#let me know if this needs a tag or three

[riverside-lavender]

okay i have to show everyone my favorite tiktok.

you don’t understand. i could recite this from memory.

[iamhereinthebg]

Let's talk about the clock keepers boundary!

(warning: spoilers until chapter 124!!)

I've had some guess on where they could be from so let's look at what we have in the manga for now. I will keep things on surface level for the most part but it's just some things I noticed!

The first mention of the town is in chapter 111, where we finally have a view on their boundary.

A lot of fans already guessed from their clothes that they were not from Japan, this panel definitely confirms it and even points more precizely to a European country, mostly Western Europe. And also a country where Winter with snow exist.

It's also not an English speaking country, since Akane cannot understand the language and we know he has english classes at school.

Now there are several things we can look at to have more clues!

First, the architecture.

This type of house is called Timbered framed houses. It’s important to note that the roofs on those houses are really really sharp here. Which means theywere built for snow, so it can slide off the roofs more easily. The trees are also pines, something that can be found in a lot of Europe. (wood was needed to be able to create houses made of wood/with visible Framework( Little note: I know Italy was a guess for a lot of person because of the link to Pinocchio, but Italy main material for houses is stone not wood. And it is also not known for its winter.)

Here we can also see bricks which is something more associated to countries like Germany, Belgium or the Nertherlands, we don't have the colors so we can't guess from which minerals it was made for now.

But we have even more informations when we look at chapter 124!

The bridge and tower may be inspired by a fortified city, something that you could find A LOT in Western Europe during the middle age, not a lot of cities still have their entire walls but you can still see it if you go into old medieval towns. We can also see something that looks like a Belfry on several panels. Towers used mostly to indicate each passing hour of the day (may be a campanile or a bell tower (the difference is wether it's linked to religion or not basically)

Second! Let's do a little bit of clock making history!

I won't go into details, but there are some countries to point for this. England, The Netherlands and Germany. We already took out England before and we can easily erase Nertherlands from the list with the next step (my favorite one).

The food! I already had my suspicions confirmed with this bonus art from volume 22.

First of all, they have tea which is not something that was in Europe before the XVII century. But let's look at the sweets they have here.

Chocolates which look close to Belgian chocolate ( I say Belgian but other countries' chocolate is pretty close to it) , Christstollen Cake, and Spiztbuden.

We have even more to look at with the new chapter! And they confirm that it's indeed a stollen cake.

With all these foods it's now pretty obvious which area the clock keepers are inspired from.

Stollen cakes are German cakes, ginger cookies are from Germany too. I will also add that there is a chance the crescent moon cookies are VanilleKipferl. We have another panel showing Sausages and bread. Only the Almond is something not typical from Germany but which clearly was all over Western Europe with trades.

Their city already looked like the 'perfect christmas city' you can see in movies, inspired by German culture. And they also mention Mulled Wine which is THE beverage to take in any chritmas market in Europe.

Chritmas markets are inspired and coming from Germany first, but I wanna point something more.

My main guess was, Nuremberg, the city where the ancestor of the pocket watch was created, the Nuremberg Egg. It's also a Fortified city and it has forests around it. It's also known for its Ginger cookies!

So Germany would be a great pic, but the more I think about it the more I can also see the link to another region: Alsace.

Alsace is a region from France right now BUT it's a mixt of german and french culture (I will not make a history lesson but it is a place that always switched between France and Germany basically, now it's French).

All the food mentionned before are also made in the Alsace region!

It's situated in the Vosges, a chain of mountains known to have a lot of forets of pines and which is known to have villages like this:

Which were also the main inspirations for movies like Howl's moving castle for example. You can see the similarities between the artchitectures

The first ever Chritmas Market was in Strasbourg, the capital of Alsace, when it was German and it spread accross Europe after.

I will now look at something I usually don't do because I exclude Aus from canon but it's just a funny thing to point out.

This au shows a snow town inspired by ginger bread houses. I just find it funny because Aoi is shown as a baker, with bread (which are not baguette I think, it's way larger here) but with some croissant on her table (disclaimer: Croissant are not french at first, this form here is, but it's from Austria otherwise) And Kako clearly has something similar to a Wine bottle in his hands. This au is the only one featuring them, was given with their volumes and the vibes are really similar to their boundary.

I would say no matter what it's definitely closer to German culture but I wanted to point out this region which is known for it's Christmas season and its typical houses.

I will mostly say that it's an inspiration from this region of Europe, I don't know if a real country is the reference for it since we don't even know where tbhk takes place, but it's always funny to look at those things :DD

Little bonus:

In a more messy note, the clothes. I put them at the end because besides their hats, I had no idea how to describe it, since it seems pretty typical of what people could wear in winter.

I did the research in the other way, to look for German and Alsacian clothing to see if it match and it kinda does but I don't think it's speficific to this region. The girls wear classic white Charlotte and big clothes with layers for Winter.

The clock keepers clothes are different, it looks like a mixt of Japanese and western European clothing (especially from england).

Their main outfits for Akane and Kako really just look like a typical waistcoast/costume you can find in the XIXth century in Europe and Mirai's seems more inspired by a mixt of a Kimono with several layers(she also has sandals and frills) and a coat? The little knots Kako and Akane have on their coats look like something inspired from Mizuhiki knots too (I actually saw a costume with those exact same knots in a museum but I didn't take a picture rip)

So I would say they probably changed slowly their attire when they arrived in Japan, we don't know since how many times they are here, but we know that what is happening in the deeper place of the boundary is linked to memories previous to their arrival. According to their origin I think we can say that it's pretty sure they arrived after the Meiji/during the Meiji Era in Japan (1868/1912), since it's a this time Japan mostly imported Western culture (for clothing here, the first contact was before this. And note: it was mostly rich people who dressed like this). And If we look at some others dates like the things they are eating, used to have or even their clothes, I would say it's more probably the Meiji Era and not in the XVs.

Another note is that their clocks have the numbers written in japanese on it (in the og version but it maye just be so it's readable for the japanese readers? idk if it's a choice or not).

I haven't searched much on their clothes but it was still something I wanted to note here ^^

[governmentmandatedryujinstan420]

I FORGOT TO THROW OUT AFTER THE EPISODE RELEASED NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[acid-waste]

I'm so mad actually I can't believe some people took this scene in chapter 3 and turned it into a who's right about their grief when the scene in chapter 4 literally has ivypool saying I don't mean to make it all about me- haven't thought much about how dovewing is handling her own grief- people read chapter 3 and to me it seems as if chapter 4 doesn't even exist and the rest of what ivypool says in chapter three after saying this doesn't as well

“Dovewing, I’m truly sorry that Rowankit died. But losing a sickly kit—a kit you’ll be reunited with in StarClan one day—is different from losing a full-grown cat who was just coming into her own as a warrior. A cat who doesn’t exist anywhere—who is just gone.”

ignored this and what was said and called it a day

[kitkat13001]

so in other news i think i will in fact be taking a break <3

[muffypollz]

ASHEDUE THE KISS REDRAW I LOVE YAOI

[good-beansdraws]

In honor of Milgram 🤝 Alien Stage Pain Week, have au WIPs of some official art redraws that were requested 🎉 (06-08-10-03-01-09)

The coloring is going to take me a while but I'm still super happy with the linework -- very close to the references but with some small character adjustments 👍I'll expand more when I post the finish product but these character assignments (which I chose depending on the individual art) create some really interesting new roles in the story overall. The Mizi-Sua tragedy becomes one of parental loss, the leader of the rebellion is actually very self-doubting, and the fan favorite asthmatic may be a bit more than subtly ruthless...

[idlingmoons]

ok while malware dca isnt looking

[lliquidllyrium]

I like seeing my favs happy as much as the next guy but like sometimes it’s not about a happy ending for me it’s about the most interesting conflict and Lucanis sticking with the job and all the drama that comes with it is ten times more interesting in that regard if I want a runaway crow I simply already have Zevran

[weweantica]

the ladies are LOUD today.

the best thing about beekeeping is the drama. it’s been a game of thrones year for our hives already. hive #3 murdered their queen on the second day of her reign and then defected to hive #2. yesterday I drove an hour and a half north to pick up a replacement nuc for the abandoned hive. it was a real cute facility with a LOT of nice looking mead that I’m really looking forward to trying. driving back from Middle Of Nowhere: Hills N Mills Edition to Middle Of Nowhere: The Black Marsh in a diesel pickup truck with a medium iced black from dunks, my dawg, and a box fulla bees on a beautiful spring day probably added like a year to my life, I’m sure of it.

while I was moving the new hive #2 in I checked up on all the other hives and discovered something even more shocking. hive #10 has undergone civil war. about half of the swarm has evidently joined hive #5 (whose comb runneth over so hardcore for a brand new hive in may I needed to give them a second super already) and — even more scandalously — even though many stayed in #10, on the farthest side of the hive from the current queen, those who remain have secretly created five replacement queens that they will pit against each other in a fight to the death, in order to send the victor after the current monarch to kill her and usurp the throne. this dark and solemn ritual is known as a supercedure and it’s the first time I’ve seen it in real life. I’m on the edge of my seat honestly — in the next couple weeks I’ll find out if the coup is successful and the new queen is established. as soon as I see new brood I’ll call it a success… and I’ll steal some babies from hive #5 to recoup some of the losses because as we all know Larvae Ain’t Loyal.

honestly talking and thinking about bees makes me feel like a lunatic because they are such interesting animals, I’m so so so lucky I get to work with them, and I really want to get very good at this (I’m mid at best at this point lol).

[glcrfindel]

Glorfindel is angry tonight. Joy of joys.

Word of note specifically for his ships: glorfindel is the type who usually a very slow and sensual lover keeps intimacy to the bedroom or super private places, your sounds are his, your pleasure is his, he doesn't like to even worry about someone seeing you in a way that is his privilege to see.

But when he's pissed about something, specifically if someone else pisses him off, he will suddenly get very dom and mildly in a 'scream for me' mode. He's still concerned for your welfare, but you will probably end up in a corridor or in an empty room, up against a wall, with him daring anyone who passes to do something about it. You're not leaving til he's satisfied, though he will carry you gently out, and spoil you after.

[cuteniaarts]

Digitalised + coloured + redesigned version of my Suiren and Vaatu sketch from two days ago, as promised!!

Coming up with Suiren’s design was a very long process of trying and failing because after you’ve drawn 9+ different versions of one character, the creativity starts to run a little dry, but I’m actually really proud of this one, she looks absolutely adorable <3

(Also yeah I did mostly just scribble Vaatu’s pattern because who has the energy to draw the all out accurately. Not me, that’s who, I’m chronically tired. People who draw him on the regular have my utmost respect. He’s still a funky little guy though :D)

Bonus, Raava incessantly screaming inside Suiren (and being completely ignored because Suiren is tired of her) while all this is happening:

[amberstormblade]

Hey! Here's part two for that TMSP fic I wrote earlier! I'll leave a link to part one here in a sec! Enjoy! :3

Edit: Here's Part One!

Ruby’s day had been going quite well! He was feeling a lot better and was finally able to get out of bed. Although he was still a bit achy, getting to just walk around with Vintage made everything worth it. Some of the other members of their little town even joined in, it seemed like only Viking was missing. It wasn’t until Vintage had mentioned that they needed some materials for a build they were working on that things went wrong.

Climbing down through the cactus farm left the little group scrambling to adjust after coming from the late afternoon sun and soon they were all stumbling their way over to the chests lining the wall when Box spoke up. 

“Do ya hear that? Mighty strange noises ya got down here.” He looked around as if trying to locate it but not immediately seeing anything. 

“What do you mean? I don’t-” Ruby started but they were quickly cut off by Vintage

“It sounds like… crying, almost. It’s faint, but I can definitely hear it.”

Ruby looked at Jay but he just shrugged, unable to hear anything either.

“Yeah! Maybe one of our neighbors is in a bit of trouble! Let’s go check it out.” Without waiting for an answer, Box ran over to the tunnel leading to the clock tower. The rest of them followed after, the sound getting louder as they approached. While the other three were distracted by the massive tower hanging from the ceiling, Ruby’s eyes locked onto something at the bottom of the cavern. The blue and yellow mass was shaking next to a pool at the bottom, tears in his clothes showing that he had most likely fallen down the side of the cavern at some point. He seemed to be weakly gripping his head, fingers tangled in his wild mess of hair, showing that this had been going on for a while. 

“Viking!” His name tore itself from her lips as Ruby saw her closest friend fall limp. Jay had to hold her back from practically throwing herself down the pit and instead, they all carefully rushed down the stairs haphazardly carved into the wall. Running over, Ruby collapsed next to Viking, his knees practically giving out as he rushed to make sure he was even still breathing. When that other person had told him to make sure Viking didn’t kill anyone, Ruby never imagined Viking himself would have to be put on that list. 

Placing a hand on his forehead, Ruby gasped. “He’s burning up! Ca-can you guys help me get him back to the surface? I don’t think being down here is any good for him. “

Box immediately scooped him up like he was nothing while Jay and Vintage helped Ruby back to his feet. Together, the group made their way to the surface, material collecting forgotten for the moment, and towards Ruby’s house as it was close and didn’t have a bed on the roof. No one really knew why he thought that was a good idea. Box placed him on Ruby’s bed and then took a step back as she sat down next to him. He was pale, dark circles under his eyes making it clear he hadn’t been sleeping well. His eyes were scrunched tight and his breath came out in short pants. It was clear that he wasn’t doing well.

After looking him over, Ruby spoke. “I-I didn’t realize, I mean- He seemed tired yesterday but not like this!? I need-” 

Vintage cut them off, “What you need to do is take a deep breath, and know that we’re here to help. What do you need us to do?”

“Okay, okay um- Jay, can you go to Viking’s house and see if he has any extra potions? I kinda burned through all of mine.” Jay nodded and dashed out the door. “Box, can you um-um-um oh! We should make some fresh soup! Can you help gather some ingredients for it! Lots of fresh veggies! And Vintage, you can help me make it! We can start prepping the broth!” Soon, everyone was working, doing their best to help out their fallen neighbor. A cool cloth had been placed on his forehead and the two in the house kept throwing glances at him but he never seemed to change. Box returned first and the soup was well underway when Jay came back. 

“Alright, so, I got the potions, actually had to brew up some more because he was running low but, it seems like he’s already taken a lot of them? There were empty bottles all over his house, it’s actually a bit concerning.” Jay gives a nervous laugh, not sure what to do with this information. 

Everyone seems to pause at this. If Viking had been using potions to combat whatever this was and they hadn’t worked then that was bad news. Any number of things could be happening to him and even Viking himself might not know what it is. Before anyone could speak, however, a groan suddenly came from the direction of the bed. All heads whipped towards the source as Viking started to shift, hands coming up to clutch his head. He started to violently shake as tears began pouring down his face. He started moving around so much that he almost fell off the bed, only stopped by Box jumping into action. The two were now on the ground with Box holding him up. 

“Hey there! Don’t be doing tha-“ Box cut himself off as he got a good look at Viking’s face. “Oh… now that’s- that doesn’t look quite right.” A twinge of concern leaked into his voice. “Eyes don’t normally change quite like that.” 

At this point, everyone rushed over to try and see what he was talking about. Viking’s eyes were wide and unseeing, almost as if someone was forcing them open. They kept darting around as if searching for something but never latching on to anything. The most worrying part was the color. His usually yellow eye seemed to almost be flickering, looking a bright green at times while the blue one seemed to have the same color slowly pulsing around the pupil. All the while, he was gripping his head tight enough that they all worried he was going to tear out chunks of his hair. 

His eyes caught onto Ruby. They reverted to normal for a split second and then went back to their strange and colorful battle as things seemed to get worse. He started whimpering through gritted teeth and thrashing around as much as he could. It almost looked like he was fighting with himself, and losing. Box had given up on trying to hold him still at this point and was just staring in shock along with the others. Ruby did her best to approach, trying not to get hit by his spastic movements.

“Viking?” their voice shook seeing him like this, but they pushed on. “Hey, I don’t know if you can hear me but I think I know what’s going on? Well, maybe not know but I have a guess? You- you need to sleep Viking, do you understand? Just- it would be for the best if you just went to sleep.” At this, he seemed to panic, frantically trying to put space between himself and Ruby while trying to cover his head. He tried to say something but his voice was still shot, the only noise coming out was a hoarse rasping thing. Upon trying to stand he slipped, slamming his head on a nearby barrel as he fell. “Oh gosh! Is he dead?” Shrieked Jay as Viking landed with a sickening thwack back on the floor. The poor farmer seemed stuck between rushing over to the body and backing away as quickly as possible, keeping him rooted to his spot. Vintage started making her way over to him but stopped when he dazedly sat back up. 

He rubbed the back of his head and groaned as he shakily got to his feet, eyes pinched shut. He then sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose as tiredly opened his eyes. It was then that everyone noticed this was no longer Viking. A green eyed stranger stood in his place, a handful of signs at the ready for any questions that would be thrown at him.

[twentyfivemiceinatrenchcoat]

Can we get some book recommendations by any chance? 🎤

OF COURSE!!!!! i made a little book rec post a while back, but i …. can’t find it :’) so. i’m just gonna mention a few of those same books again <333

if i had to narrow my list down, i’d say my favorite books atm are beartown, eureka street and kafka on the shore ….. i say that very hesitantly though because 1) my memory is very bad and it’s been a while since i read them 2) i have many books on my tbr that i think will shoot up the rankings…………..

but yeah!!!! beartown is … probably my favorite book of all time and i will recommend it to the ends of the earth. it’s very heavy though!!!! content wise. and it’s long. but like, really easy to read because you just get sucked up into it. it’s about a small town that stays alive through its hockey team!!! but it’s not really about hockey . more about culture in general. family, friends, sports — etcetc!! i would absolutely look up the cws for this one though because it did give me a crisis 😭 it’s a really devastating book. but it means the world to me. backman’s writing is sooo pretty and i applaud him for carrying swedish literature on his back because god knows most of it sucks 🙏🙏

eureka street is, at its core, a love story <3 with a lot of humour sprinkled in. but it takes place right at the end of the irish troubles, with bombings and death all around, and it paints … a very vivid picture of those troubles. right in the middle of the book it switches genre for a chapter and is like……. devastatingly detailed & grim. only to switch back immediately after. it gave me chills bc the book just. does suchhh a good job of showing how desensitized you get to war and conflict after a while . but again, it really is mostly a story about love!!! and wilson’s writing is soooooo gorgeous i was fuming with anger while reading because i was so jealous 💀

kafka on the shore is another looong one and it’s also super weird, murakami is a freak, i don’t like him, unfortunately his writing is also gorgeous . i could give you tws for this one but we’d be here for a while. cat beheadings, sexual assault (almost)(in a dream), fantasy incest? (maybe?)(maybe not?)(it’s up for interpretation), etc. it’s so weird. but that’s exactly why it makes for such a wonderful coming of age story……. murakami likes to play around with the line between fantasy and reality and i think he does it sooooo so well . if you enjoy magic realism you’ll probably enjoy this book. the vibes are also very tasty in general……. the writing 😔…………… (<- is jealous)

…… also . this is a poetry collection not a novel but i need to recommend war of the foxes at any given opportunity………. richard siken you are the love of my life…. his crush collection is suuuuuper good too but i think i prefer wotf just a teeny tiny bit

[spursthatjinglejanglejingle]

My sister has some kind of special sense for when I'm trying to drink and relax so she decides to tell me some insane shit happening in her personal life that I need to worry about

[microwavetoaster-selfships]

See. In addition to my last post with the "many thoughts.. perhaps too many thoughts" one of those thoughts is I'm now sort of experiencing the 'downfall' of letting myself get into so many different fixations is that I am getting hit with the urge to watch or rewatch several things at once! Which. When I say it like that it doesn't sound that bad at all. Actually. I guess having a marathon day of just Indulging probably wouldn't be that bad at all because I'd essentially just be smothering myself in good feelings. But the thing stopping me is I also have the idea implanted in my mind that I probbbabbbllyyy shouldn't spend like eight hours or however long just staring at TV. And while that's probably not a Bad Idea to follow, having just one little marathon day probably won't be Bad. And it's not like I'm getting grossly fixated on a new media where it Might Be Bad cause I might start.. ahem.. neglecting some things over Indulging In Fixation. It's just gonna be me paying some revisits.....