#if the base assumptions were different

[inkskinned]

he says i hate everyone except you and that is addictive and that is kind of romantic and beautiful because you're young and you're kind of a sarcastic asshole too and you don't like bad boys, per say, but you don't really like good ones either. and you like that you were the exception, it felt like winning.

except life is not a romance book, and he was kind of being honest. he doesn't learn to be nice to your friends. he only tolerates your family. you have to beg him to come with you to birthday parties, he complains the whole time. you want to go on a date but - people are often there, wherever you're going. he's just so angry. about everything, is the thing. in the romance book, doesn't he eventually soften? can't you teach him, through your own sense of whimsy and comfort?

at first - you know introverts often need smaller friend groups, and honestly, you're fine staying at home too. you like the small, tidy life you occupy. you're not going to punish him for his personality type.

except: he really does hate everyone but you. which means he doesn't get along with his therapist. which means he has no one to talk to except for you. which means you take care of him constantly, since he otherwise has no one. which means you sometimes have to apologize for him. which means he keeps you home from seeing your friends because he hates them. you're the single exception.

about a decade from this experience, you'll type into google: how to know if a relationship is codependent.

he wraps an arm around you. i hate everyone except you. these days, you're learning what he's actually confessing is i have very little practice being kind.

[epiphainie]

.

[roystartt]

Statement: 'Eddie doesn't like Tommy'

Incorrect.

Actual canon: Eddie had a massive dudebro crush on Tommy

Source: He hung out with him several times incl. introducing him to his kid.

Statement: 'Buck was trying to get Eddie's attention not Tommys'

Incorrect.

Actual canon: he is trying to get the attention of the hot pilot

Source: Bro literally said it was Tommy's attention he as trying to get

Statement: 'but the gym scene... Tommy wasn't even there so obviously it was Eddie's attention he wanted'

Incorrect

Actual canon: He was trying to get invited to the basketball pickup game because he knew Tommy was going to be there

Source: Eddie tried to make him go to the pick up games before and Buck was only interested once he knew Tommy would be there.

Statement: 'He is a bad person because he never apologised for his past actions towards Hen and Chim'

Incorrect

Actual canon: Shown growth in between each 'Begins' episode despite very little overall screen time and by the time he leaves it is very clear he is friendly and liked by both Hen and Chim.

Source: In 'Bobby Begins' all three are joking together and they hang out outside of work. Chim stayed in contact at least somewhat irregularly considering he called in a favour from him later on in s2 which is set at least a few years after 'Bobby Begins Again'. This shows that there has been some level of forgiveness between the characters. Also there's 15+ canon years between 'Chim Begins' and when we see Tommy again in s7. We don't know what apologies were made that weren't shown on screen, and sometimes actions speak louder than words. Plus no one is the same person as they were 15 years ago, especially if the 15 years younger you is stuck in the closet and terrified of your homophobic and racist boss finding out about that.

Statement: 'Tommy doesn't care about Buck and made a sex joke when Buck was trying to open up'

Incorrect.

Actual canon: Tommy checked in with Buck and gave Buck opportunities to talk about everything that had been going on. Buck was the one to imply about Daddy kink, Tommy just went along with it because he is letting Buck set the pace.

Source: They are grown ass men who are capable of both having a feelings conversation and also then make dirty sex jokes because again they are grown ass men and are probably having dirty sex as we speak.

Statement: 'The rest of the 118 don't like Tommy'

Incorrect.

Actual canon: Bobby thinks Tommy is 'good people'. Chim and Hen hung out with Tommy outside of work by 'Bobby Begins Again'. Chim likes Tommy well enough to keep in touch over several years to a degree where he can call in multiple favours.

Source: Just watch the show bruh

[illdothehotvoice]

Thinking about when I told my roommate I hyperfixate on Mario a lot and he was like "I didn't even know you COULD hyperfixate on Mario until I met you" fkdnfnfndndndnfjfekef

[corfisers]

the thing about the dudebro discussion, the aita post, the willingness to just take at face value any accusations directed at a person you don't know, is that it's all so painfully transparent, it's so obvious that those conversations are happening at this scale specifically because it's about trans women. maybe it's just me, but you generally shouldn't be using certain terms for people unless you know that they are comfortable with them, and if you fucked up then apologize and move on (if we pretend for a second that the majority of dudebros weren't feign ignorance or just actively malicious to begin with). you should be aware that some things don't affect you the same way they affect other people, and you definitely shouldn't be giving those people potentially dangerous advice on topics that you personally aren't familiar with, this is the baseline, at least don't fucking put other people who were misled into trusting you in danger. and if an anon barges into your inbox with some wild accusations then you should stop and think "hey, why are you coming to me anonymously with no evidence to back any of this up, and in such a way that i have to reply to you publicly so more people get to see this" regardless of who it's directed at. like, those are all pretty simple things, or they should be at least, but because the targets are trans women and transmisogyny is so fucking rampant everyone has to bend over backwards to come up with excuses as to why treating trans women this way is perfectly normal and justified.

[hadesknockedupintheunderworld]

Sonine Prime ... Part 3

Hi, everyone and welcome back to Sonine Prime! The part of the show when I come out and talk about Sonine (and a bit of Sontails) in Sonic Prime!

Last time we finished up the set of scenes starting with their meeting and ended with Sonic and Nine's capture by the Chaos Council. This time, we're hoping to get to move on to the next episode before moving on to the next part😂

ㅤ

<< Part 2 | Part 4 >>

(Essay/thoughts/analysis under the cut)

ㅤ

Starting out with an honerable mention of a moment!

"Nine! Is that you?"

Nine: You're just wasting your breath.

Sonic: Omg Nine👀😊

ㅤ

And then, just before Sonic is put through a series of grueling diagnostic tests, Nine is used as collateral to get him to comply.

"Do not fight them. It will only end badly. For him."

"Nine!"

"Okay, let's start the test. The sooner we do this, the sooner Nine and I can get out of here."

ㅤ

Another small thing:

The way Nine tenses up furing the first test, as Sonic risks being shot by both laser guns (another tick in the "Nine cares a surprising amount about someone he just met" box)

ㅤ

Hmmm, and the little things just keep coming, don't they?

Sonic loses his footing in the giant hamster ball filled with spike balls.

"Sonic!"

Which of course, makes Sonic palpably annoyed

Hmmm almost reminds you of when Eggman insulted Tails, doesn't it?

"You wanna test me, Eggheads? Question. How do you tick off a hedgehog? ANSWER. Mess with his friends!"

Hehe. Interesting.

"No one messes with my best friend!"

vs

"How do you tick off a hedgehog? ANSWER. Mess with his friends!"

ㅤ

Sonic begins to "hallucinate" as he says, and we're treated to another flashback

Amy: I guess he didn't hear the stick together part.🙄

Knuckles: Does he ever?

Tails: No. But he also hasn't let us down when it really counts! You know Sonic. He'll catch up at some point.😊

No comment about how everyone else is at least mildly annoyed at Sonic and Tails stands up for him in a way that redirects their attention from what Sonic did/is doing to the fact that he'll be there when they need him.

ㅤ

Good bye Season 1 Episode 1 of Sonic Prime, hello Episode 2!

"It's not about the zigs or the zags... It's about the friends we made along the way."

Sonic looks at Nine, has a flashback/vision of seeing Tails and Shadow before the shattering. Then, he looks at Nine both after being confused and still a bit out of it

ㅤ

Okay, so aside from that funny little moment (Sonic's face), there are some little things to piece together from Nine's end after the council brings out the energy extractor.

First, unlike Sonic's repeated winking afterwards, Nine winks at him smoothly. He doesn't change expression as he does so, and it happens in a singular smooth motion. This makes sense as to why the message Sonic received from the wink was a sort of "I have a plan". While we can't know exactly what he meant, what is clear was that the wink at Sonic was deliberate.

Second, the way he plays off the earlier wink. I think it's pertinent to mention that he's at the end of two Eggforcer's weapons, and Sonic hasn't exactly been subtle this whole time with the winking. His fairly loud whisper to Nine about a plan isn't exactly subtle either (and Nine isn’t exactly the confessing to caring about someone type), so it makes sense if he plays the earlier wink off as having dust in his eye. There is a real contrast begin the smooth wink before and the way he rubs his eye when he says he just has dust in it. That also being said, they did just meet still, so even if Nine cares about Sonic a surprising amount, I think it can be true that his earlier wink was him trying to tell Sonic that he's thinking of a way out of this just as much as it's true that Nine might prioritize making sure he'll live at least if Sonic's not going to survive the extractor. And since this is all about talking about ways certain bits in this series can be interpreted, anyone want to talk about how "I just had dust in my eye" is commonly used by characters who are pretending they're not tearing up due to the display in front of them? Nine has been watching this display of a hedgehog's last words with...an interesting expression on his face, I'll say. Is he...confused? Just thrown off by how Sonic’s acting here? Dumbfounded? Who knows. All we know is that the camera cuts to Nine quite a bit to show us his changes of expression as Sonic speaks, and that after Sonic looks at him for a prolongued amount of time (after asking if he has a plan), his expression instantly changes. This is to say, even though he clearly wasn't tearing up/betraying sadness in that moment, what if Sonic looking at him then, asking if he had a plan, sort of made him feel laid bare? What if he was afraid for a moment that his expressions betrayed his thoughts and feelings on the inside? I mean, imagine meeting someone for the first time and caring about another person for the first time in years. Imagine you've been lonely and isolating yourself for years of your life, and this hedgehog you've barely met uses his last words to call you one of his friends. Imagine he's begging on what could be his death bed for a plan, and you haven't worked anything out yet (even though earlier you'd winked to make him feel better, feel like there will be a plan). He could die, you don't know what to do, you're still not sure why you care, why this makes you sad. You just met him didn't you? He looks at you for a while, asking for a plan, and for a moment, as you're afraid something will happen to you as he mentions plans to free him, you're also coming to terms with the thought that this hedgehog *could* die. Playing it off as just dust in the eye doesn't just save you from another nasty shock, but it protects you from feeling like the hedgehog is staring right into your soul, seeing your conflicting feelings.

Third, after Sonic says "looks like this is game over" and seems to accept there's no way out, the extractor closing in, the camera cuts away to Nine again, zooming in on his face. There's a subtle shift in Nine's face right then and he looks...almost sad, or like he finds it hard to believe that this is real. Then, when it cuts away from Sonic again, after he says goodbye, Nine's eyes are wide.

Actually, on Nine's expressions during what he and Sonic both believe to be Sonic's last moments, I may have hit the picture limit, but I can at least embed a clip here so you all can watch Nine's expressions.

All I'm saying is that if Nine wasn't having feelings about all this in some form, the creators would not have chosen to keep cutting away to Nine's expression, bidding the audience to see and wonder how he feels about all of this. And I think the fact that Nine is reacting at least a little, not looking bored or uncaring or as if he's trying to get this over with, tells us a lot about Nine and what the creators wanted the audience to focus on.

More evidence to the "Nine cares a surprising amount for a hedgehog he just met and doesn't only care about him out of curiosity/what sonic can do for him" box

Not to mention that just after this, when Nine gets his chance to slip away, he frees Sonic right after freeing himself. This is one of these scenes that *is* arguable, as there's really no point in him leaving Sonic there to die. But, we know that Nine has the capability to go on the offensive (not just because of the entire fight scene from episode 1, but also from the fact that he destroys/dismantles an eggforcer at the computer without even needing to turn around) and Rebel and Renegade are there. So it personally tells me a lot that Nine didn't leave Sonic there to fend for himself (especially since he'll later weigh his options and choose to leave Rebel, Renegade, and Rusty to the council over the chance of saving them and losing the red shard).

ㅤ

Wooo! Season 1 Episode 3, everybody, let's go!

Now, this episode starts with a pre shattering flashback. Just like in episode 2, Sonic's friends talk about how annoyed/frustrated they are that Sonic isn't yet fighting with them. After everyone says their piece, Tails again stands up for Sonic, telling them that Sonic will arrive at some point and that he knows he will.

(We'll come back to these flashback bits with Tails standing up for Sonic while others don't trust/believe in him or are annoyed at him later)

And back to the present, Nine just manages to take control of Rusty Rose in time to save Sonic.

Now, as there are a couple things I'd like to bring to everyone's attention with the aid of screenshots, until part 4, everyone!

Next time we'll hopefully get to tackle the rest of episode 3, and there should be smooth sailing til the last few episodes of the season after that.

[whatudottu]

You know, sitting here thinking about TFP humanformers I have rather found it difficult to come up with an idea for a human Predaking, seeing as how his entire schtick as a predacon lead him to being depersonified and marked as a beast before folks realised he could transform.

I mean, these are just humanformer ideas based on Predaking KEEPING his canonical treatment rather than making Predaking and changing the dynamics that way. It does involve some uh... dehumanisation under the cut to keep with the theme, so keep in mind if you DO read, but those parts are mainly in the 'struggling to come up with a concept that isn't racist' section.

The first ideas that I had for him would probably to make him into a super soldier, and sure it works but- if you attempt to 'discipline' a super soldier the way Starscream tried to do so with a predacon's beast mode, I think you'll be walking away with broken shins (aka not walking at all). Another idea was to bring a fucked up 'shockwave inspired' element that would lead to the amp 'beast' comparisons to be made, but the more 'beastman' version of this idea is VERY DELICATE to work with (read: comparing a human to an animal is VERY HISTORICALLY and still PRESENTLY a not great thing to do) but also doesn't quite FEEL that predacon to me; predacons are emphasised to be ANCIENT not that they are extant animals, so if Shockwave has done anything to beastify a human I think insecticons may be that unit of humans.

No, I think that for a human to be considered a beast without being racist about it would be to turn predacons from 'animals' to 'monsters', to Frankenstein's monsters. Though I thought of I think a vague Frankenstein comparison before, I will bring up that many others have also seen some modern Prometheus allegories between Shockwave and Predaking. I was mainly inspired by my [insert number here] rewatch of OSP's Frankenstein episode and especially the particular eye colour Adam was depicted with, but the basic idea of being a dead person brought back to life with the best pieces carefully selected by someone wholly dedicated to the craft of science (irrespective of Frankenstein's dropout status) plus how the monster is almost universally feared? Come on, this is the 'in' I needed if I wanted to keep the general fear of the unknown with Predaking and the Decepticon High Command.

And what better show to introduce a character that is this compilation of ancient human DNA and real corpse than a show that has previously introduced ZOMBIES and will later introduce VAMPIRES!?

If Shockwave shows up, after 3 seasons worth of knowing what a zombie is and that it's a real possible thing to happen - in addition to the fact your own fucking leader stuck a shard of 'zombie making' juice into his chest/bloodstream/whatever the humanformers version of Megan would do - with a creature visibly made up of the dead with eyes of something very non-human, would you welcome them with open arms? Adam Frankenstein certainly wasn't, not even from his own dad which Predaking can at least attest to actually having SOME sort of decent relationship with Shockwave.

In a way, it modifies the predacon fossil scavenger hunt to be 'global graverobbers' which in a humanformers setting might actually be 'go to this great battle and recover the bones of not only our but our enemies bones to provide a human base' which could EMPHASISE the monstrosity of Predaking's nature as a melting pot of old friends and foe mashed together into one fucked up super soldier. In a canon parallel this mixture of gene sequences and cadavers would still influence Knock Out and Starscream to think turning the corpse of C.Y.L.A.S. into their own super soldier would still be a good idea, having something else besides the dark 'energon' (if it is not still energon) fuck up the experiment and make a tech-modified human into some kinda fucked up vampire. Heck, with this old post of mine comparing the looks of the new predacons to the two big blue (dead) bots, this humanformers concept for Predaking can persist and continue to be used by Shockwave to create Skylynx and Darksteel, not made of battles long passed but of the freshest bodies the scientist would have access to.

But I guess canonically there has only ever been 2 zombie hordes throughout the entirety of TFP, if you consider the horde in Thirst to be very hungry vampire thralls instead (considering they were killed rather than revived, I'd place them under 'vampire'), so perhaps not a lot of bots can go 'this is terrifying' and not a lot of evidence that Shockwave can gather about why they are at this level of hesitancy; it's not a simple fear of the unknown, it's the type of fear from experience. But I have a trick up my sleeve!

BOOM, Altered Loyalties baby; human edition, of course.

This might deserve it's own post but essentially, a humanformers 'Shockwave's Monster' Predaking would have a lot more precedence for being a Unicron made monstrosity if the threat of Unicron damned creatures exist as a background constant. A threat to base verse to their position on Earth, a threat in humanformers because the dead outnumber them. All the while, Shockwave stands beside a being created from those very same dead that may or may not have risen from the corruption of WHATEVER it is within the Earth's core, only to announce this is a very new SUPER SOLDIER!? Zombies are one thing with their durability and their hordes, but this creature - this DEMON - stands there with advance agility, enhanced endurance, and superior strength!?

To later find that it - that HE - is not merely a walking corpse, but an intellectual, sends shivers even down Megatron's spine. Megatron, the head of one of the last remaining shreds of humanity, staring at the undead being not only made to be harder, better, faster, stronger than him, but capable of intelligence in much the same way as the poetic ex-gladiator.

He WILL NOT go extinct.

[toastsnaffler]

ykw actually I am angry + disappointed w them. I've been pushing how I feel aside and trying to make it my own fault so it's all contained but I think theyve just been mean. and they really should know me better ik I try to pretend I don't expect more from them so I feel less hurt when they do things that upset me but we've been friends for years by this point. like come on.

[paint-music-with-me]

.

[goldlightsaber]

The comments about Olivia Wilde are disgusting. And no one is pushing back on it. I could not belive how bad it was when I saw the replys to that tweet. I mean they act like she fuckin killed people! it's truly insane how women are treated. And you're absolutely right about Brad Pitt and how men are treated in comparison. It makes me so angry

Yeah it makes me angry too. Like, a woman has one public slip-up and suddenly they’re a “snake” “evil” “opportunist” — someone said “oh look she’s smirking because she’s having her moment spotlight with Pedro” what the fuck. Like implying that she, who had already made a name for herself before he even got famous, was posing with him for fame…that’s so crazy. They were just standing next to each other at at event they were both invited to. Makes you realize just how wildly the idea of a gold digger, opportunist woman permeates society.

[cyrsed]

you ever think about how mainstream gaming is the way it is bc it evolved from arcade games?

[dapperrokyuu]

The whole crux of WHA is basically about healing magic and I still fail to understand why healing magic is banned, ngl, dalnbdalkfjn-

Like, I recall they say the whole experimental thing, but thats less about the magic and more about the lack of consent and suffering regarding those experiments-

[ranboo5]

Coughs

[thehungrytide]

Connections

Puzzle #442

🟨🟨🟨🟨

🟦🟪🟦🟦

🟦🟩🟦🟦

🟦🟦🟦🟦

🟪🟩🟪🟪

🟪🟪🟪🟪

🟩🟩🟩🟩

[dykepuffs]

How Do I Make My Fictional Gypsies Not Racist?

(Or, "You can't, sorry, but…")

You want to include some Gypsies in your fantasy setting. Or, you need someone for your main characters to meet, who is an outsider in the eyes of the locals, but who already lives here. Or you need a culture in conflict with your settled people, or who have just arrived out of nowhere. Or, you just like the idea of campfires in the forest and voices raised in song. And you’re about to step straight into a muckpile of cliches and, accidentally, write something racist.

(In this, I am mostly using Gypsy as an endonym of Romany people, who are a subset of the Romani people, alongside Roma, Sinti, Gitano, Romanisael, Kale, etc, but also in the theory of "Gypsying" as proposed by Lex and Percy H, where Romani people are treated with a particular mix of orientalism, criminalisation, racialisation, and othering, that creates "The Gypsy" out of both nomadic peoples as a whole and people with Romani heritage and racialised physical features, languages, and cultural markers)

Enough of my friends play TTRPGs or write fantasy stories that this question comes up a lot - They mention Dungeons and Dragons’ Curse Of Strahd, World Of Darkness’s Gypsies, World Of Darkness’s Ravnos, World of Darkness’s Silent Striders… And they roll their eyes and say “These are all terrible! But how can I do it, you know, without it being racist?”

And their eyes are big and sad and ever so hopeful that I will tell them the secret of how to take the Roma of the real world and place them in a fictional one, whilst both appealing to gorjer stereotypes of Gypsies and not adding to the weight of stereotyping that already crushes us. So, disappointingly, there is no secret.

Gypsies, like every other real-world culture, exist as we do today because of interactions with cultures and geography around us: The living waggon, probably the archetypal thing which gorjer writers want to include in their portrayals of nomads, is a relatively modern invention - Most likely French, and adopted from French Showmen by Romanies, who brought it to Britain. So already, that’s a tradition that only spans a small amount of the time that Gypsies have existed, and only a small number of the full breadth of Romani ways of living. But the reasons that the waggon is what it is are based on the real world - The wheels are tall and iron-rimmed, because although you expect to travel on cobbled, tarmac, or packed-earth roads and for comparatively short distances, it wasn’t rare to have to ford a river in Britain in the late nineteenth century, on country roads. They were drawn by a single horse, and the shape of that horse was determined by a mixture of local breeds - Welsh cobs, fell ponies, various draft breeds - as well as by the aesthetic tastes of the breeders. The stove inside is on the left, so that as you move down a British road, the chimney sticks up into the part where there will be the least overhanging branches, to reduce the chance of hitting it.

So taking a fictional setting that looks like (for example) thirteenth century China (with dragons), and placing a nineteenth century Romanichal family in it will inevitably result in some racist assumptions being made, as the answer to “Why does this culture do this?” becomes “They just do it because I want them to” rather than having a consistent internal logic.

Some stereotypes will always follow nomads - They appear in different forms in different cultures, but they always arise from the settled people's same fears: That the nomads don't share their values, and are fundamentally strangers. Common ones are that we have a secret language to fool outsiders with, that we steal children and disguise them as our own, that our sexual morals are shocking (This one has flipped in the last half century - From the Gypsy Lore Society's talk of the lascivious Romni seductress who will lie with a strange man for a night after a 'gypsy wedding', to today's frenzied talk of 'grabbing' and sexually-conservative early marriages to ensure virginity), that we are supernatural in some way, and that we are more like animals than humans. These are tropes where if you want to address them, you will have to address them as libels - there is no way to casually write a baby-stealing, magical succubus nomad without it backfiring onto real life Roma. (The kind of person who has the skills to write these tropes well, is not the kind of person who is reading this guide.)

It’s too easy to say a list of prescriptive “Do nots”, which might stop you from making the most common pitfalls, but which can end up with your nomads being slightly flat as you dance around the topics that you’re trying to avoid, rather than being a rich culture that feels real in your world.

So, here are some questions to ask, to create your nomadic people, so that they will have a distinctive culture of their own that may (or may not) look anything like real-world Romani people: These aren't the only questions, but they're good starting points to think about before you make anything concrete, and they will hopefully inspire you to ask MORE questions.

First - Why are they nomadic? Nobody moves just to feel the wind in their hair and see a new horizon every morning, no matter what the inspirational poster says. Are they transhumant herders who pay a small rent to graze their flock on the local lord’s land? Are they following migratory herds across common land, being moved on by the cycle of the seasons and the movement of their animals? Are they seasonal workers who follow man-made cycles of labour: Harvests, fairs, religious festivals? Are they refugees fleeing a recent conflict, who will pass through this area and never return? Are they on a regular pilgrimage? Do they travel within the same area predictably, or is their movement governed by something that is hard to predict? How do they see their own movements - Do they think of themselves as being pushed along by some external force, or as choosing to travel? Will they work for and with outsiders, either as employees or as partners, or do they aim to be fully self-sufficient? What other jobs do they do - Their whole society won’t all be involved in one industry, what do their children, elderly, disabled people do with their time, and is it “work”?

If they are totally isolationist - How do they produce the things which need a complex supply chain or large facilities to make? How do they view artefacts from outsiders which come into their possession - Things which have been made with technology that they can’t produce for themselves? (This doesn’t need to be anything about quality of goods, only about complexity - A violin can be made by one artisan working with hand tools, wood, gut and shellac, but an accordion needs presses to make reeds, metal lathes to make screws, complex organic chemistry to make celluloid lacquer, vulcanised rubber, and a thousand other components)

How do they feel about outsiders? How do they buy and sell to outsiders? If it’s seen as taboo, do they do it anyway? Do they speak the same language as the nearby settled people (With what kind of fluency, or bilingualism, or dialect)? Do they intermarry, and how is that viewed when it happens? What stories does this culture tell about why they are a separate people to the nearby settled people? Are those stories true? Do they have a notional “homeland” and do they intend to go there? If so, is it a real place?

What gorjers think of as classic "Gipsy music" is a product of our real-world situation. Guitar from Spain, accordions from the Soviet Union (Which needed modern machining and factories to produce and make accessible to people who weren't rich- and which were in turn encouraged by Soviet authorities preferring the standardised and modern accordion to the folk traditions of the indigenous peoples within the bloc), brass from Western classical traditions, via Balkan folk music, influences from klezmer and jazz and bhangra and polka and our own music traditions (And we influence them too). What are your people's musical influences? Do they make their own instruments or buy them from settled people? How many musical traditions do they have, and what are they all for (Weddings, funerals, storytelling, campfire songs, entertainment...)? Do they have professional musicians, and if so, how do those musicians earn money? Are instrument makers professionals, or do they use improvised and easy-to-make instruments like willow whistles, spoons, washtubs, etc? (Of course the answer can be "A bit of both")

If you're thinking about jobs - How do they work? Are they employed by settled people (How do they feel about them?) Are they self employed but providing services/goods to the settled people? Are they mostly avoidant of settled people other than to buy things that they can't produce themselves? Are they totally isolationist? Is their work mostly subsistence, or do they create a surplus to sell to outsiders? How do they interact with other workers nearby? Who works, and how- Are there 'family businesses', apprentices, children with part time work? Is it considered 'a job' or just part of their way of life? How do they educate their children, and is that considered 'work'? How old are children when they are considered adult, and what markers confer adulthood? What is considered a rite of passage?

When they travel, how do they do it? Do they share ownership of beasts of burden, or each individually have "their horse"? Do families stick together or try to spread out? How does a child begin to live apart from their family, or start their own family? Are their dwellings something that they take with them, or do they find places to stay or build temporary shelter with disposable material? Who shares a dwelling and why? What do they do for privacy, and what do they think privacy is for?

If you're thinking about food - Do they hunt? Herd? Forage? Buy or trade from settled people? Do they travel between places where they've sown crops or managed wildstock in previous years, so that when they arrive there is food already seeded in the landscape? How do they feel about buying food from settled people, and is that common? If it's frowned upon - How much do people do it anyway? How do they preserve food for winter? How much food do they carry with them, compared to how much they plan to buy or forage at their destinations? How is food shared- Communal stores, personal ownership?

Why are they a "separate people" to the settled people? What is their creation myth? Why do they believe that they are nomadic and the other people are settled, and is it correct? Do they look different? Are there legal restrictions on them settling? Are there legal restrictions on them intermixing? Are there cultural reasons why they are a separate people? Where did those reasons come from? How long have they been travelling? How long do they think they've been travelling? Where did they come from? Do they travel mostly within one area and return to the same sites predictably, or are they going to move on again soon and never come back?

And then within that - What about the members of their society who are "unusual" in some way: How does their society treat disabled people? (are they considered disabled, do they have that distinction and how is it applied?) How does their society treat LGBT+ people? What happens to someone who doesn't get married and has no children? What happens to someone who 'leaves'? What happens to young widows and widowers? What happens if someone just 'can't fit in'? What happens to someone who is adopted or married in? What happens to people who are mixed race, and in a fantasy setting to people who are mixed species? What is taboo to them and what will they find shocking if they leave? What is society's attitude to 'difference' of various kinds?

Basically, if you build your nomads from the ground-up, rather than starting from the idea of "I want Gypsies/Buryats/Berbers/Minceiri but with the numbers filed off and not offensive" you can end up with a rich, unique nomadic culture who make sense in your world and don't end up making a rod for the back of real-world cultures.

[irisintheafterglow]

a kaiju attack spoils date night with bf!hoshina. he is so pissed.

cw: canon-typical violence, swearing, mild angst/fluff, happy surprise ending

"is it just me, or does the vice-captain seem angrier than usual?"

"maybe he's just fired up. there's a lot of yoju for him to take care of," iharu observes, scanning the emptied streets from the rooftop of an evacuated office building.

"you idiots really don't pay attention at all, do you?" shinomiya mumbles under her breath, pinching the bridge of her nose. the rest of the officers with her stare at her blankly. "it's thursday, geniuses."

"is there something special about kaiju appearances and days of the week?"

"not that i've heard of," kafka states, scratching his head with a finger. "did new research come out?"

"maybe it's because of the full moon," haruichi says and the other men look up at its soft shining light, nodding in understanding.

"that makes a lot of sense."

"but why would that make the vice-captain angry?"

"maybe he's a werewolf," iharu whispers with sincere worry. "maybe kafka's not the only shapeshifter in our division."

"it's date night, you meatheads! the vice-captain's supposed to be off-base and relaxing," shinomiya explains impatiently like it was written on the floors in fluorescent paint. "he's probably angry that the attack came right when he usually picks up..."

"picks up who?" the officers stiffen and quickly fall into perfect lines. you smile at their professionalism and try not to laugh at how quickly they changed their gossiping demeanors. "you know, officers, you should be careful about what you say in regards to the vice-captain."

"our deepest apologies, platoon leader," kaguragi monotoned, ever the perfect soldier.

"at ease," you command them. "you have nothing to apologize for. i'm simply warning you of what might have happened had it not been me passing by."

"understood, platoon leader," izumo confirms. "if we may," he continues slowly and you can see the rest of the officers eyeing him warily. "were we...correct in our assumption as to the reason for the vice-captain's mood?"

"the werewolf assumption or the assumption that only shinomiya was correct about?" everyone but shinomiya reddens, looking down sheepishly at the toes of their suits. the axe-wielder straightens her shoulders with a proud glint in her eyes. "to answer your question, it would be the latter," you answer with a poorly-hidden smirk. "he'd barely knocked on my door when the alarm sounded."

"oh, i bet the vice-cap was seething."

"he definitely was," you confirm, recalling the colorful curses he uttered as you both begrudgingly shed your nicer clothes for your combat suits. i was supposed to take off your clothes under different circumstances, he'd lamented. don't go thinking our night is canceled because of this. i'll finish them off quickly for you.

your relationship with hoshina was no secret, considering that he talked about you whenever he was given the chance. every kdf member on base knew you preferred to keep your romantic life as private as possible to avoid questions of power dynamics from higher-ranking officials. hoshina, however, either didn't listen or didn't seem to care. he happily declared thursday nights to be date nights, threatening intense punishment for the officers below him if they caused trouble while he was gone. a static-filled message from the scouting teams sounds in your earpiece and you dismiss the officers, moving to join the vice-captain at the front line.

judging by the slowly increasing trail of dead monsters covering the asphalt, you find hoshina easily as he cuts a clean slice through a fast-moving yoju. you change the frequency on your earpiece so that you're directly connected to his.

"someone's been busy," you remark, pulling the batons from your back and electrifying them with the switch by your thumb. they hum in your hands, electric blue lightning crackling in sync with the released power of your suit. "save some for me, would you?"

"any other day, i would," he replies and you hear him smile despite his annoyance. "but it took me three months to get those reservations, so i wanna finish this up quickly." another yoju falls, your boyfriend a phantom blur in the darkness.

"are you calling me slow?" your hand plants itself on your hip as you continue to watch him cut down enemies, barely moving from your place between the dead kaiju. "i can't believe my boyfriend thinks i'm slow. here i thought you were my biggest supporter."

"that's not what i said," he huffs, the slightest waver in his exhale the only evidence of exertion. "i'm just faster." he pauses for half a second to catch his breath, and you snag your chance to overtake him.

"hmm, i think i'll take over for a second, then." launching yourself from the ground, your feet run perpendicular against the wall of a crumbling building as you close the distance. you can feel hoshina's attention on you while you dodge the yoju's swinging limbs and sink your batons into the skin covering its core, electricity surging through its body as it falls with a loud thud. "how's that, mister i'm just faster?"

"cute," he admits, offering you a hand as you hop down from the monster's head. you're shoulder to shoulder facing opposite directions and catch the challenge in his eyes as you look at him over your shoulder. "but i know you can go harder."

"go your fastest then, soshiro," you dare. his throat bobs as he swallows thickly, a subtle sign that you'd thrown him off. "i'll do my best to keep up."

---

"so, this is not how i wanted date night to end up," he says through a mouth full of noodles, slurping them loudly from the bowl on your living room coffee table. "and i'm sorry we couldn't go to that fancy place."

"to be fair, the website didn't exactly update its hours immediately," you remind him. "how were we supposed to know the place got demolished in the attack?"

"true, but i made you get all dressed up for nothing," he grumbles, accidentally dropping a vegetable and splashing broth onto his face. "ow." you snort against your spoon, setting it down in your bowl and swiping over the corner of soshiro's mouth with a napkin. "this was my favorite shirt, too. worst date night ever."

"good thing there's this place called the cleaners, babe." he continues to frown despite your unending patience, letting you clean him up while he indulges in staring at you in your nice clothes. you could make anything look pretty, he thinks, staring unashamedly at you wrapped up in a blanket and covering your going-out clothes. "hey," you murmur, gently grabbing his chin and turning him to face you. "i don't mind."

"you don't mind what?"

"this kind of date night."

"but we could do this anytime," he mumbles, avoiding your eyes. you shake your head, pushing away your food and climbing into his lap, your legs on either side of his hips.

"no, we can't. we don't know how many times we get this in our line of work," you point out with an ache in your chest and he finally blinks up to look at you. "so i'm grateful for any time i get to spend with you, soshiro." his throat bobs again, but he manages to give you a small smile.

"you're too good for me, you know that?"

"if you say so," you shrug, leaning down until your lips barely brush his.

"but, you know," he murmurs and you pull back, staring into his starry eyes. "there's not a lot of nights," he inhales, reaching behind him to grab something from under the couch's throw pillow, "where i get to pull this move."

"what're you--ohmygod." he smirks at you as you blink down at the small box sitting in his hand, covered in crushed velvet and embroidered with gold. "that's-you didn't..."

"i did," he whispers, memorizing every inch of your shocked expression. "so," he pushes open the top half of the box with his thumb to reveal something that sparkles even in the dim lights of your apartment, "please--"

"yes!" you scream before he can finish his sentence, your excitement echoing off the walls as you both break out into wide grins. "holy shit, yes!"

"baby, i didn't even ask the whole question," he chuckles, giving in and slipping the ring on your finger. "what if that wasn't the question i was gonna ask?"

"i'd skewer your head with my batons," you smile sweetly and he hums, admiring the jeweled band in the light. "that was the question you were gonna ask, right?"

"of course, sweetheart," he assures you, finally leaning up to press his lips against yours. "you're the only one i'll ever let keep up with me."

"you gonna marry me, hoshina soshiro?"

"i'm gonna marry you so hard, the entire base will know." you fondly remember your conversation with the officers earlier in the night.

"darling, i think they already know."

if you enjoy my writing and would like to support me, you can buy me a coffee on my ko-fi! commissions and nsfw requests can be sent through my fiverr! you can also check out my full masterlist here :)