a-god-in-ruins-rises · 2 years ago
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yesterday’s ask about the ottomans reminded me that i wanna do a ck3 campaign where i remove the turkish hordes from central asia and the pontic-caspian steppe.
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tigresjumeaux · 11 months ago
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when you want to draw danganronpa characters but you literally only know how to draw dogs lol
anyway, here, have the protectors ❤️ breed explanations under the cut bc why not, i love these kids and dogs are cool. plsss click/tap the image for better quality omg
sakura ogami: central asian shepherd dog, or alabai. CASDs are quiet, stoic, and even-tempered, and have been bred for around 4000 years to protect land, people, and livestock. throughout history, they’ve lived almost exclusively outdoors in rough terrain and harsh climates, with their breed characteristics stemming more from natural selection than human intervention. working ability and fearlessness are the most desirable traits in these dogs, both of which sakura has in spades. they’re known for their intensely protective instincts, rushing into combat against any perceived threat to their charges without hesitation, but they balance that iron will with keen intelligence, gentleness with their families and livestock, and patience. also, traditionally, these dogs’ ears are cropped and their tails docked as preventative measures against injury while fighting off large predators. i headcanon that it would be like a rite of passage in the ogami clan, done to prevent injury to tails and ears during sparring and training.
nekomaru nidai: rottweiler. rotts are well-known for their strength and their intimidation factor, with the one of the highest bite forces of any dog breed, and a loud, deep bark. they’re solid muscle, but even when they’re friendly, they can come on extremely strong! i work with dogs, and even though i’ve never had a negative experience with a rottweiler myself, i still duck for cover when they come barreling over to say hi, rumbling and growling the entire way. nekomaru is loud and boisterous, which isn’t a common trait among guardian breeds, who tend to be discerning and aloof, on the whole. but rottweilers are honestly just…bros. they’re pushy and full of willpower, with huge hearts to match. they’re all bros. nekomaru is a bro.
gonta gokuhara: leonberger. leos are another breed that, despite their role as guardians, tend to have less of the iron-jawed disposition of many other working breeds. they’re sturdy, fluffy, and enormous…and some of the most laid-back dogs you’ll ever meet. they’re sweet and excitable, and are equal parts companion dog and guardian dog. gonta needed to be something big and fluffy (obviously), but without the aggressive nature of dogs bred to work independently and kill threats on sight. leos are the epitome of gentle giants, but they still have protective instincts. just not at the expense of their friendliness!
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rooksamoris · 6 months ago
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I just read your thoughts about Scarabia and Leona's arc development in game, and I got very interested.
There's very little info on Arabian culture online, at least that I've seen, and also African. A thing that makes me very curious is about their mythologies, folklore, and also music. We know a lot about food, since it's something so universal, but the rest is hard to get info on, unless it gets popularized or romanticized by someone else.
The scarabia arc is one of my favorites for a reason, and that is because I'm very sympathetic with Jamil, and very sad how his and Kalim's story together got so "twisted" so fast (ehe). Honestly there are so many layers to it that it would take many many chapters, and events, to close the situation. But I think it's good they left the future open like that, since it's something that can't be fixed overnight.
And also, *gets down* PLS PLS PLS PLS 🙏 I love the fluffy fics, are you going to also add Bolllywood songs? They are so good seriously it's so dancing and fun! I love Jamil so much and I MELTED with the headcanon short fic where we are taking care of him. I wanna hold his precious handsome face and just kiss it all over! He is so cute I will go FERAL-
hey qamar 💕 this was a pleasure to read! honestly, i feel like both the scarabia and savannaclaw chapters were too short? of course, we were introduced to the themes and then the whole conflict—resolution mountain for stories, however i just feel like they could have done more with the both of them.
also, i think the reason why the southwest-asian and african themes aren’t covered is because the source material is literally disney films 💀 like we get a warning before rewatching aladdin since they just now realized it was kind of racist (still a major part of my childhood though 😭 “a whole new world” in arabic is delicious). based on how yana has written other characters that are meant to be from south asia, there’s a big chance it would have been disappointing anyways.
plus, with scarabia in particular, there’s too many cultures trying to be represented due to how colonizers deemed all of the countries to be the same thing in different fonts 💀 you’d never confuse a nepali with an omani, but winston churchill sure did not care.
the original aladdin movie was meant to take place in baghdad, a city in iraq, but due to political conflicts at the time (george bush a war criminal regardless of saddam hussein’s crimes. the usa literally gave saddam weapons to kill kurds and then turned around and invaded when he wasn’t convenient anymore 💀). baghdad became agrabah—but the culture is still an amalgamation of west asian, south asian, north african, and like eurasian/turkish culture. im sure they’ve got stuff from central asia too 😭
the issue with this is that from ethnic group to ethnic group/country to country, the culture varies a lot. yemenis and palestinians are both arabs, but our cultures are vastly different, with yemenis having more eastern african influences and palestinians having mediterranean influences. i personally headcanon the scarabia duo as arab, but honestly, they could be from anywhere. for all we know, kalim is afghan and jamil is tunisian—it’s all up in the air due to the original source material. but i digress!! i rambled a lot 😭
ON THE BOLLYWOOD NOTE! omg this brought so many good memories back. we used to watch bollywood films with shitty arabic dubs 🥹 i miss those days. i love that idea and ive always wanted to write bollywood inspired fics, like based on the crazy and unrealistic romantic moments in bollywood. it’s just so much fun lmao. honestly, i think that’s a great idea especially when so many bollywood songs just lead the listener through a story anyways. im so glad you enjoy my fics!!! that’s very sweet 💕 have a great day, qamar, and take care of yourself
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overtrred28 · 1 year ago
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Stargirl | matildas x original character fic [part two]
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Words; 1.5k
Pairings; matildas team x astrid taylor (OC)
Warnings; none (i don't think)
A/N; second part of this series. the only games i'm fully going off of right now are the tillies games and not for Sydney FC, sort of making them up myself. again please give it some love and i welcome any good feedback. enjoy x
masterlist
Joining Sydney FC was one of the best things Astrid could have done. She was thriving. She knew joining in the middle of the season was going to be tough, especially because all the girls already knew each other, and it was at first but having Cortnee there really helped, and the other girls ensuring a smooth transition for her too.  
Astrid and her parents did argue for a while when she signed because they weren’t so keen on letting their only child live in Sydney alone at 17, but that was the only option with them unable to move from their jobs. Astrid was a little scared at first when they finally agreed she was more than mature enough to do it, but Cortnee was close by and they had developed a sister-like relationship in Matildas camps and now at the club. And it wasn’t long until she was going to be 18 anyway so it was just an early start to adulthood and Astrid loved it. 
It wasn’t long until she was playing her first Women’s A-league game, subbing on in the end of second half as a right forward. During training and practice matches Astrid was known to always score a goal, specifically towards the end. That’s why the coach brought her on when they were still 0-0 and 20 minutes from full time. She had been warming up since the second half started, ready to run on and help the team out. 
Almost 15 minutes passed and their side finally gained more possession of the ball, Cortnee ran with it on the right side, opposing defence closing in on her. She shot the ball straight up to Astrid who was in a lot of free space just further up on the outside of the box. The ball connected with her feet, with players coming closer she went for it, shooting strongly with her left foot, successfully passing by the goalie and sinking it in the back of the net. The crowd roared, Astrid ran directly to Cortnee who was already running to the younger girl. Astrid jumped onto Cortnee, a wide smile plastered on her face as the rest of the team ran and jumped onto the pair. Her first A-league game and goal and she had brought the team ahead to 1-0 with minutes to spare. 
The game has ended here and the score is 1-0 to Sydney FC with the only goal from number 19 Astrid Taylor. First appearance with this club at 17 years old, after joining the CommBank Matildas a few short months ago. I’ll say it now, I think she’s one to watch everyone, she’s got a strong strike and a great passion for the sport.
After that game, Astrid was gaining more and more minutes with the club, not in the starting 11 just yet, but subbing on towards the end and gaining the position of a ‘super-sub’, never failing to give the team a leg up by scoring at least one goal and a few assists per game right at the end. 
Her parents tried to come to as many games as they could, it being easier with her in the same state and especially when they played against Central Coast United. But when they couldn’t see them in person, they got the extended family together to watch at home. They were so proud of her, finally getting some acknowledgement for all the hard work she had put in from a young age. 
The new year started and the Matildas were off to compete in the AFC Women’s Asian Cup, Astrid and Cortnee travelling over together after their recent club match. 
When they arrived Astrid couldn’t have been happier to see the rest of the team after almost 2 months, immediately jumping on Kyra and Charli from behind when she saw them walking towards the tunnel. 
“ASTRID!” Charli squealed once the attacker had let go and they both turned around and brought her into a tight hug. “Oh I missed you.” Charli smiled before letting go, allowing Kyra and Astrid to hug finally. 
“I missed you guys so much. It’s been way too long.” Astrid spoke over Kyra’s shoulder. 
“Good to have the group back together.” Kyra commented as the pair let go, the three of them now walking down the tunnel together, arms wrapped around each other. 
“You know, I think we could beat Cait, Lani and Macca for the best trio on the squad.” Astrid spoke up as they spotted the three players chatting amongst themselves, her comment catching their attention. 
“Excuse me?”  “What?”  “WOW.”
The three of them spoke after one another, Kyra and Charli trying not to laugh beside the youngest player who was about to speak but Mackenzie got the chance first, a small smirk on her face. 
“Now listen here, child-” She began but was interrupted by Tony calling the group over to the pitch for today's training session. 
“Catch ya later.” Astrid smiled before skipping off with Kyra and Charli, arms linked and laughing. Caitlin, Alanna and Mackenzie stood for a second before laughing and following close behind with a shake to the head. 
Throughout this first training session plenty of laughs and jokes were shared within the team, most coming from their youngest player and quite a few being harmlessly thrown at said player. Astrid was building a dynamic with the squad and it was working well for everyone. 
Astrid had been working really hard over the past few days, hoping to maybe make her debut in this camp alongside Cortnee who had yet to make hers too. The pair had been talking up this camp excitingly since it was announced, both having spent a while on the squad but yet to play. 
And that day came for Cortnee. It was their second match in the competition against the Philippines this time and the Matildas were struggling a bit more than their last match a few days ago when they won 18-0 against Indonesia. They reached half time and no goals were made. The starting line up came back after halftime more pumped up than ever. 
6 minutes into half time and Sam had secured them a goal with an assist from Steph; then a Phillipines player made an own goal and gave them another one. Another goal in the net by Emily Van Egmond and they felt even more hopeful about securing the win. At the 71 minute the substitutions for Aus began happening. When Cortnee, Courtney and Holly got called up, Astrid gave them all a clap and a pat on the back, hugging Cortnee a bit more and wishing her luck for her international debut. 
Astrid definitely had the loudest cheer when Cortnee ran on, subbing for Kyah. The final goal by Mary at 87 minutes and then the game was over. A 4-0 victory and a Matildas debut for Cortnee, it was a good game. The Matildas had another game in the group stage, making it to the quarter-finals with a 2-1 win, but again no debut for Astrid. 
The quarter-finals match against South Korea was a tough one, the first goal of the match being made by South Korea in the 87th minute and ending the Matildas journey in the competition with a 0-1 loss. The team were devastated of course, Astrid slightly upset at not making her debut this camp again, but she had only been on the squad a few months so she knew her time would come. 
When Cortnee and Astrid returned to Sydney FC they both trained really hard, especially Astrid. She knew she had something to prove with both her club and national team and the only way to get there was to keep going. In their second match since returning from camp she made the starting line up and Cortnee could not have been more proud, nor could her parents who had been able to come to the game. 
Astrid had played more than 70 minutes and scored the team 2 goals and one assist before she was subbed off, more than happy with her results and to take a rest from her first long game since joining. At the end of the game, which they had won 5-1, Cortnee and Astrid made their way over to the barricade where her parents and Cortnee’s parents and brother had been chatting while they waited for the pair. 
The two families had joined the next day for lunch to celebrate the win and get to know each other a little better. They could see the sisterly bond Astrid and Cortnee had created and Astrid’s parents were happy to see she was being well taken care of since moving out of home. 
The next Matildas camp wasn’t until early April so Astrid had plenty of time to hone in on her skills, gain more minutes with Sydney FC while also adding to her score sheet. By the end of March she had 16 goals, many more assists and even more determination to be on the pitch in the next Matildas camp coming up next week.
to be continued...
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itstokkii · 8 months ago
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finally, some aph uzb headcanons
i realize i've done some korea, amekor, and turkuzbek hcs but i've never actually done one of my blorbo uzbekistan. so thats changing right now
- she's of average uzbek woman height(167cm) and her hair is that shade of brown that looks almost black, but when the sunlight hits just right it looks like a faint shade of auburn. you know, that kind of hair shade.
- her name is "nargiza" which translates to "narcissus flower" or "daffodil." her close friends and family(and turkey too ig 🙄) call her nargiz for short.
- her hobbies are embroidery and quiltmaking with tajikistan, trying out new desserts to bake, reading, gossiping, piano playing and knitting(she picked up both from russia), drinking hot black tea in even hotter weather(she's a tea elitist and Will Not Consider iced tea to be part of the tea category)
- best cook. she's the best cook out of the central asians and they always try to have her cook dinner("it just hits different when you cook food for us apa")
- she has a resting scary/angry face. she looks like she's about to kill someone. but when you ask her a question she'll immediately smile and won't hesitate to help you in whatever way she can.
- has the best relationship with kazakhstan and tajikistan. though sometimes she has a habit of babying kazakhstan as an older sister. old habits from the uzbek khanate die hard i guess...
- has a weird relationship with uyghurstan, and they have a few very awkward phone calls per year. if you heard the minutes of silence sandwiched in between their conversations you'd experience second hand embarrassment.
- her relations with iran are interesting. she adopted persian as the official and court language of the bukharan khanate. but she's also tried to take parts of iran's land a few times. for a while iran even exerted control over the bukharan khanate for a few years by persian ruler nader shah until he died. there's been a lot of cultural exchange from iran to uzbekistan historically, and uzbekistan is also considered a part of the greater iran region(maybe i should give her the ahoge...). nowruz, for example, is a holiday that came from persia and is celebrated in the central asian countries, especially tajikistan and uzbekistan.
- she...doesn't like russia. not at all. it's one of the few things she and kyrgyzstan both agree on, and they've both fantasized about throwing themselves at him like rabid dogs for a while(kyrgyzstan was more serious about it, and uzbekistan had to stop him) but after her independence she had to suck up to him due to her economic reliance on him. recently, though, she's been moving away from russia in favor of spotting economic opportunities within uzbekistan that will help with self-growth(and also reaching out to turkey and china for mutual trading)
- she's not the most developed nation out there, but is still very prissy about her overall appearance. she knows how to clean up. don't even get me started on the things she wears to weddings. she isn't worried about competition because she IS the competition.
- at home, she'll wear the usual stuff you'd see an uzbek mom wear, a matching dress and pants cut from atlas fabric. she'll have a small scarf wrapped around her hair to pull it back, and has her hair up in a ponytail, bun, or braids.
- when she's out, she wears perfectly coordinated outfits every single time, hair and makeup perfectly done.
- dont be fooled though. she Will wear the definitely fake chanel sweaters and slippers with pride.
- she fake smiles a lot and tries to stop her habit of having a resting scary face. even though that's her default, she's gotten a lot of flack from old ladies throughout the centuries for it.
- generally, she's not a super expressive, bubbly person(that's her sister tajikistan). she's fine with small talk(and DEFINITELY gossiping) but depending on who it is and whether they're in her social circle or not, she'll either enjoy it or hate every agonizing second of it. When you ask about her house though, she'll tell you everything with a certain sparkle in her eyes.
- if you want her to go through all 44 feelings at once and watch her freak out and overheat like an old gaming PC just bring up turkey i guess
- to get into her social circle takes a lot of time and a lot of waiting for her to open up and talk about personal things. Think maybe...20 years at the very least.
- leading into the other headcanon of her being a little insecure. throughout the years, the uber-collectivist society of uzbekistan caused her to become more and more hyperaware of her actions and how others will think about them. the one exception is that she can't hide her disappointment.
- her predecessors are the khwarazmian empire and timurid empire. she barely knew the khwarazmian empire as uzbekistan was born as one of the few tribes to emerge after khwarazmi was engulfed by the mongols.
- she was old enough to remember timurid, however. he was like her older brother, albeit one with...skewed moral values. he'd always insist that this was all to rekindle the empire that the great genghis khan left behind, and to spread islam as a religion.
"besides," he'd add, "isn't samarqand looking absolutely beautiful lately?"
"yes, because you kidnapped the best artisans and craftsmen after looting their cities." she deadpanned.
- she was quite surprised(and impressed, by a sliver) when her brother managed to successfully siege ankara and cause a civil war in the ottoman empire. she knew timurid was growing, but she had no idea he got this strong. it almost didn't seem surprising when he announced his plans to go after china, before he died(and then respawned as the mughal empire, but that's another story.)
- "russia when i catch you russia" - uzbekistan since the 1870s
- she has a house in tashkent and bukhara, but mostly lives in tashkent now that it's the capital. since she's literally the center of central asia and borders everyone including afghanistan, they all stay at her house when traveling(turkey is stuck at a hotel whenever he visits tho...)
- her spice tolerance? dont even ask. its not there. completely gone. give her a little heinz chili sauce and she's scrambling to find water.
- once korea took her out on a date to a korean restaurant. one bite of the kimchi and it was over for her
- if you ever come over to her house, she'll spoil you with food and gifts. there will be a drama series playing on her tv as you two chat for hours. when you leave expect it to be about 8 hours after you arrived and for the walk home to be extremely heavy as she gives you 3 bags full of gifts and dried fruits and desserts.
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saigawrites · 2 years ago
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Title : Genshin characters as highschool students.
Note : This will probably mostly relate to central asian students. Also, most of the interactions are platonic :) Characters that look older will be teachers cuz it's strange for me to imagine them as students😥
Tags : crack, fluff(?), headcanons.
Warnings : mentions of vaping, insulting, alcohol.
Characters : Xiao, Scaramouche, Childe, Zhongli, Venti, Kazuha.
Xiao is the type of student that follows the uniform rules strictly, a well-ironed shirt, a tie neatly sitting on top, with a good-looking blazer. Has good grades, kinda one of those lonely mysterious excellent students who look very pretty while literally putting no effort😭.
We have this thing where starting from 6 or 7th classes will have to go out patrolling on break time. Basically to watch and scold students if they run, misbehave or don't follow the dress code. So I imagine Xiao taking the patrol very seriously, like man would lecture you for a solid 10 minutes when you slightly quickened your pace in the halls💀. I swear, he would enjoy patrolling so much, he would continue to do it even when it's the other classes turn.
Scaramouche is the type of student who has beef with the whole school. With this behavior he would not survive our schools, man would get slandered on daily basis😰. You know, we have this type of insta acc's where you can send anonymous letters inside of your school, like confess to a crush from the other class, right? Scaramouche would literally get hate letters all of the time. Every second post on this account would be about him☠. Either ppl insulting the shit out of him, or defending him with their life, with his pretty privilege I think he would have at least some amount of fans.
In my opinion, scaramouche is those type of people who tried vaping once, didn't like it and started hating and dissing everyone around him who vapes.
Venti is the student who spends his break time in the toilets, vaping with his friends, maybe even drinking. Remembering there was a case in my school where some students hid some beer behind the toilet walls😶. Venti would try to do something like that too, for sure. Also I think he would be very interested in the drama around, involving himself in some conflicts accidentally.
Kazuha is the type of student who vapes, but hides it surprisingly well, the only person knowing being Venti. Generally has a good reputation in school, being a chill student that can get along with literally anyone. Could be one of the Scaramouche defenders, or could be not informed on the drama at all. The one who you always see in the art classroom, hanging out there with the art teacher, talking with your class about the meaning of life, philosophy, and all those other artsy things.
Childe is the PE teacher that never, and I mean NEVER, spares you. You have your PE uniform? Run 10 circles on the 500 metre length. Oh, you don't have your PE uniform? Do 500 squads in the uncomfortable school uniform and then don't have the permission to sit on any benches, you don't deserve them. He's the type of teacher who has the most useless lessons in school, but acts like they are the most important ones. Some ppl simp for him, and you can see why, but you still think it's kind of sus how he acts when his students compliment him🤨.
Zhongli is the sweet and kind history teacher, who puts a lot of effort in your studying and let's you draw things and write stories on your tests if you've done them early😭. Actually appreciates all of the goofy little drawings and stories and thinks of them as the warm memories. Also the one who always greets you whenever you see each other while passing, but somehow doesn't remember your name and always misses it😐.
I think I'll this one on here, let me know if should make a part 2!! This was very fun, and I honestly didn't expect to write that much😶.
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ninja-muse · 6 months ago
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Last month I clearly posted my wrap-up a day too early because I ended up DNFing a book that same day and therefore starting another. I don't think that'll happen again, but I'm making sure to schedule this for the first just to be sure.
Anyway, this was an all right month of reading—some greats, some simple okays—and a very good month for not acquiring books. Only one ARC came home with me, I offloaded three, and I'm almost certainly not going to buy any books in the last day of the month, but I still have 12 hours. That might change, in which case this post will also and you'll never know what I originally typed. Yeah, that worked well. Darn used bookstores!
You already know how much I liked The Briar Club. My other top reads were A Desolation Called Peace (anyone surprised?), Wandering Stars (outside my wheelhouse but good), and Nicked, which is also out in the summer and was my solo ARC haul of the month. If anyone thinks "gay medieval heist novel" sounds like a good time, they should pick that up. Also, anyone who likes cats and picture books needs to pick up Floof.
And my lows might as well start with my DNF from last month, I'm Afraid You've Got Dragons. I was really hoping it would pick up and I could push through, but it was just the wrong sort of silly for me. (I ended up going home without a book, then binging Most Ardently over the next couple days after my Libby hold came early.)
I also found The Deerfield Massacre to be odd—less rigorous than I'd have liked, a little wobbly on its thesis, doing a poor job of balancing "this must have sucked for the survivors" with Indigenous perspectives and an awareness that the Europeans were, in fact, colonizers. And A Letter to the Luminous Deep sounded so good, but I found it slow and couldn't quite connect to the characters or world.
I don't know how May is going to go, in terms of reading, so this book might end up being my review of the month, but I'm enjoying it so am going to rec it now: Evelina! Frances Burney was one of Austen's favourite authors and I can absolutely see why, and how she influenced her. If you like Austen's novels, you should 110% pick this up, because it's got romantic troubles, a highly embarrassing family, a number of awkward balls and parties, and all manner of drama. Why hasn't this been adapted? It should have been years ago.
Lastly in bookish and/or life news, my store's latest Indie Bookstore Day party was a rousing success and I don't think my legs have recovered yet from all the walking. My ability to socialize almost certainly hasn't. (It's been three days.) Thank goodness for book lovers and my fellow booksellers. Couldn't have done it without all of them.
Click through to see everything I read this month, in the rough order of how glad I was to have read them.
A Desolation Called Peace - Arkady Martine
The war with the aliens is not going well and Mahit Dzmare and Three Seagrass are called on to help. Which won’t be easy, but it’s harder because politics.
8.5/10
🏳️‍🌈 main characters (bisexual, sapphic), 🏳️‍🌈 author
library book
Wandering Stars - Tommy Orange
150 years in the life of a Cheyenne family, before and after the events of There, There.
8/10
largely Cheyenne cast, 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (multisexual, nonbinary), Cheyenne-Arapaho author
warning: genocide, alcoholism, addiction, drug use, self-harm
library book
The Briar Club - Kate Quinn
A new boarder moves into Briarwood house in Washington, D.C. in 1950, upending the dull day-to-day. Four years later, someone dies. Out in July.
8.5/10
🏳️‍🌈 POV character (bisexual), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary character (sapphic), Black secondary and minor characters
warning: domestic abuse, murder, race riot
reading copy
Nicked - M.T. Anderson Brother Nicephorus accompanies the saint hunter Tyun and his piratical crew on a mission to, erm, liberate the bones of St. Nicholas. Out in July.
8.5/10
🏳️‍🌈 protagonist (Achillean), major 🏳️‍🌈 character (Achillean), major Central Asian character, Muslim secondary characters
reading copy
Nanny Ogg’s Cookbook - Terry Pratchett with Stephen Briggs and Paul Kidby (illustrator)
A collection of Nanny Ogg’s recipes and thoughts.
7.5/10
gifted/off my TBR shelves
Most Ardently - Gabe Cole Novoa
Oliver Bennett yearns to live on his own terms, under his real name, and kiss boys. Unfortunately, the first boy in question, one Fitzwilliam Darcy, might like him as Oliver but hates his “other self”.
6.5/10
🏳️‍🌈 main character (trans man), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (gay, bisexual women), 🏳️‍🌈 author
warning: deadnaming, misgendering
library ebook
Slippery Creatures - KJ Charles
When various threatening men appear in Will Darling’s bookshop seeking information he doesn’t have, Will turns to the first helpful person he meets—an aristocrat named Kim.
6.5/10
🏳️‍🌈 protagonists (bisexual man, achillean), Black Welsh secondary character
library ebook
A Letter to the Luminous Deep - Sylvie Cathrall
In 1002, E. and Henerey begin a correspondence. In 1003, her sister and his brother begin to piece together what might have happened to them.
6.5/10
POV character with anxiety disorder, 🏳️‍🌈 POV characters (lesbian, bi man), 🏳️‍🌈 secondary characters (sapphic, achillean), brown-skinned secondary character
reading copy
Hansel and Gretel - Neil Gaiman with Lorenzo Mattotti (illustrator)
An illustrated retelling.
7/10
off my TBR shelves
The Deerfield Massacre - James L. Swanson
The story of an infamous raid in 1704 New England, and the way it’s been mythologized since.
5/10
warning: racism, violence, murder, murder of children
library book
Picture Books
The Pie Reports - Hayley Lowe
Noor and Granddad love pie, but there’s an ocean between them, so they meet every week to eat pie on video chat. Then one day, Granddad doesn’t log on—he’s having a blue day.
🇨🇦
Floof - Heidi McKinnon
A day in the life of Floof the cat.
DNF
I’m Afraid You’ve Got Dragons - Peter S. Beagle
Robert doesn’t want to be the country’s dragon exterminator on the best of days, but then Princess Cerise meets Prince Reginald. Out in May.
Currently reading
Evelina - Frances Burney
Evelina travels to London and learns that the only thing more distressing than suitors is her newly discovered family. Inspired Austen.
off my TBR shelves
The Demon of Unrest - Erik Larson
The story of the six months leading up to the American Civil War.
warning: racism, slavery
reading copy
Music from the Earliest Notations to the Sixteenth Century - Richard Taruskin
A history of early written European music, in its social and political contexts.
The Penguin Complete Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Victorian detective stories
disabled POV character (limb injury), occasional Indian secondary characters
warning: racism, colonialism
Monthly total: 10 + 2 Yearly total: 42 Queer books: 5 Authors of colour: 2 Books by women: 4 Authors outside the binary: 0 Canadian authors: 0 Classics: 0 Off the TBR shelves: 2 Books hauled: 4 ARCs acquired: 1 ARCs unhauled: 4 DNFs: 1
January February March
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hadesoftheladies · 5 months ago
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Girl I FEEL you on the cities thing 😭 there's just something so strange about it. Not all of them ofc but I think it's just what happens when so many strangers are in such tight quarters, empathy can get people hurt if they show too much and that has the weirdest unexpected effects on behavior
i live in the capital city of my country and it gets more populated every day. it is common for us to have positive and enthusiastic conversations with strangers. please note, my city is also one pumping with migrants from all over the world and i live at the CENTER of it. it is nothing like what i experienced in florida, new york or central missouri. i was in the suburbs of central missouri. i saw both manhattan and queens in new york, and i stayed for some time in miami, florida. it was actually the less populated places that had the weirdest people. like both the white and black americans had very strange behaviours. anti-social to the extreme. (in central missouri people would just stare at you and then fake smile or walk away and they'd avert their eyes, keep their heads down, greet no one even people they knew, mumble, stare into the abyss through you LIKE???) it made me question if i grew up speaking english my whole life just because of how weird their communication was. like we had no lingual cues in common and i had an american education! we were literally there to compete as schools under the same curriculum. (most normalest people there were anyone of asian decent, anyone from africa, the guys from honduras, and the two russians that came, and the canadians, at least half of them)
it was actually people from the southern states and new york that talked the most normal throughout my entire trip. new york actually had the most normal people, even among the students i met there. like conversation was natural with them. new york felt like being in my home city, just more ocean-smell. (although in most cases i was only meeting and talking to poc). however, i've also never seen despair on so many people's faces than i did in manhattan. i've never been scared of someone looking miserable but when i say i saw a man whose eyes were black with hopelessness . . . i've never forgotten that look on that caucasian man's face. i've never in my life and in all the places i've been to seen such abject despair on a human being.
i think, bringing it all together, and given what i know about friends and families staying there (i have family in scarsdale, new york and some old childhood family friends in redding, california, and a cousin of mine who stayed in philadelphia for a while) i just . . . let's just say the US is the capitalist capital of the world and it shows in their population. like the mental state of North Americans is just radically different from what a lot us go through. having such a highly consumerist and individualistic culture has really done numbers on so many people there. not to mention its such an efficient empire in terms of mass destruction and propaganda. china is its biggest competitor in that department. i think it's also why that part of the continent has some of the highest rates of mass shootings and serial killings. that system is just so efficient at making sociopaths out of human beings. and the large-scale violence that underscores nearly every interracial relation is just incredible. a family friend is doing university in the US--forgot the state--and he was just like being a black person there is so different from studying in the UK. like it's just so much more oppressive. UK has racists but it's not as dire as the US. you're insulted but not as heavily profiled. in the UK, there's some unspoken respect or understanding given toward foreign students (at least from east africa) because they know we're just there to study and get to work. there's also just way more accommodation and consideration.
the US . . . like it's just depressing going there. also didn't realize how much equatorial privilege i had until i was in florida in the summer with hurricane alerts on the TVs. i have never been blown sideways by the wind. it was crazy!
like my country has frequently struggled with tribalism, but by god it's just not that bad (although our police force is also heavily underfunded). like y'all's government and oligarchs fucked y'all up so bad. your history and economy have just been roasting the humanity you guys are fighting to keep to death. good luck, man. like for all your wealth, i sincerely would never trade places. and im not just saying that to make myself feel better lol. i would not survive. my anxiety would spike up by 1000000000x I'd just get cancer from the stress in like two months.
that being said i also desperately need to leave my city for like a six month vacation XD. i crave the countryside and there's too much noise.
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panvani · 10 months ago
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Anyway general breakdown of my thoughts on Scott Pilgrim:
Perfectly solid romantic drama. I'm actually kind of impressed that the story does not feel dated (except in, like, having flip phones) despite it having by now been copied to death. I'd even dare to say it was ahead of its time. A lot of that is purely through the lack of apprehension with which it portrays gay people, particularly gay men, which like, no one was doing in the early 2000s. That isn't exactly praise, and it comes with a lot of caveats, but it's worth saying. The art was Fine. There was some truly repulsive comic art coming out in the early 2000s and while I'm not a fan of the art style, it's not terrible.
Neither Scott nor Ramona are particularly interesting characters on their own, and their relationship is (deliberately) plain and stereotyped. This is somewhat lampshaded in the story, but still a bit dissonant when compared to the cultural impact of * their * relationship on the general Heterosexual Culture. Ultimately, their romance was the least interesting part of the story, which I think Bryan Lee O'Malley knew.
Knives is kind of the obvious emotional core of Scott Pilgrim, and (by Bryan Lee O'Malley's admission) has the most true and complete character arc. She's, in my opinion, the articulation of a lot of the greater thoughts and anxieties held by the author as opposed to Scott, who is a general representation of a (white) everyman. There's a lot I could say about Knives specifically, but it really comes down to Knives being too big a character for her story. Despite all of her development and screentime, her arc feels starkly incomplete. This isn't really * inappropriate * -- the central idea of her character is that she is a child, ergo still developing -- but it does make the conclusion feel more empty than it should.
The way this is most obvious, I think, is the discomfort with which Scott Pilgrim (series) handles The Existence Of Gay Women. Bryan Lee O'Malley is obviously pretty damn comfortable with the existence of gay men, but seems to have difficulty in processing intimate, sexual relationships between women. Knives is (subtly) written as gay from the get-go, but this aspect of her character (despite, arguably, being a core motivational factor to every other aspect of her character) ultimately produces a lot of momentum to have nothing much done with it. By the beginning of volume 4 it's evident that the author has noticed this dissonance and attempted to address it, but ultimately did so ineffectively. What resulted was a strange, forced kiss between an adult woman and an underaged girl that had essentially no lasting narrative impact, and also Ramona Is Gay, Btw, Not That This Will Ever Be Acknowledged Again. (I kind of have nothing to say about the bizarre pedobait in that volume that was subsequently backtracked.)
The last point I'll allocate to this post is how taken aback I was by the pervasiveness of race as a source of conflict in Scott Pilgrim given that I'd literally never seen someone acknowledge race as a source of conflict in Scott Pilgrim. Knives, aside from her conflicts as a gay girl, is also an articulation of the author's anxieties when it comes to race, particularly the perceived inadequacy of Asian men and the vulnerability of Asian women. This, while fairly understated, is very deliberate and very heavily saturated within the text of the story. Just as Scott has a fetish for gay women, he's implied to have a fetish for (young) Asian girls, and while his repeated and specific assertion of physical dominance of Asian boys/men is never brought up in those terms, it's pretty obviously A Thing.
I think this is probably the most interesting aspect of Scott Pilgrim from a "what's this author's fucking Problem" perspective given that Bryan Lee O'Malley has a Korean mother, though I don't particularly want to go into too much depth. I will say the one way in which Scott Pilgrim felt especially dated was in its particular slew of Orientalist stereotypes, which were in themselves pretty telling: Japanese people have scary cyberpunk shit, Chinese people do martial arts, and Korean people are entirely beneath mention. As I was finishing the story I had to wonder how the story might be different if it were made today, specifically in that Korean people are now at the forefront of North American pop cultural consciousness in a way they were not in the early 2000s. I had to wonder the author's relationship to his own identity informed his decision to not include any prominent characters of his own ethnicity.
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samkat10423 · 7 months ago
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Veronaville - sort of
Well, I just got back from a trip to New Orleans and was playing in Twinbrook, but then I saw something online about Veronaville, and figured "Why not?" Now, when I played the Sims 2, I mostly hung out in Pleasantview, with the occasional excursion into Strangetown. Never really did much with Veronaville, because to be truthful I didn't really care for the builds there. So, I am NOT a hardcore Veronaville player. Which is why, I plan on changing things. A lot.
Anyway, there are - to my knowledge - currently 2 versions of Veronaville for the Sims 3, and my personal favorite is the one done by danjaley. Mostly because she has a centralized downtown. She does warn you that hers is a "beta" version, created a long time ago, and that you may have issues.
So, I had planned to steal some lots from Monte Vista to use in this town, but they were all too big. But no matter. I just started editing the ones she had - mostly because I wanted to update the town to use later ep lots. But there wasn't a lot of space. So, what to do.
Today, I decided that since she had used an edited version of Riverview for her town, I'd just open Riverview and plunk her lots down in it - after I got the routing fixes from Mod the Sims. And that's what I did. It took me a week to come to that decision, but oh well.
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This first lot is called Pentameter Parkway. In her town, it's on a much smaller lot, so I made a few tiny changes to her build. In my town, I placed it where the military rabbithole was - a 44x44 lot. (That lot I put out where that crazy Cottneye sim has his bunker). The front of the lot is basically the same as she built it.
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But in the back of the lot, I placed a small, soccer field. I also widened the main building a tad and added some windows to this side. I think her original lot came to where that crosswalk is on the road.
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In her description, she says that this is "a good place for sims to get groceries and mags," so on the one end, I made it into a comic book store. None of this stuff was available when she created her town. Plus, I use CC in my game. Lots of CC.
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In the center of the build, I made a tiny grocery store. I thought about placing the rabbithole rug here, but she also created the Veronaville Market, where she placed the grocery RH. So, this store just has the general store register.
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Then on the end, I got rid of the bathrooms - I put them into that separate building you see in the 1st picture - and instead, made this into a tiny Asian cafe. I got most of the foods from Sandy over on Around the Sims 3. And viola! One lot finished! Go, me!
Then I went into the island part of town.
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This is the bistro lot she created. I did flip the build - mostly because I wanted it to face the street that runs past the city hall. And when I was reconfiguring it a bit, I decided to add that one parking space for the current owner - Antonio Monty. She called it Ristorante Montecci - named after the family who created it. But I figured they all died out and Antonio bought it. If you read his bio, he's having problems keeping it afloat. Sucks to be him.
I also placed a few more lots. But I'll show them to you later. I do want to thank danjaley for all her lovely builds And her commentary on the different lots. A lady after my own heart! She did an amazing job on all of this. I prefer her street and sidewalk surfaces and that she didn't clutter the town with a bunch of streetlights. I had replaced the lights with that one from Monte Vista, but when I switched worlds, I had to delete them. Oh well.
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revenge-of-the-shit · 1 year ago
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Just watched Joy Ride (2023) and mixed thoughts.
Spoilers below!!
It was really, really refreshing to see East Asian women being portrayed as unapologetically raunchy and messy and terrible and fucked up. It's the first time I've seen a movie where they're NOT some out together socialite or kung fu badass or a fetishized dragon lady or delicate lotus flower. The characterization was well done and I felt like they were fleshed out pretty well, and it was a very sex-positive portrayal of East Asian women and it was done ENTIRELY without fetishizing them. It's a low bar to pass and the fact that this is the first movie I've seen that passes this bar is... depressing but it was very nice to see that they can be trashy and sexy and just be themselves.
It's the typical sort of humour you'd expect from an R-rated comedy. Not my sort of thing entirely, but I had some laughs for sure and some other reviewers thought it was hilarious.
I could tell that the film was indeed made by diaspora for diaspora. There were just so many little details sprinkled through the whole thing that I could recognize from lived experience
While the film certainly made some commentary on internalized racism, I felt like it never really followed through with exploring this theme, or that when it did, it was somewhat superficial and did not really fully address it. Same goes for exploring the theme of being in-between - something that's very, very central to diaspora - as well as the identity crisis evoked by a twist I admit I was surprised by. All of these, while they had the potential to be weaved more strongly into the film, were not really fully addressed - and while this is a comedy movie, the way that all these themes were set up as serious things to address led to a rather mediocre reaction to its execution.
The female gaze is generally very, very, very present for this film, which is once again rare to see in R-rated comedies with nudity and sex. None of the four friends are ever objectified as sex objects, and anything sexual is something they choose for their own pleasure. It's a very sex-positive take, again.
Sprinkles of queer Asian experience in there too, which is nice to see. I found Deadeye to be a very compelling character as I can relate to them in several levels, and it was really really nice to see queer Asians who can be awkward, be raunchy, be terrible, be unapologetic, a d just be human.
Plot was a typical comedy plot, so not revolutionary at all and with some plot holes, but it's a plot.
One more point under the cut with bigger spoilers but also CW: Mentions of SA.
Overall, I'd give it a 6.5 - 7/10. Not great, not bad. Could've been better. Some weird spots. But it sure is something, and I'm glad to see more Asian American rep all across different genres.
One of the biggest scenes that made me feel off was a scene where Stephanie Hsu's character, Kat, has a bag of coke up her ass, and it breaks. She freaks out because she feels it entering her system and it makes her, as she says, "very horny." At this point, she and the three others are in a hotel with a bunch of hot athletic Asian men who are friends with one of the MCs. One of the men, who's also Kat's ex, tries to hit on her and hook up with her, but she tries to reject him - she also tells him that she's engaged, which he is. He does not back off and he does not take her seriously. She runs off (to the gym). He follows.
While he definitely thinks she's sober (he has no idea she's on drugs), the rest of the gals, FULLY AWARE that Kat is completely drugged out of her mind and being hit on by someone she does not want to be with, decide to go their separate ways while wishing everyone a good time and to "have fun tonight". Nobody checks on Kat.
At that point in the film I was beginning to get extremely worried that they were going to play off a date rape-esque scenario as a humorous, joking one given how the entire tone of this scene was a humorous one.
At the end, they do not have sex, thank God.
The scene between them is indeed sexually charged. What happens is that she pulls a muscle when trying to work off the energy, and he uses a muscle blaster/massage gun on her back. He does not touch her without her asking him to, but she is still under the influence of drugs (which he doesn't know...but still...). She then grabs a basketball and puts it between her thighs, and he uses the massage gun on the basketball. Afterwards, she takes the gun and uses it on his balls, and apparently shatters his pelvis. Wow
This is never addressed afterwards, ever. The scene left me feeling rather confused and more uncomfortable than anything else in the entire movie. Maybe I'm reading too much into it but something about it was clanging bells in my head.
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janzoo · 1 year ago
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Auraugust 2023 - Day 2: Contest
Although my participation in Auraugust will be limited this year, this is the one prompt I really wanted to do - I've been aching for a good excuse/motivator for it. Behold my Au Ra lady and WoL, Drakyr Saovine!
I headcanon that Drakyr's Xaela tribe had their own version of the World Nomad Games, which is a competition showcasing traditional sports primarily from the Central Asian region's nomadic peoples. The Saovine tribe originally held these competitions as part of their own culture - a less-bloody-and-deadly alternative to actual combat - and then as a show when they travelled to Eorzea. The World Nomad Games includes, among its many contests, archery done with the feet instead of the hands, which looks rad as hell. So naturally, I had to pose Drakyr doing it!
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She can still do this, and it never fails to impress!
Big thanks to @e-dragoons and @brookhorse and @macroraptor for helping me get the pose and final image looking as it is! 💙
More info on the World Nomad Games: WNG official website's "about" page, two Tumblr posts about it x and x.
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freedominthecircus · 1 year ago
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To think that all color symbolism would be the same across the board in people’s cultures (and thus, their witchcraft) is laughable. What is anger and vengeance in one culture may just be luck or passion in another - and an individual themselves may have a completely out-of-left-field viewpoint due to their own lived experiences. There are as many different interpretations as there are people in the world. And while there are plenty of witches out there that don’t give a damn about color theory or symbolism and get along just fine without it - there are also plenty that do care and do want to learn, just are caught up in a more euro-centric view of the color spectrum.
Namely using this site as a jumping-off point, here are my personal views on the colors as of now:
RED
A color of passion in North American and European cultures, it is frequently associated with love (seen extensively along with Pink) in Valentine’s Day celebrations. It is also associated with anger or danger and as such I have personally used the color in more aggressive workings where it has worked well. The color red is also used in religious practices in Central and South America as Christianity associates red with the blood of Christ (of course) and the crucifixion. In China - and possibly other East Asian countries - red symbolizes honor and success. While American brides are more used to wearing white on their wedding day, Chinese brides more prefer red for this association. Wanting that success in their marriages as well as a long-lasting love.
As stated before: I use Red in workings where I feel the need to be more aggressive or passionate about what I am trying to convey. Whether that be screaming a warning at someone/something to back the fuck up, or whether the red wax is being used to seal the envelope of Lust Dust. I know some people who are die-hard about using red in their Love workings - but it has never really worked for me unless the end result was an intense romp in the bedroom rather than their heart being touched.
ORANGE
Very frequently associated with Autumn in North America and Europe. Halloween and the agricultural harvests are frequently thought of - as well as the color is known as a more royal color in the Netherlands. Counties in Central and South America view Orange as one of the more primary colors of nature, and it is almost always associated with the earth and sun. China and Japan also view Orange as a color of good things. From financial prosperity to making sure one is in good health - it’s also associated with a general happiness, courage, and other good fortunes. It is also known as a more sacred color in India.
I personally do not work with Orange much as I find it an off-putting color to me. I’ve never gravitated towards it and there have actually been a few times where once Orange was introduced to something - the “vibes” we all off and the spellwork had to have been done for the night. For what reason this may be I do not know.
YELLOW
A mixed bag of correspondences. From being seen as a color of wealth in Africa to being a color of mourning in the Middle East. (And apparently as a color linked to pornography in China - though this is a claim I have not looked into myself yet. In North America and Europe, we tend to associate it with sunshine and good weather which is usually how I personally incorporate it when it does get used - but it is also frequently known as a color of jealousy in Germany and France.
The color of the sun and associated with Summer more than Spring in my mind. Yellow gets used in my practice usually at two points in the year: Either during the Summer to celebrate the moments of sunshine that graces my Seasonal Depression with little pepper-light kisses - or dead in the middle of Winter to try to remind myself of those kisses.
GREEN
The green four-leaf clover did a lot in terms of minds in North American and Western Europe to associate it predominately with good luck. Even with other associations such as envy/jealousy or progress - luck tends to be the go-to correspondence. Even with countries in Asia and the Middle East viewing green with a more natural lens and corresponding it with fertility and prosperity also - it still remains a color of good fortune as well.
Green in the color in my head associated the most with money and financial prosperity. It is the color of the American dollar and is used in many, many, wealth spells and other work along those lines and I have used it exactly as such in the past. While this is the main way I personally use and view green, it should be noted that I have used the color in abundance workings as well.
BLUE
A strong color with the main association across cultures as one to ward off evil, as well as a color of strength thanks to the Hinduism deity Krishna - who is often (if not always) presented with having blue skin. Some other more Asian cultures also recognize blue as a color of long life, healing, and even immortality. That is not to say there are not other - more somber - connotations though. In more western cultures we tend to have a saying of “feeling blue” - which means extreme sadness or even mourning.
To me, Blue is a color associated mostly with a tranquil sadness or melancholy. I use it in a lot of grief work to guide me through and let loose the well of tears inside if I’m having trouble releasing them. I have also used it as a “booster” color of sorts though, usually in conjunction with other colors on the cool color spectrum, as mixing it with warm colors left me feeling very odd afterwards.
PURPLE
A general consensus throughout most of the world is that Purple is the color of wealth, and it’s a color usually reserved for royalty. The exception to this is found in Latin and South America where - in that part of the world - it means death.
This is the association I have with it. I have never fully viewed it as a royal or wealthy color, and instead have always viewed purple as a color of death and frequently use it in works with death.
BLACK
The color of death, mourning, and - curiously - formality in Europe and North America. Western funerals have featured black for centuries for it’s association with death and the dead, and some places in the Middle East also see it as a color of death and evil. India also views black as more evil than good. Other parts of the world have a different take. Black is a positive color in places like China and Japan and is a very popular color amongst young boys and girls. Some African cultures also see it as a symbol of maturity rather than anything associated with death.
Black is probably my most used “color” in my practice. Along with technically being a “color” comprised of all other colors - it’s used as a substitute for a lot in my practice. It’s a color I also use a ton for meditation, and I do use it as one of three colors I associate with death (the others being White and Purple). It’s never been a “bad” or negative color for me.
WHITE
The “color” that is the lack of all other color - its associated heavily with purity throughout most of the world. It is also associated with good luck and prosperity in some pockets of Africa as well. There are other places in Eastern Europe and Asia where it is associated with death in addition to purity. It can also denote bad fortune or general unhappiness.
I tend to skew towards the latter because of the fact that white is the “color” that is the lack of all others. Giving the general feeling of emptiness where there once was something. I do sometimes also use it to cleanse or purify because of it’s lack of all other color.
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iphijaania · 2 years ago
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i saw the tags you put on the mongolian tea video and i'm mega intrigued (i love hearing about food from other cultures!!): googling rondijzhu yields no results, and laghman comes up as a type of noodle dish? would you mind talking a bit abt the breakfast from chitral? :D
@albertinesimonet I'm so, so, so sorry for how long it's taken me to answer this 😭 University's been hell, I really want to give this answer the detail it deserves, so I hope you can forgive the fact that it's, like, a month late.
Anyway! I'm so happy someone on Tumblr's taken interest in my tiny river-valley hometown! This entire answer is going to function as me gushing about it now lol. Some context on what I'm about to say is that while Chitral is in Pakistan, it's in the far, far north of it, bordering the Tajik-majority area of Afghanistan and very, very close to Tajikistan. So while Chitral is, through borders, considered part of South Asia, its culture and cuisine is much more similar to more Central Asian ones.
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(There's Chitral on a map of Pakistan!)
Another thing worth mentioning is that 'Chitral' itself is a bit of a catch-all term for the general part of Pakistan that speaks a language called 'Khowar' and its dialects, not taking into account the fact that the cultures within the Chitral district vary wildly based on where exactly in the mountains you are. Just saying that so you know to take what I say with a grain of salt, and just know that it's applicable to a specific part in this specific region of the district (think somewhere in the green portion on the map below).
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With that said, breakfast in Chitral can be anything, as long as it's hearty! People generally don't have a solid 'lunch', as midday is the best time to get outdoor work done, so big breakfasts are the norm. In summer, it's butter tea (tea with butter and salt boiled into the milk) with dried fruits (I'm a fan of apricots, but dried grapes, peaches and assorted berries are common too) and Chitrali bread (which is very, very thick; I think some people call it tikki but we've just always called it 'Chitrali bread' lol), usually with cottage cheese. You can stuff the Chitrali bread with minced meat (goat or lamb, mostly), cottage cheese or milk curds too!
Winter, though, is where breakfast becomes key, and which is where the foods you asked about come in– in summer, at least, the weather is better so you do have time to eat in the afternoon, but in winter? No chance. In Chitral, winter breakfasts are massive, warm and hearty as hell. Salty butter tea is still a must, coupled with Chitrali bread which, in winter, is usually stuffed. A lot of people choose to add milk curds into the tea, but I never liked doing that, so. Rip.
Other people add dried rondijzhu (which is a very, very rough Anglicisation of a Khowar word so I'm not surprised nothing came up when you Googled it!) to their tea too. Rondijzhu, which is also served generally at breakfast in the winters, is basically just portions of spit-roasted lamb or goat that are really, really heavily salted (Chitral isn't the place to go if you have cholesterol issues) to make sure they last. A lot of people take aside parts of the freshly spit-roasted meat to slice it up into little chunks and dry it seperately to the rest of the rondijzhu, so they can use it as stuffing, in tea, in mantu (steamed dumplings– pretty similar to Chinese bao!), et cetera.
Another use for rondijzhu, and a way to heat it up for breakfast, is by boiling it with khalli, or laghman (they're both the same thing– we call it laghman but I know people in the vicinity of Chitral city call it khalli). It is indeed a type of noodle dish! It's basically just soft wheat noodle soup cooked with usually either minced meat or chunks of mutton or beef and a shitton of herbs. It's more on the brothy side, and so is super warming, especially when served alongside Chitrali bread. Something people (or, at least, we) tend to do is, when boiling the wheat noodles that were cut the night before for the morning laghman, adding rondijzhu to the noodles. This both warms up the rondijzhu and acts kind-of like stock for the laghman broth. You can take the rondijzhu out and eat is seperately, or keep it in the laghman, your choice (I personally prefer having it seperately, but I'm a picky eater by mountain village standards).
That said, laghman isn't strictly a breakfast food. Hell, none of these are. Chitrali bread is eaten with salty butter tea in the afternoon, laghman and rondijzhu are eaten for dinner too, and a lot of other Chitrali food that I haven't mentioned (like harisa, which we stole from the Armenians, or pilau or any variation of taaw meat– meat cooked on a gridle– et cetera) can also work as 'breakfast' food. As long as it fills you up, keeps you warm, and allows you to not die of various vitamin deficiencies, it's perfect as Chitrali breakfast or dinner.
tl;dr: breakfast is a social construct and, in Chitral, food is food no matter what time of the day it is 💖
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ca-suffit · 4 months ago
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I'm not saying you're wrong but I feel like it's a lost fight.
The fandom,the writing etc everything revolve around Lestat,no matter if you're right,you will never be able to open their eyes on the treatment of other characters, Lestat/Sam will always have his defense squad no matter what.
I feel like the only way to enjoy the show now is to step back from the fandom not engage on discourses,curate you circles.
I just hope in the long run it won't affect the actors.
I remember how Steven Yun was done with The walking dead and couldn't wait to be killed because he didn't like the writing direction for his character.
I'm paraphrasing but he was fed up to be ''the nice, one dimensional asian guy '' he wanted something more complex for his character but they did nothing with him and you could tell how Glenn was just there to support the main characters,they didn't know what to do with him and he didn't have a really important arc since. Even his death serve a purpose for other characters.
I don't want this for Assad or Jacob. Lestat can stay central without making everyone' storylines about him,they can have their own development.
(this is an ask from 14 hrs ago that got lost in my inbox, srry!! I thought I'd posted it already)
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itstokkii · 4 months ago
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for @hwsasiaweek day 2: uzbekistan + food + "a smooth sea never made a skillful sailor"
in which uzbekistan can't let go of her qazon and explains why
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It was a Thursday afternoon, and all of Uzbekistan's siblings were staying at her house for a week in preparation for a regional conference.
While they were all in separate rooms of the house working on writing up important documents and presentations, Uzbekistan was cooking food for the evening, and as per tradition she was cooking osh. It was also her siblings' favorite food, and they insisted she cook it for them almost every time they got together.
As she was stirring the beef and onions, Kazakhstan came out of her study, sniffing around.
"Apa, are you making osh for tonight?"
"Yes. it is a Thursday, after all! Also if you guys eat enough of my food, perhaps you won't all be so grumpy at the conference."
"Speak for yourself," he chuckled. There was always some argument that would arise at one of these conferences, and many times Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan would be part of it.
Before she could respond with some lackluster excuse of those conflicts being in the moment and that it wasn't truly her and that she was definitely a mature lady and how he could say that to his dear older sister who is cooking food just for him, he points at the qazon she was cooking the osh in. the bottom was completely black after years of use.
"Hey, how long has it been since you've used this qazon?"
"Oh, um...I bought it at a market sometime around the 60s?"
"Apa, that's like 50 years!"
"Well, it's durable! Like the spatula I'm using to cook it with."
"But if you bought new ones...wouldn't it enhance the quality of your meals? New cooking technology and all..."
She gently added the chopped carrots to the qazon. "You know, a smooth sea never made a skillful sailor. You could buy all the latest utensils and completely revamp your kitchen, but!" She gestured at her hands. "It's all about your experience. Your skill. That's why you all love my food the most!"
"I don't know..." Kyrgyzstan stood on his tiptoes and looked over Kazakhstan's shoulder." Tajikistan was gushing about my dymdama last time. Her side of the plate was so clean, I think she used bread to wipe the leftover broth up."
"Why must you always make this about you? She was extremely hungry that time! Besides, that was then, and this is now." She closed her eyes briefly and tossed the carrots over.
The two spent the rest of the time bickering about the "deliciousness scores" that they had apparently been tallying up so far based on their other siblings' opinions of their food, while Kazakhstan tried his best to mediate.
Good practice for the actual conference I guess, he thought, though they've done this enough times I don't think I really need practice...
"If we're gonna talk about revamping your cooking, why don't you use a frypan next time? Your boyfriend already does that when he cooks osh-"
"HE DARE COMMIT SUCH BLASPHEMY?"
"Hey chill! You better keep that a secret cuz he told me to keep it a secret from you!"
Kazakhstan had to admit, she was pretty skilled at cooking. He could see it in the way she both argued passionately with their older brother and added the chickpeas and rice to the osh, never missing a step. Heck, she even managed to make some salad on the side as well.
And when the sky became a light purple and the crickets began to chirp, the evening wind brushing through their hair as they ate outside on the tapchan, Uzbekistan brought the hot, aromatic osh to the table to eat. Everyone cleared the plate within half an hour. She smiled smugly at Kyrgyzstan.
"That's 25 points for me since today, and you're still at 22~"
"I'M CATCHING UP, OKAY?!"
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notes: ALHAMDULILAH I MADE IT IN TIME ITS STILL 11:57 PM 💪💪💪
there's a lot of uzbek/central asian terminology here, and they're italicized:
osh: otherwise known as plov, it's uzbekistan's national food. it's a sort of fried? rice with carrots, meat, chickpeas, and raisins. each region in uzbekistan cooks it differently, but I tried my best to describe whatever I can remember from my mom's way. it's served to guests at home, weddings, and also eaten on the regular weekly, with osh being eaten on thursdays as a traditional custom.
qazon: the best way I can describe this in english is a cast iron cauldron. it's quite big and a lot of things can be cooked in it, like osh, qazon kabob, and dymdama.
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apa: kazakh for "older sister."
dymdama: eaten in many central asian countries, it's a stew of beef, potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, and other vegetables. in uzbekistan, it's called dimlama, and I only recently found out it's called dymdama in kyrgyzstan by a kyrgyz classmate!
tapchan: in a lot of uzbek houses with backyards, there's a small resting area with cushions and a table outside. in the spring and summer, families usually eat their breakfast, lunch, and dinner outside.
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