye,” “Truth,” “Breathe,” “Good in You”

I might never have heard of Gambian-Swedish singer-songwriter Seinabo Sey if I didn’t regular check out Pitchfork reviews, although luckily I started listening to I’m a Dream before reading Katherine St. Asaph‘s piece, which unfairly marks Sey’s album with a 6.0 grade. Sey’s second album, following Pretend (2015), continues her interest in marrying soul/R&B with pop, moving through different tempi to exhibit her perspectives on romantic and familial relationships. Most inspirational among the songs is “Breathe,” an empowering reminder from Sey to herself that no matter what hardships she endures, she is valuable and magical.

14. Black Belt Eagle Scout, Mother of My Children

Standout Tracks: “Soft Stud,” “Keyboard,” “Mother of My Children,” “Yard,” “I Don’t Have You in My Life,” “Sam, A Dream”

There may not have been a more impressive debut single in 2018 than “Soft Stud,” a searing ode to unrequited lust. The rest of Katherine Paul’s album is fairly quiet by comparison, but her first full-length project as Black Belt Eagle Scout burns with longing. A self-described “radical indigenous queer feminist,” Paul draws from her experiences growing up in the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community in Washington to tell stories both deeply personal to her and universal in the desires they communicate. Album closer “Sam, A Dream” is the best example of how Paul blends those two concepts, taking a minimalist lyrical approach to expressing her love for the song’s subject before spending a solid two and a half minutes on a guitar solo to finish the record, a sound so beautiful that you feel like you’re floating when you hear it.

13. Blossoms, Cool Like You

Standout Tracks: “Cool Like You,” “Unfaithful,” “How Long Will This Last?” “Between the Eyes,” “Lying Again,” “Love Talk”

For those of us who love a good tune that pays homage to 80s New Wave and synthpop, Blossoms are your band. They don’t seem to have made anywhere near as much of an impact in the US as they have in their native UK, and British critics weren’t exactly bowled over by this sophomore album (despite it hitting #4 on the charts), but I’ll bet that most of today’s young American bands would kill to put out a single half as catchy as “Cool Like You,” or anything close to the upbeat yet still sort of bittersweet perfection of “Love Talk.”

12. Shannon Shaw, Shannon in Nashville

Standout Tracks: “Bring Her the Mirror,” “Broke My Own,” “Leather, Metal, Steel,” “Love I Can’t Explain,” “Cold Pillows,” "Make Believe”

Stepping away from her role as frontwoman of Oakland, California’s surf-punk outfit Shannon and the Clams, Shannon Shaw’s debut solo album Shannon in Nashville is an entrancing collection of songs deeply inspired by 60s girl groups, Roy Orbison and, of course, Dusty “Dusty in Memphis” Springfield. Even if you’d never heard Shaw’s voice before now, it would instantly become iconic to your ears thanks to melodies that sound just as timeless as their predecessors from half a century ago.

11. Say Sue Me, Where We Were Together

Standout Tracks: “Let It Begin,” “But I Like You,” “Old Town,” “After Falling Asleep,” “About the Courage to Become Somebody’s Past,” “Coming to the End”

Korean-American indie rock band Say Sue Me have a sweet, light touch that makes both their snappy power-pop efforts like “But I Like You” and “Old Town” and also somewhat more serious-minded guitar showcases like “Let It Begin,” “About the Courage to Become Somebody’s Past” (an instrumental that gives me real “This Magic Moment” vibes) and “Coming to the End” equally appealing. I don’t speak or understand Korean, so I don’t know how lead singer Sumi Choi’s lyrics of “After Falling Asleep” translate, but the fact that I love it anyway is a testament to the fact that fantastic music always transcends barriers of language.

10. Robyn, Honey

Standout Tracks: “Missing U,” “Human Being” (feat. Zhala), “Baby Forgive Me,” “Send to Robin Immediately,” “Honey,” “Ever Again”

I didn’t expect to love Robyn’s newest album upon first listen back in October, but now I do, so here we are. A couple of months spent absorbing her woozy beats has made me appreciate Robyn’s ability to evoke moods that feel specific to her particular talent as an artist. The loss that inspired the album - the death of one of her closest friends, Christian Falk, in 2014 - pervades nearly all of the tracks, but they are relatable and will still make you want to dance, closer to light than to darkness. Even in songs like “Human Being” and “Baby Forgive Me,” where the rhythms and (to cite the latter’s credits in the album liner notes) “sad robot voice” play with notions of human artistic creation juxtaposed with machine-manufactured products, Robyn herself is always in front and center, and in the album’s crown jewel, the title track “Honey,” her maturity as a storyteller is evident.

9. cupcakKe, Eden

Standout Tracks: “PetSmart,” “Cereal and Water,” “Garfield,” “Prenup,” “Blackjack,” “A.U.T.I.S.M.”

All Hail Queen cupcakKe. On her second album of the year, following January’s Ephorize, the Chicago rapper continues to show why she’s one of the best women in the game. “PetSmart” starts things off incredibly, exhibiting one entertaining brag after another, then the rest of the album displays more of her often laugh-out-loud humor, endless pop culture references, a bunch of her quintessential sex-centric jams (”Garfield,” “Typo,” “Blackjack”) and a song dedicated to people on the autism spectrum (”A.U.T.I.S.M.”). Every now and then there are moments that indicate that cupcakKe still has room to grow, like when she uses the R slur on “Garfield,” but ultimately her heart is in the right place; besides the aforementioned “A.U.T.I.S.M.,” she has also recorded songs in support of the LGBTQ+ community (”LGBT,” “Crayons”), so I am certain that she’ll eventually learn from her mistakes. As one YouTube commenter wrote on one of her videos: “She should be where Cardi B is.” Indeed.

8. Chelsea Jade, Personal Best

Standout Tracks: “Ride or Cry,” “Pitch Dark,” “Colour Sum,” “Laugh It Off,” “Over Sensitive,” “High Beam”

New Zealand-based singer-songwriter Chelsea Jade has not yet hit it big in America like her younger compatriot, Lorde, but there is an ample proof on Personal Best that Jade can craft earworms with memorable hooks and intelligent lyrics. (Seriously, when was the last time you heard the word liminal used in a pop song, as Jade does on “Laugh It Off”?) She has her foot in the door in America as a lyricist, credited as one of the writers of this year’s Chainsmokers single “You Owe Me,” but one hopes that the “Accidental Dream Pop Hero” of Auckland, NZ will claim her own chart-topping stardom one day.

7. Beach House, 7

Standout Tracks: “Lemon Glow,” “L’Inconnue,” “Black Car,” “Lose Your Smile,” “Girl of the Year,” “Last Ride”

I thought I knew what to expect from a Beach House album after following their career for the past few years, but “Lemon Glow” and “Black Car” hit me like gorgeous sledgehammers anyway when they were released earlier this year, still taking my breath away every time I hear them. I don’t know how Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally manage it, but they keep finding sophisticated ways to update their mining of the same musical territory in a tried-and-true comfort zone. Beach House’s secret seems to be that they have deduced all the algorithms necessary to hypnotize listeners. 7 is perhaps less exciting to me than the duo’s last album, Thank Your Lucky Stars, since the freshness of first being introduced to their music in 2015 has faded, but I’m glad to report that their new songs are absolutely worthy of praise.

6. Soccer Mommy, Clean

Standout Tracks: “Still Clean,” “Cool,” “Your Dog,” “Last Girl,” “Skin,” “Wildflowers”

Nashville, Tennessee’s Sophie Allison, who performs under the moniker Soccer Mommy, wowed me with this ten-track album full of indie rock gems. At age 20, she is ready to take the music industry by storm, evoking her heroes Liz Phair and Mitski while always maintaining a recognizable individual style. This is most apparent on the more upbeat tracks - “Skin,” for example, is a brutally honest articulation of yearning, and if ever there was a year that needed a blistering takedown of abusive relationships like “Your Dog” as its rallying cry, it’s 2018.

5. Courtney Barnett, Tell Me How You Really Feel

Standout Tracks: “Hopefulessness,” “Charity,” “Need a Little Time,” “Nameless, Faceless,” “Help Your Self,” “Sunday Roast”

It took a while for Courtney Barnett’s latest album to sink in with me. Tell Me How You Really Feel is the definition of a slow burn; it has just as much of Barnett’s trademark dry humor, but it also brings to the surface a sensitivity beyond what she revealed on her breakthrough album, Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit (2015). Most of all, I think she’s enjoying exploring what she can do with her melodies, like the guitar solo on “Help Your Self,” her incorporation of Margaret Atwood’s famous “men are afraid, women are afraid” quote in the chorus of the #MeToo/#TimesUp anthem “Nameless, Faceless” or the amount of time it takes her to reach the “Keep on keeping on/You know you're not alone” part of “Sunday Roast.” Listening to new music by Courtney Barnett is as rewarding an experience as any modern-day alternative rock fan could want.

4. Caroline Rose, LONER

Standout Tracks: “More of the Same,” “Jeannie Becomes a Mom,” “Getting to Me,” “To Die Today,” “Soul No. 5,” “Animal”

I was magnetized to Caroline Rose’s music from the intriguing opening notes of “More of the Same,” the first of many riffs that LONER gifts to us. My favorite track is “Jeannie Becomes a Mom,” which continues a classic singer-songwriter tradition of relating the ups and downs of another woman’s life, especially her dreams for a brighter future. She also moves through a few genres besides indie rock with skill, employing elements of trip-hop on “To Die Today” and R&B on “Talk” and “Animal” in engaging ways. (According to Rose in a press release, LONER is “as much inspired by Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears as it was late-’70s punk,“ which I can believe.) Rose’s sense of humor might be the best part of the album, though, as seen in her sharp wit and sarcasm on “Money,” “Soul No. 5” and “Bikini,” the last of which is a bouncy number mocking the industries that compel women to become sexualized puppets tailor-made for public consumption.

I also find this Out Magazine quote from Caroline Rose about how she incorporates her own sexuality enlightening: “When I was first starting, I was kind of afraid to make being queer a part of my identity for fear that it would consume it, because that happens to a lot of artists, unfortunately. When you’re first starting, that is the way people identify you cause that’s all you get. You get one elevator pitch and if you’re lucky, a 30 second clip of what your music sounds like—and that’s the pitch. But I hit a point where I was like, ‘That’s dumb.’ People should be as much of themselves as possible, ‘cause then everyone would be super unique. No one else is you. You are independent of other people and you can do whatever you want with your identity and your body and the way you dress and the way you act. I realized I should just be myself—middle fingers up and no fucks given, ‘cause life is really short. My life is zipping by and I’m okay with that, but I want to make sure I do it right.”

3. Wild Moccasins, Look Together

Standout Tracks: “Boyish Wave,” “Temporary Vase,” “Longtime Listener,” “Missing You (the Most),” “No Muse,” “Waterless Cup”

Few bands that I discovered in 2018 have dazzled me quite like Houston, Texas’s Wild Moccasins. When the pair at the heart of the group, vocalist/keyboardist Zahira Gutierrez and guitarist Cody Swann, ended their romantic relationship a few years ago, they turned their complex jumble of reasons and reactions into art. But Look Together isn’t a mopey breakup record; “Longtime Listener,” the song that immediately turned me into a fan, is a slice of New Wave heaven, while “Missing You (the Most)” and “No Muse” are just as jaunty but dig into the more personal side of the duo’s songwriting. “Missing” ends with a repetition of the lines “You only want me if you get the chance to change me/You only want me if you get the chance to save me,” while “No Muse,“ a pointed examination of how men (especially artists) undermine and belittle the women in their relationships, features this cogent chorus: “I’m no use to you unless I’m undressed/I’m no muse to you/You cut me in two unless I say yes/I’m no muse to you/And you can sing about it all you want/I must not want it bad enough, bad enough.”

2. Miya Folick, Premonitions

Standout Tracks: “Thingamajig,” “Premonitions,” “Stock Image,” “Stop Talking,” “Deadbody,” “Baby Girl”

Thanks to Pitchfork, I first heard of Miya Folick when her single “Deadbody” came out this past March. It immediately struck me as a manifesto for our new age, where women can move forward with confidence thanks to the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements. That song alternately demonstrates subdued menace and loud, unapologetic anger, but “Stock Image” and “Premonitions” show that Folick has a strong leaning towards modern pop music; “Stop Talking” is so commercially accessible that it’s as much of a bop as any sugary confection by Carly Rae Jepsen. Folick’s debut album - after having released a number of EPs and standalone tracks over the past few years - showcases a woman whose voice and songwriting abilities have limitless potential, and she’s only just getting started. To quote some of Folick’s lyrics from “Stop Talking,” seemingly a summary of her artist’s statement: “You have to make a choice/Don’t be an accidental voice/We have to speak with grace/We will become the words we say.“

1. Mitski, Be the Cowboy

Standout Tracks: “Geyser,” “Me and My Husband,” “Nobody,” “Pink in the Night,” “Washing Machine Heart,” “Two Slow Dancers”

It’s no mistake that so many end-of-year best-of lists have placed Be the Cowboy at the top of their rankings. Mitski’s fifth album finds her wading through deep pools of emotion in brief, lovely bursts of song, with twelve out of the fourteen tracks running two and a half minutes or shorter. It was pretty difficult for me to pick only a handful of highlights from an album that is so impressive in every conceivable way, so just know that every cut is a masterpiece. She puts words to the feelings we all carry inside, diamonds that glisten for fleeting moments but linger in the memory for a long time afterward.

HONORABLE MENTIONS (alphabetical)

Cher, Dancing Queen (”Dancing Queen,” ”Gimme! Gimme! Gimme! (A Man After Midnight),” “The Name of the Game,” “Waterloo,” ”Fernando,” ”One of Us”)

Farao, Pure-O (”Marry Me,” “Get Along,” “Luster of the Eyes,” “Cluster of Delights,” “Gabriel,” “Triumph Over Me”)

Florence + The Machine, High as Hope (”Hunger,” “Big God,” “Patricia,” “100 Years,” “The End of Love,” “No Choir”)

Juliana Hatfield, Juliana Hatfield Sings Olivia Newton-John (”I Honestly Love You,” ”Physical,” “Hopelessly Devoted to You,” “Xanadu,” “Dancin’ ‘Round and ‘Round,” “Make a Move on Me”)

Marie Davidson, Working Class Woman (”Your Biggest Fan,” ”Work It,” ”The Psychologist,” “Day Dreaming,” “So Right” [although the extended version is even better since the opening lines are brought back in the last thirty seconds, making the song’s ending even more effective], “Burn Me”)

HONORABLE MENTIONS #2: EPs (alphabetical)

Ellis, The Fuzz (”The Drain,” “Frostbite,” ”What a Mess”)

Hatchie, Sugar & Spice (”Sleep,” ”Try,” “Bad Guy”)

King Princess, Make My Bed (”Talia,” “Upper West Side,” “Holy”)

Margaret Glaspy, Born Yesterday (”Before We Were Together,” ”One Heart and Two Arms,” “I Love You, Goodnight”)

Sevdaliza, The Calling (”Soul Syncable,” “Energ1,” “Human Nature”)

[fates-end-does-vns]

Nogi Wakaba is a Hero: 1/2

that's a familiar looking face. sister or ancestor? sister or ancestor? 

that's a pretty karinish face there 

Second hero diary? What was the first?

>Nogi Sonoko joined the Sanshu Middle School Hero Club.

Starting in the present, I see.

>The Nogi Household's rose bath was like a hot spring.

ahh, wait, that illustration is for this scene isn't it yeah, now I see the black eyes instead of purple

>"That's a cute reaction~ I'm sure the readers would love a character like you~ my creative urges are rising~"

sononononono, don't break the fourth wall

unless you're making fanficion of your friends like fiw twilight, in which case I implore you to reconsider.

>"Yeah, that combination does sound like it could work. So next, how about Nogi?"

do not give sonoka a position of authority outside of combat. it will not end well.

>But yeah, right now, I think that out of all four candidates, I'd recommend Karin as club president. It'll probably be hard for her, but she is the 'perfect hero' after all, so I'm sure she can manage somehow."

ah right karin's more mellowed out now.

>"Okay, I'll read your fortune! ...Okay, I've got the results. This looks like it'll be a good romance!"

show me how you fucked up the tarot itsuki. I won't get too mad.

>"Well~ I'm not sure what I like exactly, but someone who's diligent and takes good care of others would be lovely~. It'd be even more fun if they were way too serious and got reckless from time to time, huh~"

sonogo you're just describing togou

>I wanted some material for my novels, so I asked for some history books to sent in from my family house's archive, and they sent me a huuuumongous amount of them.

HISTORY BOOKS GOTTEM

>"Books that escaped censorship... Those exist?"

fffucking taisha

burnin books too

>It was the same title as the diary Sonoko had recorded when she was worshiped, the Hero Diary.

ahhh so hero diaries are what the taisha make heroes write after they've reached their expiration dates

>It says the diary began to be recorded in July 2015.

so the treepocalypse happened in Next Sunday AD.

>"Nogi... Wakaba... Is she my ancestor~? If she wrote this diary, then does that mean my ancestor was a hero?"

caaaallllled iiiiiiit

y'alright there yuuna

(Prologue: End)

apocalypse magical girls from the far off future of 2018

what the fuck yuuna's is yuuna a time traveller a reincarnatee a cryogenically frozen supersoldier from the distant past

or is this just a coincidence

>Nogi Wakaba, a fifth grader at the time 

>a fifth grader at the time 

>fifth grader at the time 

>fifth grader 

are you fucking kidding me 

that was a joke

so nogi wakaba is basically blond sumi right 

why do these ten year olds have boobs

>One of the star-like objects fell onto the roof of the kagura-den. It was definitely not a bird at all. Its entire body was an almost unnatural white, its size far more gigantic than a human, with an ominous mouth-like organ.

and here's the vertices

>On unsteady feet, Hinata stood up. A strange light imbued her eyes and hex-like words leaked from her mouth.

ahh hinata's got the old possession style sayakafication fairies

I see they're taking the opportunity to do what they can't show on television.

>When she snapped back to her senses, Wakaba was standing up with that very sword in hand. She could've sworn the blade was rusted, but before she  had realised it, the blade was tinged with a vibrant, almost living brilliance.

we sure this is still the magical girl genre? this is giving me Eternity Sword vibes more than anything

>Some changed into a form like the edge of a section of body tissue, stiffening and rising up. (...They're... evolving...?)

that's not how evolution works.

>Three years later-- Nogi Wakaba was now a second year in middle school.

not expecting a time skip of all things. I'll be honest, I was enjoying the hellhole thing.

>Uesato Hinata is a Miko, one who hears divine voices.

miko, huh? interesting.

chapter 1 end.

the fuck is a doi

>After the invasion, a special tree by the name of "Shinju" appeared in Shikoku, and a giant wall made of plant tissue surrounded the island. It is said that the Shinju was the incarnation of the local gods, and the wall was a barrier it put up to stop the Vertex.

"appeared", "it was said". hm, hm, hm~♪

>"Uranophobia."

pff, uranus. but apparently it's "fear of heaven"

>Although it said "hearing the voice of the gods," it was not through common speech, but rather in the form of symbols and suggestive hints that instructions were transmitted to her.

symbols and suggestive hints, huh... so basically it's a horoscope.

>Only the purest of girls

"purest of girls"? what the hell does that even mean in this case

> are able to come in contact with the gods who detest impurity.

oh, the gods are fucking Lunarians.

>An area of the southeastern part of Lake Suwa in Nagano was, like Shikoku, also protected by a barrier where people could live.

...Another barrier? A second tree, or???

noodle discourse

>It let her feel safe knowing there was a friend out there fighting as well.

she's gon die isn't she

oh fuck I'm going to need to memorize at least five sets of speech patterns aren't I

>"I'm not fondling them! I'm trying to tear them off!"

i see hinata has more in common with togou than her hair color

this'll be a joy to get straight 

we even have multiple soft-spoken girls with long black hair 

interesting to note that yuuna's not pictured yet.

>Normal weapons were useless against the Vertex, only those that the Heroes wielded could inflict damage upon them.

so do the weapons have fairies in them or what

>"Taisha" was written with the characters for "Great Shrine," wait a fucking second is this a different organization

yeah yuuna's a time traveller.

chapter 2 end

guess blossoming is already a thing

for some strange reason I feel like wakaba's the only character who matters here.

>And yet Yuuna was less concerned about herself, and more concerned with Chikage who hadn't participated in the battle at all.

yuuna being yuuna

>The next moment, the cylindrical Vertex began forming a clear red plate-shaped structure.

cancer?

>Out of the infinite records available to her, the one Yuuna now chose was "Ichimokuren".

wait, so yuuna's choosing her fairy?

and stuffing it in herself, which is bad.

>Wakaba had dodged the Vertex's charge with the least necessary movement, and at the same time, she bit off part of the enemy's body with her teeth.

don't bite the alien wakaba

>"Wakaba-chan! You can't go eating weird things like that, okay!?"

pff.

chapter 3 end

so is she referring to actual blossoming here or what

>A foul smell hit her the moment she stepped inside.

welp

chikage's in a bad place

chikage's in a really bad place

>They both cursed her existence.

yikes

>Those who had hurt her once were now trying to get on her good side.

garbage people, the lot of them

>(My worth... is in being a hero...)

oh no this won't end well

>It allowed her to exist in seven different places at once. She wouldn't die unless all seven were killed at the same time.

and this is even one of the fairies mentioned in that report.

chapter 4 end

??? I don't get it

oh hey gemini

>"I see! So then maybe we can use the udon as a diversion if it reacts to it!" there is absolutely no way this will work.

>untamarable what kind of pun is that

chapter 5 end

wait a second is that part talking about udon did they censor udon and intelligent? why the hell would the taisha censor information about instant noodles 

>The one who saved her was Yuuna. She suddenly appeared in the midst of the swarm and started holding them off instead of Wakaba. are you sure yuuna's not the protagonist here

so to temporarily stop the vertexes the taisha allegedly went aztec on what were allegedly six mikos those wouldn't happen to actually be these six characters somehow, would they? and I guess Yuuna would be a zombie...?

end of chapter 6

so apparently the divine tree is blaming humans too? fuck that tree.

guess hinata's hair is purple now.

>"...Her consciousness still hasn't returned." so are comas normal for yuuna

this group is a lot less stable than the other ones.

>Now that it had been denied... just how should she fight from now on?

wakaba freaking out about her girlfriend leaving is cute

ah, anzu's trying to cheer her up by point out how many people she’s been helping.

>(But now... I have to get over it.) :V guess the therapists all got eaten

and Chapter 7 ends with another timeskip.

>And perhaps they would keep on changing. *glances at gin's funeral*

>Aki Masuzu clamoured in misery as she changed clothes. oh boy another new character

>However, all communications with Suwa had ceased after last September.

and another tree circle is confirmed just to be killed off lemme guess, they'll disappear one by one until shikoku's all that's left?

>Finally, the Shinju appeared at the end of the path. hup

even in a light novel, the tree isn't described

>Several of the small stars combined into a brilliance unlike anything I've ever seen... leo again?

>There are two kinds of honetsukidori. Chick uses spring chickens while hen uses more mature chicken meat. Chick is more plump, tender, and easier to eat, while hen has a deeper flavour that oozes out the more you chew on its tougher meat. stop it, you're making me hungry

>All Yuuna was doing was cheerfully humming as she cleaned Wakaba's ears-- but not even Hinata was a match for a technique like that. even in other characters' stories, yuuna reigns supreme

>The fierce battle foretold in the oracle in the midst of the war of humanity's last stand would later be called the Battle of Marugame Castle. Oh, so we're getting into a fight that's actually important?

[End of chapter 8]

hmm. you know what, there's only so long you can string me along with splotches of whiteout before I get desensitized to it.

>Would they just blindly increase in size, or would they guide their evolution into an intentional form? The latter.

>By that time, the black shadows wrapping around her foot had already disappeared. what the heck

>Suddenly, Tamako collapsed to her knees. really shouldn'tve tempted fate back there.

>The fairy she had extracted from the Shinju was Minamoto no Yoshitsune, a general with superhuman martial arts thought it was a divine tree, not a throne of heroes.

end of chapter 9.

So are they going on a "trip" outside the wall? Wonder if it's as much of a primordial hellscape as it is in present times...

>Many buildings had been blown out from the inside as if a chemical explosion had occurred within, and traces of heat-deformation could be seen. That's the first unpleasant thing they saw? Guess the vertexes haven't done... whatever to destroy the atmosphere yet.

>For dinner, they were boiling water in a pot to cook some udon they had brought from Shikoku. It was a dry-noodle kind of Sanuki udon that kept well. of course they're eating udon.

>After dinner, everyone went into the river to wash off their sweat. oh boy another fanservice scene bet there's a cg for this too yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.

>"If I become a hero and do my best fighting the Vertexes, I can save people. If we keep saving people, then we can slowly but surely take back the world and bring it back to normal. At least that's what I think!" Yuuki Yuuna is a Hero, after all.

>After the heroes had annihilated the Vertexes, they decided to resume moving for the day. even the story is getting bored.

>"Th... there was supposed to be an Osaka-famous rare book store here! How terrible! The last copies of incredibly precious books could be lost to the world now!" all that devestation, and that's what makes you freak out?

>Instead-- they found a heap of several skeletons. That's... odd. They haven't found any bodies so far, have they? I figured the Vertex don't leave anything behind.

>Wakaba noticed a notebook on the floor. She picked it up and looked inside. It was the diary of someone who took refuge in this underground mall.

oh are we going to read a diary in a diary?

chapter 10 end

[chanoyu-to-wa]

A Brief Introduction to the Nampō Roku.

The Nampō Roku [南方錄] is a collection of the classical teachings of chanoyu arranged in seven books, according to content.  (The presentation copy of the Nampō Roku, that Tachibana Jitsuzan made for the Enkaku-ji in Hakata, is shown below, placed in the tokonoma of the copy of the Shū-un-an that Kanshū oshō erected on the grounds of the reconstructed temple.)

    The material included in the Nampō Roku was collected from the various documents preserved¹ by Nambō Sōkei [南坊宗慶; ? ~ 1593] (the resident of the Shū-un-an [集雲庵], and one of the senior monks² of the Nanshū-ji [南宗寺] in Sakai -- one of the major Zen temples of that time³), many of which were based on teachings that Sōkei received (directly or indirectly) from Rikyū.  That said, the material was subsequently edited (sometimes quite heavily) by Tachibana Jitsuzan [立花實山; 1655 ~ 1708], when he arranged it into its present form.

    Tachibana Jitsuzan was a samurai and retainer of the Kuroda [黒田] family (his father was the karō [家老], or senior minister, of that clan; though Jitsuzan, as the second son, was largely free to pursue his own interests, and he retired from service in 1688), and a follower of Tsuchiya Sōshun [土屋宗俊; his dates of birth and death are not known].  Tsuchiya Sōshun⁴ had been, in his turn, a disciple of Ōno Michinori [大野道可; his dates are unknown; his personal name is also written 道加], the sadō [茶頭 or 茶堂], tea official, of Kanamori Sōwa [金森宗和; 1584 ~ 1656] (who had been a disciple of Rikyū's biological son, and heir, Sen no Dōan [千道安; 1546 ~ 1607]).  Jitsuzan was inspired to seek out this collection of documents after obtaining and studying a copy of the Rikyū Chanoyu Sho [利休茶湯書]⁵ -- which study put him at odds with the disciples of Sen no Sōtan [千宗旦; 1578 ~ 1658] and their way of practicing chanoyu⁶.

    The Nampō Roku is divided into seven books:

￮ oboe-gaki [覺書],

￮ kai [會],

￮ tana [棚],

￮ shoin [書院],

￮ daisu [臺子],

￮ sumi-biki [墨引], and

￮ metsu-go ・ oboe-gaki [滅後・覺書].

    Oboe-gaki  [覺書] (Jitsuzan’s cover of this book is shown above) means a note or memorandum.  The collection of 33 essays, of varying lengths, that make up the first book were supposedly written down by Nambō Sōkei (perhaps in a sort of notebook) while Rikyū was still alive.  Some, however, may have been fragmentary specimens of Rikyū's own writings (or Sōkei's transcriptions of the same).

    Kai  [會] is another of Rikyū's personal kaiki (containing the particulars of some 54 chakai), apparently dating from the first year of Rikyū's residence in Hideyoshi's household (it records the details of gatherings held from the beginning of the ro season of Tenshō 14 [天正十四年], 1576, until the end of the furo season of Tenshō 15 [天正十五年], 1577).

    This document may have come into Nambō Sōkei's hands when Rikyū moved his Sakai household from the neighborhood of the Nanshū-ji to the newly developed Mozuno area of the city-state, along with other papers that Sōkei states he removed from the waste paper bin⁷ at that time.  (This kaiki is structurally similar to the Rikyū Hyakkai Ki, and will be handled accordingly here.)

    Tana  [棚] is a collection of descriptions of the way to arrange utensils on the various oki-dana [置棚] that were being used for chanoyu during the second half of the sixteenth century -- primarily the contents deal with arrangements of the fukuro-dana [袋棚], but the book also includes details related to several mizusashi-dana [水指棚], as well as the tana-ita [棚板] (the special smaller naga-ita that was used with the ro,-- the furo-sized naga-ita is dealt with in the Daisu book -- which was derived from the ji-ita of the kyū-dai daisu [及第臺子]), and Jōō's ko-ita [小板] and ō-ita [大板].  This book contains 26 sections, of which several contain multiple sketches.

    Shoin  [書院] discusses the classical arrangements for the various places (tokonoma [床の間], chigai-dana [違い棚], dashi-fu-zukue [出し文机]) in the shoin where objects may be displayed (many of these arrangements date back to Nōami's Kun-dai Kan Sa-u Chō-ki [君臺観左右帳記]).  35 entries.

    Daisu  [臺子] contains a series of arrangements for the daisu, many of which date from the time of Ashikaga Yoshimasa's first interest in chanoyu (the period preceding the burning of Yoshimasa's storehouses during the Ōnin wars, when most of his utensils were destroyed), and so were based primarily on Nōami's [能阿彌; 1397 ~ 1471] teachings.  The Enkaku-ji version of this book was damaged, and at least one of the entries (and possibly several) is partially missing.  The present total is 68 sections.

    Sumi-biki  [墨引], as a word, means to obliterate a written text by smearing ink over it (the equivalent of erasing something).  This book contains 57 entries that mostly deal with the measurements of the classical daisu (on which kane-wari was based, and which differ from the version of the daisu used by Rikyū after Hideyoshi banned him from teaching the gokushin futatsu-gumi temae without specific permission), the six large trays (used by Ashikaga Yoshimasa), and a number of other utensils, together with a discussion of the daime, all of which contribute to the knowledge that makes kane-wari understandable.

    Metsu-go ・ oboe-gaki  [滅後・覺書].  Metsu-go [滅後] means “after [his] death.”  This book, like the first, is a collection of some 83 essays (oboe-gaki [覺書]) on a variety of topics.  Supposedly the contents of this book were written down (in a notebook, or on a single long sheet of paper) between the end of the memorial service for the repose of Rikyū's soul that Nambō Sōkei performed at dawn on the third anniversary of Rikyū's death (on the 28th day of the Third Month of Bunroku 1 [文祿元年], 1593) and the time (no later than mid-afternoon, and probably earlier, given the distance to the nearest cliffs of a suitable height) when Sōkei locked this document together with his other papers in a wooden chest, and then, after closing up the Shū-un-an, went off to the mountains with the intention of committing suicide by throwing himself off a cliff⁸.  The material contained in this book, however, would have taken days (if not weeks) to write down, thereby making it impossible that Sōkei actually wrote it in its entirety on that day.  As a matter of fact, it appears that, in addition to whatever reminiscences of Rikyū's life and teachings Sōkei did actually write on that occasion, Jitsuzan included everything else (at least that was as of then unpublished) that he found in the wooden chest -- a number of which documents seem to have preceded Sōkei's connection with Rikyū (and so represented earlier machi-shu practices that developed between Jōō's middle years and when Sōkei first reached out to Rikyū -- as Jōō's successor -- around 1573).   Thus care must be taken with the contents of this book especially; and where the material deviates from Rikyū's known writings, those sections must be purged in accordance with Rikyū's teachings.

    In consideration of such things, the Nampō Roku, then, is at best largely a second-hand (and more often a third-hand) compendium of a selection of Rikyū's teachings.  That it is more highly appreciated by most modern tea schools than Rikyū's own writings (i.e., the so-called Rikyū densho [利休傳書]) is an unfortunate consequence of the fact that Jitsuzan's represention of these teachings is much more amenable to reinterpretation (in accordance with the modern school's preferred teachings) than are Rikyū's own writings.

    In this translation, it is my intention to use Rikyū's teachings as the standard through which to view and understand the Nampō Roku; and deviations from his teachings will always be noticed accordingly.  Furthermore, I am not planning to translate those portions of the text that are clearly spurious additions produced by Tachibana Jitsuzan (such as the Buddhist-style poems -- in extraordinarily bad pseudo-Chinese -- that close each of the books, since they add nothing to the Nampō Roku as an exposition of Rikyū’s teachings -- and, indeed, tend to detract from this purpose by making the collection seem to be more about Tachibana Jitsuzan and his personal enlightenment than about Rikyū and his vision of chanoyu).  I will leave it to one of the schools that like to promote the Nampō Roku as being a validation of their own system of practice to provide the public with translations of these things.

_________________________

¹Nambō Sōkei seems to have had a scholarly interest in chanoyu, specifically in the earlier forms that had preceded the revolution that followed Rikyū's return from the continent in 1554.  For this reason, he seems to have been late in reaching out to Rikyū (their earliest exchange of letters, which has been lost, seems to have taken place in 1573; this was followed, a year later, by Rikyū's presenting the document now known as the Nambō-ate no densho [南坊宛の傳書] to Sōkei a year later -- according to Rikyū's own introductory remarks).

    However, while an intimate relationship developed between the two men (there is a suggestion that Sōkei became a sort of unofficial steward for Rikyū's Sakai household after Hideyoshi required Rikyū to live with him in Kyōto), Sōkei never assumed the position of tea teacher, and, rather than disseminating this precious information to his contemporaries, he locked his collection of documents away in a wooden chest before going off to the mountains to commit suicide on the third anniversary of Rikyū's death.

²Nambō Sōkei was the shuzo [首座], or head of the monks of the Nanshū-ji.   This would have made him the second or third most powerful monk of that temple.

    In addition to being the shuzo of the Nanshū-ji, Sōkei was also the jūji [住持] (head monk, or resident monk) of the Shū-un-an [集雲庵] (shown above), a subtemple of the Nanshū-ji that had been established by Shū-un-an Giō Jōtei [集雲庵岐翁紹禎; 1428 ~ 1522] (who was also sometimes known as Nambō Jōtei [南坊紹禎]), the biological son of the great Ikkyū Sōjun [一休宗純; 1394 ~ 1481].

³Many of the head monks of the Daitoku-ji were trained at the Nanshū-ji -- and for many years it is said that the Daitoku-ji was considered to be a subtemple of the Nanshū-ji.

⁴While Tsuchiya Sōshun is officially regarded as a disciple of Ōno Michinori (who would have practiced chanoyu more or less in accordance with Sen no Dōan's teachings), he also lived for a time with Furuta Sōshitsu, and it was during this time that Oribe's ideas also began to influence Sōshun's way of understanding chanoyu.

⁵This collection (of six books) has been translated previously in this Blog.

⁶During the early Edo period, Sōtan's way of performing the temae was held to be the standard form of the practice, and deviations from his temae were (theoretically) considered treasonous.  As a result, while Tachibana Jitsuzan's lineage might appear to be quite different from Sōtan's, it seems that the major influence of his forbears was on Jitsuzan's attitude -- fostering a skepticism, which a study of the Rikyū Chanoyu Sho could not but help but enhance.  For this reason, Jitsuzan has been considered a disciple of Sōtan (or Sōtan’s tradition), according to some scholars.

⁷Waste paper was recycled by selling it to the kamikuzu-kai [紙屑買い] (waste-paper-collector), and Sōkei says that he surreptitiously went through the sheathes of documents before putting them out for collection -- and removed those in which he had an interest.

⁸Following ones master in death by committing suicide on the third anniversary of that person's death, as a gesture, had (by convention) to be performed on the same day as the anniversary.

[artistsorrells-blog]

Homage: Shinichi Maruyama

 I came across the photographer last year in my photography 1 class. I love how as a photographer he uses crate use of the shutter speed. When we first did the project of how I found out about him we were talking about movement. And we were talking about how the use of a long Open Shutter Speed was over seconds and he does this with his nudes where he shows and has the dancer overtime showing the movement and in theory it looks like a photo that was captured over times and seconds cuuse you have the motion blur but it wasn't it was capture where he took 10,000 photos and one second with a strobe. And how this can only take a day to shoot it took him over a year to make the images that he wanted. The camera he uses is a phase one p45 camera and a bronecolor strobe to capture these images that he does. With the water sculptures and also the news these photos just so huge amount of movement on two different scales capturing one in a second and capturing one of them overtime and it just makes for a beautiful fine art.

 Shinichi Maruyama was born in 1968 in Nagano. Japan. He studied at Chiba University and worked as member of Hakuhodo Photo Creative as well as a freelance photographer from 1992-98. While in Japan the artist traveled frequently to Tibet to complete two photography books about the Spiti Valley region, The Spiti Valley, and Spiti.In 2003 he moved to New York City and began work on what would become his Kusho series (translated as “writing in the sky”). Completed in 2006, the series is comprised of graphic, abstract images of sumi calligraphy ink and water captured as the liquids collide and combine in mid-air. Influenced by the artist’s lifelong interest in calligraphy, this series has received critical attention worldwide and resulted in a solo exhibition held at the Bruce Silverstein Gallery in 2009. In 2010, the artist completed his second series, Water Sculptures, featuring images of water forms caught in mid air, with their accompanying shadows and reflections upon the ground.

 Shinichi Maruyama Statement:

Nude

 I tried to capture the beauty of both the human body’s figure and its motion.

The figure in the image, which is formed into something similar to a sculpture, is created by combining 10,000 individual photographs of a dancer.　

By putting together uninterrupted individual moments, the resulting image as a whole will appear to be something different from what actually exists.

With regard to these two viewpoints, a connection can be made to a human being’s perception of presence in life. Time-lapse photography has the unique ability to reveal hidden dimensions to even the most familiar forms. Take for example Japanese photographer Shinichi Maruyama’s nudes, which capture the human body in a way we’ve never seen before. Each image combines 10,000 individual frames snapped while dancers perform meticulously choreographed gestures. The result straddles the line between sculpture and performance art.

“I tried to express the beauty of both the human body’s figure and its motion as well as the concept of time,” he says.

Though the images are flowing and organic and appear utterly spontaneous, they were the result of months of careful planning. Maruyama is keeping the technical details of the process to himself, but did say that although shooting the images required only a day, the choreography took five months to prepare. Layering the images to create the final pieces required another eight months.

“I had planned what I’d like the final form to be,” says Maruyama, whose studio is in New York. “Jessica Lang developed and finalized the movements for the dancers.”

He cites Marcel Duchamp’s Nude Descending a Staircase as a major inspiration for the project. Like Duchamp, Maruyama also drew inspiration from the early sequence photography of Étienne-Jules Marey. When discussing his work, Maruyama often invokes Zen Buddhism and its notion of impermanence. Even though his photos appear to be one fluid motion, he likes to think about them as the accumulation of distinct events.

“In everyday life, we feel that time is flowing but it is actually an endless repetition,” he says. “One moment appears and disappears then another moment appears after and disappears… In Zen, we think that every moment is independent from one another.”

   Gardens

 It is said that a Zen garden represents in a three dimensional space the spirits of high priests who have achieved enlightenment. The Zen garden is the expression of boundless cosmic beauty in a physical environment, created through intense human concentration, labor and repeated action.

 One can attain a feeling of serenity by simply being in the space of a Zen garden. It is its own universe, empowering the visitor to resist temptation, eliminate negative thought, and sever the continuous stream of inessential information emanating from the outside world.

 I have tried to represent this feeling I get from Zen gardens in my artwork. Although I am still far from those enlightened monks who labor in nature, my actions of repeatedly throwing liquid into the air and photographing the resulting shapes and sculptural formations over and over-endlessly-could be considered a form of spiritual practice to find personal enlightenment.

    Water Sculpture

 I am fascinated by the fragility and incompleteness that

exists with all things beautiful.

I throw water into the air, and in mid-flight it changes

shape constantly, being pulled by gravity and bursting

with surface tension. Each flight barely lasts more than a

second.

In each moment, the water becomes a beautiful figure which

can be defined as a “part man-made and part natural”

sculpture.

I wanted to capture these beautiful impermanent water

sculptures by photographing them in the exact moment, when

the essence of their existence is pure.

  Kusho

 As a young student, I often wrote Chinese characters in sumi ink. I loved the nervous, precarious feeling of sitting before an empty white page, the moment just before my brush touched the paper. I was always excited to see the unique result of each new brushing.

Once your brush touches paper, you must finish the character, you have one chance. It can never be repeated or duplicated. You must commit your full attention and being to each stroke. Liquids, like ink, are elusive by nature. As sumi ink finds its own path through the paper grain, liquid finds its unique path as it moves through air.

Remembering those childhood moments, of ink and empty page, I fashioned a large “brush” and bucket of ink. I get the same feeling, a precarious nervous excitement, as I stand before the empty studio space. Each stroke is unique, ephemeral. I can never copy or recreate them. I know something fantastic is happening. “a decisive moment”, but I can’t fully understand the event until I look at these captured after images, these paintings in the sky.

   He cites Marcel Duchamp’s Nude Descending a Staircase as a major inspiration for the project. Like Duchamp, Maruyama also drew inspiration from the early sequence photography of Étienne-Jules Marey. When discussing his work, Maruyama often invokes Zen Buddhism and its notion of impermanence. Even though his photos appear to be one fluid motion, he likes to think about them as the accumulation of distinct events. “In everyday life, we feel that time is flowing but it is actually an endless repetition,” he says. “One moment appears and disappears then another moment appears after and disappears… In Zen, we think that every moment is independent from one another.”

[opepin]

june: week one

29: we had lunch reservations at legal harborside so i woke up at like 9:45 am and exercised, kevin got up after that, i showered, and then we ate leftover fried rice (omg the buttered fried rice from osaka <3) and then we headed out. we were gonna be late so we let the fam know and then we took the train to south station. we stopped by the tea party museum shop and got his mom a tea set and his dad the tie. then we rushed to the restaurant. i think we were 10 to 15 minutes late, but everything was fine and our server was great! he was an oyster geek and gave us like a lesson oysters haha. he also gave great drink recommendations. jess and i got red sangrias and kevin got the white sangria. we got poppa chen a white wine to pair with the seafood. jess did most of the ordering. we got a dozen local and maine oysters, lobster mac and cheese, shrimp scampi, two clam chowders, and a lobster bisque. everything was delicious and i ate everything even though most things contained dairy because it was too good to not eat. lol. our server gave us chocolate espresso cheesecake on the house because he saw that we were having a reunion and he was was best server ever <33333 shout out to chad at legal harborside! oh, their bread was hot and fresh and was delicious.

after lunch, we chilled at the hotel and i watched some pbs kids with jess while kevin read fanfic and the parents listened in and read stuff on their phone. after everyone used the bathroom, we took the train back to the apartment and had another meal LOL. we cooked all of the food momma chen brought and i made banana bread. we had family tea and some chicken nuggets as well. :P yum. we ate, talked, and then the chen fam did their tradition of playing card games with each other haha. i just waited for the banana bread to bake and then everyone ate it and enjoyed it, which made me happy :D then we drove jess to south station. her train was leaving at 6:45 pm so we dropped her off and said our goodbyes. then we drove the parents to the hotel and said goodbye to them too. they’re so sweet. wait, did i mention that they got us electronic toothbrushes?! LOL i’m crying. then we drove back. i think kevin and i napped for a bit, talked to hillary for a bit, exercised after, kevin washed all of the dishes and got the suitcases from storage (thank youuuu so muchhh!) and then i wrote down what to pack before hitting the hay at like 11:45 pm... this week will be super long ahha. i miss the fam already though...

30: i was really tired when i woke up today... lol. i didn’t do my best doing my hiit workout in the morning but i got through it. i gave myself a bit too much cereal and had to throw some out because it was too sweet x_x then i trained to work and booked a conference room. i had some time to myself in the morning before mathew came in so i just did some internet errands. vivian was going to sleep over today because both of us were flying back to chicago :O LOL what a coincidence? haha. it was a full on brainstorming day so we went into the conference room and talked and then took a short break for lunch before hopping on stand up. we got dave to join in for a bit and got a pretty good foundation. then mathew and i finished up some things and called it a day at around 4 pm. i messaged vivian and she couldn’t drop off the uhaul in quincy so she decided to stay at the airport until her flight. lol kevin and i were so confused. so then i said goodbye to everyone until monday and then i took the train home. i ate a ton of my banana bread and the few speculoos cookies left. then i waited for kevin to get home. i watched some youtube videos. we cuddled and was thankful for the rest we were getting for a bit before eating leftovers and packing. i exercised and then showered and kevin ate dinner while i packed. then we did a bit of apartment cleaning and then kevin packed and it was like 11:30 pm or something when i slept. kevin played a bit of games before he went to sleep. zzzz. we had to get up at 4 am for the flight.

31: waking up at 4 am wasn’t too bad. we changed, brushed, and got everything we needed and took an uber to the airport. the airport wasn’t packed but it wasn’t empty either. we got past tsa about 15-20 minutes before boarding time so i got an interesting “ombre pink drink” (made with a bit of lime?) and kevin got a breakfast burrito from currito. we made it just in time to eat and line up for group ‘b.’ i tried looking for vivian but i couldn’t find her. when we were all boarded, i messaged her and she told me she was at gate a22 LOLOL. we were so close! i dozed in and out on the flight and i kept twitching every time i fell asleep -__-” kevin was out like a light bulb. he played some pokemon too. we got off, my dad was waiting at the baggage claim for us, we got our bags, and my dad drove us through about 1 to 1 hour and 30 minutes of morning traffic back home. me and kevin ko’d in the car. well, kevin ko’d and i dozed in and out again. we took a small nap and then ate whatever was in the fridge. then my uncle tony and my grandma came (to meet kevin LOL) and drop off food. hehe. i also talked to my uncle prior to this to make sure what time he was getting here. good times with my uncle tony~

i did some testing for work and then hopped on the stand up. after the stand up, i talked with phil about another thing we had to address. then i worked on that for the rest of the evening. i got on another call with him after and we figured something out. then kevin and i headed to 527 cafe to get dinner with nluu, ashley, and ryan. i got the popcorn chicken salad (didn’t taste as good as before hmm) and kevin got pork with rice. it was nice catching up with all of them. we shared shaved ice at the end of the meal and we were so full. i also got a really random milk tea with coconut, jasmine tea, mango, and lychee? lololol it tasted good to me tbh. then nluu, kevin, and i went to first ascent. they climbed while i waited for the yoga class to end and digest my food. when the class cleared out, i went in and used the studio. my video kept pausing and buffering so i did an extra long leg workout. my legs were jelly after. we left right when they closed at 11 pm and then we got back home and got ready for bed. i was so tired. i showered and then ko’d even before kevin finished showering LOL. 

jun01: i got up early to work out, shower, and eat a banana before kevin drove us to chinatown so i could get my teeth cleaned. he went to an asian bakery to wait for me. i thought it would take forever but i actually was done at like 11:40 am or something (i got there at 11 am). then we drove to cafe orient 33 to pick up lunch. we got popcorn chicken and bibimbap. we ate and then i got on stand up and he got on another meeting. my stomach didn’t feel too good again so i ended up doing a bit of work before i just laid on the couch on took a nap. my stomach still felt a bit unsettled when hillary came over. my mom cut us some fruit and my stomach felt fine then. i got to catch up and talk with hillary and then kevin went to visit ryan’s apartment before we headed to sumi for dinner! we got a ton of appetizers and only a bit of meat but it’s okay haha. we were so full by the end of dinner. we noticed that the service hasn’t been as A+ as before but the chef is always great. we got our orders mixed up this time but the food was still amazing. they had orange vanilla kakigori again -- we’ll come back in july if they have the pineapple flavored one. i have so much respect and admiration for chef gene kato at sumi. this will always be a special place for me and kevin :) we drove back with super full bellies and then took a walk around my neighborhood at like 10 pm LOL. then we got ready for bed and i felt jkfnsdkjfnsd again in my stomach so i was a bit grumpy. we went to sleep at like 1 am. i think i’ve been eating way too much so i need to cut back so i don’t feel this way.

jun02: i had my alarm set to 8:45 am but i woke up at 8 am to do my workout, shower, and then hop on a 9 am call. that call didn’t happen so i just got my stuff together to go to daniel’s to wfh but actually work from daniel’s... kevin and i ate leftovers for breakfast real quick and then kevin dropped me off and he went to go climbing with ryan and nluu. i had to go in through the back while daniel was on a call so i felt like i was like a robber or something x_x his house is so nice! the renovations look real good :) we both worked a bit and actually got on calls at the same time. mathew gave me the option of taking it easy today and/or working on the new stuff he planned out. daniel and i split a combo platter from shawarma inn and i ate while on my stand up. my stand up went on for a bit too long so i had to ask kevin to pick me up so that daniel could work. it was nice spending time with this one in his newly renovated house LOL. but in general, it was nice to hang out with daniel one on one. he looks like he’s doing good for himself right now.

kevin picked me up, he quickly showered, and we headed to northwestern. we parked and then hurriedly walked to the garage. it was a bit awkward when we entered and then haoqi introduced kevin to his students and then we talked to sarah and got her to demo her project for us. haoqi came back and we had a sumi moment together (excluding sarah LOL -- i’m sorry). apparently, haoqi was at sumi yesterday when we were and he was sitting outside! we saw their food being sent out! it was crazy. if we chose to sit outside, we would have seen him! lol, haoqi kept interrupting sarah to say “omg, i can’t believe it.” good times. we got there too late to see any other demos but kevin caught up with people and we ended up talking to haoqi and others after. there is a peeled in the garage so then kevin and i split that and then drove back home. haoqi invited me to their dinner at the pecking pig but i wanted to stay behind to exercise and spend time with hillary. i think kevin and i ko’d for a bit and then we went downstairs to cool down (a/c in my house was not on yet). i exercised and then kevin headed out to dinner. i rushed to shower because hillary was outside of my house and then i chilled with her for the rest of the evening.

i sorted through old clothes and stuff while hillary was there and then she offered to drive me to yeowoosai. i was the first one there and it was late so it was a bit shady. thank god daniel got there a few minutes later. we got a table and ordered the seafood pancake and waited for everyone to come. ryan stopped by with ashley, peter came with friends and his friends left to go to the bar, and then nluu and honglin came. we ordered mango soju and it was awesome. i would get that again. then we ordered popcorn chicken and kimchi fried rice. the fried rice was so spicy. kevin came after his dinner stuff and ordered yogurt makkoli and ate some food too. then ryan, ashley, and daniel left before we headed over to karaoke. it was nice catching up with all of the guys and spending time with them <3 so i was the only girl in this group and honglin is still the best at karaoke. we sang until our throats hurt and left at around 2 am. nluu kindly drove us all home. thank you! lol my stomach didn’t feel so good and i felt grouchy. i didn’t want to sleep in my hot room so i just went downstairs and slept there. kevin was ko’d on my bed. i think we went to sleep at around 3 am @_@;

jun03: my stomach was still killing me in the morning, but i got up from the basement and into the bedroom just as my parents were waking up. i apologized to kevin for my mood last night and then we drove over to firecakes so i could see hen and get doughnuts! hen didn’t see me until i got to the head of the line and she gasped ahahha. i asked her to give me the best half dozen doughnuts and kevin got a rhubarb fritter, which was delicious. the shop was busy so i could only say hi and give her a big hug before leaving. i’ll definitely see her in july because she was one of the people i couldn’t see this time. she’s so precious <3 oh, while in line, we had a weird saic reunion with another alum LOL. he recognized me and i kind of recognized him and then all three of us were like, “woah” haha. the thing is that he was also visiting from boston for the weekend?! he lives in cambridge and works at harvard. that’s crazy!!!

then kevin and i went to peeled to get another acai bowl! haha. we were feeling grody from eating so much food. the line was kind of long but we waited. he dropped me off at victoria’s and then drove over to ryan’s after taking a few bites of my bowl. i chilled with victoria and did some pokemon things with her while waiting for ashley. oh, it was a christmas miracle because the asian snack package was delivered today! i got it on my way out the door in the morning~ so victoria and i did a sort of unboxing and then ashley came and we tried some snacks all together. lol, we ate so much sugar in one sitting. then we walked over to patissiere coralie and ashley and i split macarons and a salmon and avocado sandwich. i also got their herbal berry iced tea! it was tart but refreshing. we went back to victoria’s, ate more, talked, and sugar coma’d on her couch. victoria told us her funny cheesecake story and then basically kicked us out for laughing at her (LOL, jk. she had to leave a buy dessert though). ashley and i called an uber and got stuck in pretty bad traffic. we both dozed off though. ugh, chicago has endless and large amounts of construction going on right now. x__x;

we got to ryan’s and then called all three of the guys (kevin, ryan, and nluu). nluu was the last and only person to pick up before kevin got us at the door, LOL. they were playing hanabi and they didn’t want to forget their cards. ashley and i chilled while they finished their game. ryan and terence’s place is super nice. i love the view and i really love their kitchen stove floor cushion and the empty space in front of the kitchen that they have right now. i did a good amount of walking around and then we all decided to go get dinner at pho 888. i went with nluu to re-park his car and then we all hopped in my car and went to argyle. i got my bun thit nuong cha gio as usual and kevin ate some of my food because mine was better than his egg noodles, lulz. i also got tofu spring rolls because i needed veggies... kevin and i boxed our meals and then found parking in ryan’s neighborhood. then we got back, used the bathroom, and took a while for kevin and nluu to give into taking a walk around montrose park.

it was a nice and fun walk! we got kevin to third wheel ashley and ryan LOL and then we started copying what ryan does when he walks ahahaha. we also mistook a child for a dog... we walked around the water and saw ducks on a date and the guys threw around a frisbee. it was pretty much summer feels all over again. if only we still played pokemon go, it would have been exactly like last summer haha. lol we also watched and stared at a chauffeur who was trying to park his gigantic car in front of ryan’s... he parked on the curb and left i think. then we saw a soccer player fall after throwing the ball back on to the field. lol we were the peanut gallery this evening. we walked back, the guys played hanabi to redeem themselves from last round, and ashley and i chileld and appreciated the view and the weather and the calming hip hop instrumentals we were streaming on youtube. it was a very nice setting to end the day. kevin and i left at around 10 pm, hugged everyone, dropped nluu off at his car, and then drove back home. i got pretty grr at packing and just all of the stress from this trip devoured me in that instance so i got mad at kevin too. we ended the night on a pretty sour note but i slept in the bed as well because i was too tired and we were getting up in a few hours as well.

jun04: i was dead when we woke up at 5:30 am. kevin was still mad at me but i was really tired (i mean both of us were) so we just dealt with it. my parents drove us to the airport and then we waited in a long ass long to check in our bags x__x; tsa was really quick though and we had enough time for kevin to get a breakfast croissant and then we waited to board. we both ko’d during the flight and kevin woke me up so i could get my complimentary free drink LOL. i got my red tea and they gave us belvita oat cookies again. i ate a few and then went back to sleep. the flight was less than 2 hours and we landed about 20-30 minutes earlier than expected, woot! we got our bags from baggage claim and then took the bus and train home. i apologized when we got back and kinda broke down. i think i was bottling up a lot of stress during my trip, which i felt wasn’t too fun honestly. kevin also apologized and we just spent some time cuddling in bed to recover from our trip. then we ate the leftovers from dinner for lunch and ate some zong zi. then we unpacked everything and i started doing laundry. kevin did the meal planning and i got to relax and catch up on youtube videos.

then we headed to kam man, good fortune, roche bros, and bj’s for groceries. kevin was so happy to drive bb again and he had to get used to the easy steering ;P good fortune was selling 18 boxes of raspberries for $3?! or something crazy like that. we ended up getting like 3 for $1 but i was tempted to get an entire box... we stopped by bj’s to get detergent and fabric softener because we’re finally out :O we got back, unpacked, and we snacked a little. ooo we also got life cereal and ate a bit of that. kevin went to game and i watched more videos and looked at everlane’s modern point flats. i got my size 7.5 rothy’s in the mail and tried them on only to find out that they’re too wide :( i tested my 7′s again during grocery shopping time and they didn’t cut me like last time. maybe i’ll keep these? or should i invest in real leather flats? hmm. i could get both if i saved up too. idk, i fell asleep reading everlane reviews LOL. i was supposed to fold clothes... i woke up an hour later and i remember kevin teasing me about falling asleep because i said that i didn’t need to nap earlier.

i woke up and then put the sheets in the dryer (i might have left them in the washer too long) and folded clothes. then i exercised because i wanted to test new exercise videos and i also felt pretty bad for eating junk food and fried foods during my trip. blech Dx i don’t know if i’ll ever casually drink again...it always ends up hurting my stomach, sigh. i’ll try to stick to that but if me and kevin go to a new restaurant or something, i’ll definitely try a drink or sip from his. anyway, i did a kickboxing video, full body workout, and an intense cardio video while kevin made us a quick dinner. we ate and then had raspberries for dessert. then it was shower time and i got to wash my hair~ it was late but i felt so nasty from the hot chicago weather, the airport, etc. i stayed up until 12:30 am or something looking at stuff on my phone and then fell asleep. back to work tomorrow :)

[nofomoartworld]

Hyperallergic: A Biennial in Sharjah Offers Worlds Enough

Joe Namy “Libretto-o-o: A Curtain Design in the Bright Sunshine Heavy with Love (2017) Site-specific installation, curtain, and stereo sound, dimensions variable (all images by the author for Hyperallergic)

SHARJAH, UAE — The poet Andrew Marvell once wrote an elaborate and lush entreaty to his love interest which began “Had we but world enough and time.” These words occur to me as I think about my experience at the Sharjah Biennial earlier this month. Many biennials are full to bursting with work that is carefully chosen and presented. But this one, in particular, backed by a robust investment by the ruler of this Emirate his Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan bin Mohammed Al Qasimi via his daughter Hoor Al Qasimi, who is the director and president of the Sharjah Art Foundation, is both well organized and exceedingly well curated.

The Sharjah Biennial devises worlds that are full and rich enough to create confidence in them, enough so I plunge into them with held breath, explore their architectures of meaning and come back to myself gasping. I was certainly given worlds enough — visually seductive, conceptually complex, and emotionally devastating worlds — and though I was there for four days, I didn’t have enough time. There were fictional museums with very real, beautifully rendered objects to be placed in the structure that has yet to be, environments created with bamboo, mud, or wrenched steel, caverns in which light and sound immersed me in narrative, and a sound installation that evoked a story of prisoners enclosed in the dark even I was within that work.

Some absorbing pieces were essentially works of architecture, like Mariano Castillo Deball’s “Hypothesis of a Tree” (2016) an environment created in a gallery in Al Mureijah Square that consists of bamboo struts hung with curtains of Japanese paper imprinted with rubbings of fossil sediments. Walking through that piece was like walking through an ancient, newly discovered forest.

Nida Sinnokrot used electronic technology — projectors, motors, sensors amplifiers and screens — in her work “When Her Eyes Lifted”(1998/1999) to also embed me a space that felt like it was on the edge of civilization and someone was trying to send messages (in warning?) from the past. Shadi Habib Allah took me into a fevered dream with his installation “30KG Shine” which consisted of strange, funereal wooden sculptures that might the posters of an elaborate bed or monument, with twisted brass chandeliers cast onto the floor and illuminating the rooms from that vantage, plus a strange film of workers carving out an underground cemetery in Jerusalem. I never fully understood what was happening in that space, but it rang and echoed in my head. I will provide more highlights in a follow-up post providing a thorough, prosaic overview.

Image of one of the venues within the Sharjah Biennial: the Sharjah Arts Square, opposite the Sharjah Art Museum, with a view of Rain Wu and Eric Chen’s “Collectivism” (2016) composed of 600 police shields that enclose a garden

Khalil Rabah “Palestine After Palestine: New Sites for the Palestinian Museum of Natural History and Humankind Departments” (2017) Mixed media installation, with variable dimensions

A crafted lion (one with a bit more force than a paper tiger) part of Khalil Rabah’s “Palestine After Palestine: New Sites for the Palestinian Museum of Natural History and Humankind Departments” (2017)

The Area C Fields of Gold (which includes the Botanical Department) section of Rabah’s “Palestine After Palestine”

Still image from Allora and Calzadilla “The Great Silence” (2014) three channel HD video, 16 minutes and 22 seconds

Another Still from Allora and Calzadilla “The Great Silence” (2014) three channel HD video, 16 minutes and 22 seconds

Mariana Castillo Deball “Hypothesis of a Tree” (2016) Bamboo structure, rubbings on Japanese paper, Sumi ink, dimensions variable

Abdelkader Benchamma “Neither the sky nor the earth” (2017) site-specific installation, ink and felt pen on wall, dimensions variable

Hind Mezaina “Dubai Gardens” (2017) Cyanotype prints with text by Todd Reisz, various dimensions

Donghee Koo “Way of Replay II (Off Peak)” (2017) wood, sand, Styrofoam, concrete, glass, umbrella, kinetic sand, video, audio, miscellaneous objects, dimensions variable

Another view of Donghee Roo’s “Way of Replay II (Off Peak)” (2017)

In Donghee Roo’s “Way of Replay II (Off Peak)” (2017) the artist has created another kind of park for play in miniature.

Jon Rafman “Rhino/Bear” (2016) from the Swallower Swallowed series CNC routed high density foam, acrylic paint 230 x 103 x 62 cm

Jon Rafman “Dog/Lion” (2016) from the Swallower Swallowed series CNC routed high density foam, acrylic paint

Lawrence Abu Hamdan “Saydnaya (the missing 19db)” (2017) sound, mixing deck, lightbox, dimensions variable

Still from The Otolith Group “The Third Part of the Third Measure” (2017) HD video 50 minutes

Another still from The Otolith Group “The Third Part of the Third Measure” (2017) HD video 50 minutes

Still from The Otolith Group “The Third Part of the Third Measure” (2017) HD video 50 minutes

Nida Sinnokrot “When Her Eyes Lifted”(1998/1999) 16mm film loop, modified projectors, stepper motor, sensors, amplifier, screens, dimensions variable

Takashi Ishida “Burning Chair” (2013) video installation, 5 minutes 8 seconds

Another view of Takashi Ishida’s “Burning Chair” (2013) video installation, 5 minutes 8 seconds

Jonathas de Andrade “O Peixe (The Fish)” (2016)16mm film transferred to 2K video, 37 minutes

Shadi Habib Allah “30KG Shine” (2017) Mixed Media installation with variable dimensions

There are a few works that lacked the compelling mystery of the ones I’ve featured here, but even in those cases they were hypnotic enough for me to stay with them, and staying with them long enough, time did momentarily fall away because that constructed world was more than enough.

The Sharjah Biennial 13, Tamawuj, unfolds in five parts from October 2016 through October 2017. Featuring over 50 international artists, the biennial encompasses exhibitions and a public programme in two acts in Sharjah and Beirut; a year-long education programme in Sharjah; projects in Dakar, Ramallah, Istanbul, and Beirut; and an online publishing platform.

The post A Biennial in Sharjah Offers Worlds Enough appeared first on Hyperallergic.

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