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genshinconfessions · 3 years

Note

If you're feeling up to blessing us with some constellation name translations here, I'd love to read them 👀

no pressure though, just if you really want to! Please don#t feel obligated or something, especially since you said the translations would be so long-

;))) i am sure that one day i will impulsively do smth like that because translation is smth i do as a hobby anyway

i was actually doing to translate hu tao's on the last post, but apparently the chinese fandom is a bit divided on how to interpret them as well! her entire constellation set sounds like a poem (or lines from poems), but there is no known poetry that corresponds.

here i'll just list a few interpretations that i found and that i personally think make sense:

source 1:

c1: 赤团开时斜飞去

赤团, or 'red ball', refers to a flower. the general consensus seems to be that it's red spider lily (lycoris radiata). there is, however, considerable divide on this since hu tao's signature is plum blossom (her eyes, the mark she leaves on enemies, heck even the flowers on her hat).

but first off, plum blossoms do not bunch up in a ball, and more imporantly, the japanese banner's name was 彼岸满开 (lit. fully blooming on the opposite shore) where 彼岸花 is another name for the red spider lily. traditionally, the red spider lily is seen as a sign of death and bad luck, which segues us very nicely into the next topic.

斜飞去 means 'flies [there] diagonally', but OP did some research and found that in feng-shui, there's talks of 斜飞去水 (outgoing water flying diagonally). for outgoing water (water flowing away from you) that flies diagonally, that's apparently a sign of very very bad luck.

consolidating, the phrase means 'when the red spider lilies bloom, [water] flies out diagonally'. in direct wording, when the red spider lilies bloom, you're gonna have SUPER bad luck!

considering the effects of hu tao's c1:

(source)

where guide to afterlife is her E skill that can proc the blood blossom effect:

(source)

it means that hu tao has unlimited charged attacks and unlimited 'red ball flowers' and the enemies are gonna have super bad luck!

and yes, we know that the blood blossom flower is a plum blossom, which we've ruled out as the 'red ball flower' above, but i personally think that 'red ball flowers' is plum blossoms. why? well, red plum blossoms on snow is a very poetic and often-used way of describing bloodstains on snow, so i think it makes sense. it makes even more sense to me when considering hu tao's motif of plum blossoms hahaha, but i do respect OP's theory.

---

c2: 最不安神晴又复雨

now this one's pretty obvious. literally, it means 'very restless/disturbed in spirit, the sky is clear then rains again'.

this can be interpreted as 'crying once again', and we can imagine that, when attending a close friend or family's funeral, you can't help but cry once more as you mourn them (assuming you've already cried at least once before, probably upon hearing the news).

and we all know that hu tao is the funeral director hAHAHA.

OP didn't mention anything about the effects of c2, but i think it might tie in with the fact that with spirit soother, she uhhhh swings around a literal ghost??? LOL idk

---

c3: 逗留采血色

literally, 'staying to pick the blood color'. there's two interpretations here:

1. implied to be 'staying to pick the blood-colored flowers', where the red flowers are either spider lilies or plum blossoms, depending on which one you like better.

2. staying to shed blood. but the keyword here is 逗留, which means to dally. it's got a very casual connotation, and for someone as strong as hu tao, she could in fact afford to dally a bit and kill some enemies easily.

the effect of her c3 is this:

so it implies that she's gotten even stronger, able to afford dallying a bit (maybe picking some nice flowers) as she slays her enemies.

---

c4: 伴君眠花房

literally, '[i'll] stay with you as you sleep in a flowered house'. the english translation, 'garden of eternal rest', explains it pretty well.

hu tao: u die *gently picks you up from bloodied ground and places you in a red-flower-filled coffin*

---

c5: 无可奈何燃花作香

here, mihoyo referenced a poem!

宋·晏殊《浣溪沙·一曲新词酒一杯》一曲新词酒一杯，去年天气旧亭台。夕阳西下几时回？无可奈何花落去，似曾相识燕归来。小园香径独徘徊

i don't particularly want to translate the entire poem, but it's basically lamenting the passage of time and how the author misses someone. 无可奈何 means 'helpless', so in the poem, the author feels helpless as flowers fall over time.

as far as anyone knows, 燃花作香 doesn't reference anything. it literally means 'burning flowers as incense'. in china (and this most definitely has religious background, either buddhism or daoism or both!), we burn incense to worship deities as well as communicate with ancestors. burning things (such as paper money) also has connotations of offering the burnt things to the passed ancestors, which is most relevant here.

so we can consolidate the entire phrase as 'i am helpless [to do anything], so i can only burn flowers to you as incense'.

OP was like 'yeah it means hu tao's Q can KILL YOU EVEN MORE NOW HAHAHA' and i think that about sums it up.

---

c6: 幽蝶能留一缕芳

as we all know, hu tao's other motif is butterflies. this line literally means 'spirit butterflies can leave behind a wisp of fragrance'.

butterflies have traditionally been associated with life after death in both the east and west, and as for the fragrance part, OP found that 芳魂 (fragrant spirit) can be used to describe a very good person or a very beautiful person's spirit.

so the line is willing the spirit butterflies (or the deceased person's spirit) to stay for a moment then peacefully pass.

as for the effects:

hu tao: u thought i was gunna die, bitch u thought

source 2:

in this source, OP believes that the constellation set describes a traditional mourning ceremony/procedures.

here, the 'red ball' refers to the sun.

c1 refers to 守夜, or night vigil. i know other cultures have this too, but in chinese culture, it's said that the deceased spirit would like to come back and see his friends and family again, so until the body is sealed into the coffin, every night there must be someone who sits vigil with a light so that the spirit can find its way home. c2 is 哭丧, or mourning. this isn't like silent tears or anything, nah it's like, full-on you go in the streets and throw paper money into the air and wail your lungs out. the louder the better, and there are actual professional mourners (it's a profession!). you do it to show that you're sad for your family or friend who's passed.

c3 is 小殓, basically cleaning the body up. like makeup, clothes, making sure they hold something in their hands, stuffing orifices to prevent body fluids from leaking, stuff like that.

c4 is 入殓, or putting the body into the coffin. there are a lot of different traditions regarding this, including time, orientation, decorations, etc.

c5 is cremation. i'm sure we all know what this is.

c6 is gathering the ashes.

i'm like, not sure if i'm totally on board with this theory HAHA because as far as i know, you don't cremate the body in a coffin. also, the phrases don't really match up, and OP didn't really do much explaining either way so i had to google all this myself :") and for that i hold a lot little bit of resentment against them.

i hope yall enjoyed that! i spent an hour doing this LOL i was actually gonna get dinner but i just, i enjoy tao's constellations SO much that i had to share them with yall asap LOL

if yall want me to translate anyone else's constellations (and i mean ANYONE, from any region of teyvat) feel free to send in an ask! it might be slow since as you see, i have to google stuff, but i will eventually publish it ;))

- katheryne from liyue

#genshin #genshin impact #genshin confessions #genshin headcanons #genshin hu tao #hu tao #hu tao constellations #genshin translations

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roll-da-credits · 3 years

Text

Lycoris Radiata Pt. 3 - Deku x Reader -

Inspired by the piano piece, "Lycoris Radiata," Written by Spikes, played by MusicalBasics.

Highly recommend listening to it whilst reading.

[1] [2] [3]

Word Count: 1.7k

When a childhood love shows up after being lost to time, it's unnerving to be presented by something so familiar yet different. Deku, lost to his own love and presented with the stresses of life and unrequited love, it isn't easy to see the world with an unbiased gaze.

!WARNING!

(This is for the entire series and not just this part)

BIG TW for death, suicide, abuse,

Minor TW for death imagery, toxic relationship, toxic friendship, toxic shit all around

A/n: First off, this last part, please read with caution. There are a lot of serious topics in this one that can be triggering to some people. This feels really weird to post ngl, I was actually planning on posting the entire thing in 1 part but it was ridiculously long and the pacing was so incredibly slow. After editing it down and proofreading, I'm extremely proud and glad I made it a 3 parter. So, again, read with caution, enjoy the story, and I hope you cried.

Imagery used:

Snapdragon seed pods, red snapdragons, red spider lilies

He came to your café a little bit more often now, there was a fear inside of him that he wouldn’t be able to save you either.

He didn’t know from what, where, or when. But after the two innocent girl’s life was taken away from them just because they were in the wrong situation. He felt a little bit paranoid at your own safety.

But almost every time he inquired you to get extra precautions, your boyfriend would always assure Deku that you were safe with him. And Deku trusted him.

Deku would constantly talk to you about whatever topic came into his mind, he wanted to talk to you more and love you even more even if it hurt him. Call him a masochist he didn’t care, love to him was a drug he couldn’t get enough of, even if that very thing giving him so much love can’t receive it from him, because you were receiving it from someone else.

His pink tinted eyes now growing red from the sheer amount of love he had for you. It grew cloudy and red, to the point where he found everything you do close to perfect.

He saw you as a beautiful goddess.

As the days slowly change from Summer to Fall, he saw more of the red flowers he found in the cemetery growing near your café.

When he asked you if you wanted to get rid of them, you laughed and brushed it off with what he thinks was a sly smile.

He wanted to believe that you actually started blooming them around the café since you knew he found them fascinating. Of course, there was no proof to this theory of his, but something Deku liked to do was a dream, and right now he dreamt of you giving hints of your love.

Then one day, he walked by the café just as it was closing on his way home and found your boyfriend yelling at you. You yelled back at him in retaliation and brought your hand up, only to get it caught by your boyfriend. For the first time, Deku finally saw how tight his grip was when he was mad.

He was sure it was going to leave a bruise on your skin. But he didn’t want to interfere.

When your boyfriend left, he finally revealed himself and comforted you. He told himself he was doing this not because he liked you but because you were his friend. He asked you what the argument was about but you looked up at him and smiled.

There was something weird about your smile, something he couldn’t quite place.

“It’s fine. He broke up with me.” Your smile didn’t match the tone of your cracking voice, and he had to stop himself from tightening his grip on you when you pushed him slightly away and begun walking back home.

He saw the red flowers around you bloom brighter than they ever had before, and he thought if it was a sign from her subconscious asking him to prod further. But he won’t, he can’t.

His rose gaze along with the sweet image he has of your boyfriend prevented him from going further.

After all, he was a hero, he knows best when to prod further. Even if he was biased in the situation.

Deku looked at his phone and found his text messages unanswered and ignored. He had just gotten accepted to UA, he wants to share the news with you.

But you had moved out from your parents’ house to go live alone in a different city with the school of your dreams. He confirmed this by asking your parents, though they did seem slightly worried over you he expected that of such caring parents. He thinks it was just because you were finally living alone.

But he wasn’t sure why there were so many unanswered texts, why you had completely left his life.

He felt his heart crashing into a million pieces.

It took him a rather long time to get over you. An even longer time to forget about the lasting memories of you.

On his daily run in UA just after getting into his 2nd year, on the road, he found a red snapdragon flower. It was radiant and beautiful. For a split second he got reminded of you, and your strange love for red flowers, though he thought it was just due to your unique quirk.

Not wanting to feel any more pain towards the coming memories, he dropped the flower and continued on his jog.

For some reason, he chose the exact same route the next day, this time he found the snapdragon dried and dead. The seed pods in the fallen stem were terrifying. They looked like miniature skulls and he shivered at the thought of something so beautiful being able to die so quickly.

Finally reaching his third year, he readied himself to become a fully-fledged hero as it was just a year away.

He found himself re-living some of his old memories though, Bakugou had asked him to go back to the forest they used to play as a child. It was his way of apologizing to Deku after all the years of torment.

In their path, they found a red camelia tree. The flowers were beautiful and Deku again thought of you.

Just in cue, Bakugou laughed, “Remember when I made Y/n cry because I smashed one?” Deku laughed at the thought but Bakugou grew quiet, “You know, they never respond to my texts ever again. I never told you that, but we stayed close even after I began bullying you. At the time I didn’t see them as a worthless quirkless person like you.”

Deku rolled his eyes, “Thank you Kaachan.” He said rather passive-aggressively.

“No that wasn’t my point, my point is when you told me they disappeared from your life they disappeared from mine as well.”

Deku shook his eyes, forcing the memories back down, “I don’t want to remember it Kaachan, you know I had the biggest crush on them. They must’ve found better people now.”

Deku pushed the memories down and didn’t let them resurface.

After all, if he was to become a hero, he couldn’t have old memories dragging him down. Even if it meant denying he still had feelings for you.

Deku checked his phone repeatedly.

20 unanswered texts, 10 unanswered calls since last week.

Fear bubbled up in his stomach.

What if you decided to leave him behind once again???

What does Deku do when he was stressed?

Drown himself in work.

He opened his laptop and begun reading and replying to hundreds of emails, even reading a lot of spam emails from his admirers. One did catch his eye though.

It was filled with videos. He opened it and from the thumbnails of the videos immediately grew even more panicked.

He clicked on one and watched through it. His eyes widened and fear washed over him like a tide in the sea.

He clicked on another one hoping his hunch wasn’t through.

He clicked on another and another.

He finally accepted it.

All of the videos you sent to him were your recordings of weekly diary entries in the form of video. Each of them you were covered in bruises, tear-stained cheeks, and ragged breathing. Your desperate pleas of not being able to break up with your boyfriend.

He quickly realized your boyfriend was not who he said he was, and that all his actions were just acted. He was a manipulative son of a bitch who trapped you in his spider web. He was the spider stringing a beautiful butterfly in his web. Slowly but surely wrapping you in silk, trapping you, suffocating you.

When he finally finished the last one he quickly ran towards your place. Begging to whatever god there was that you were safe.

“Did you know Izuku?”

Your words in the video echoed in his mind as he ran and ran.

“The flower you gave me were actually Red Spider Lilies.”

He lived rather far away but he couldn’t stop, he won’t.

“I’m surprised you didn’t know what they were nor what they symbolized”

His legs ached and burned but he continued on running.

“They’re symbols of death and moving on, sometimes even reincarnations.”

He finally got to your city and ran to your café, hoping you were there.

“They symbolize the change of seasons from Summer to Fall, truly beautiful flowers.”

When he saw the café closed with neither you nor your boyfriend in sight he continues running to your apartment.

“I never told you this about my quirk, but you know they predict my emotions? I think they can predict my future too.”

He felt like a rabid dog with tears flowing down like waterfalls.

“The spider lilies growing through my subconscious around the café were proof of that theory.”

No, no NO, he won’t let this happen. He won’t let you leave him once again.

He won’t let his rose-tinted gaze show him only your best parts, making him deny all your bad sides all your woes and tears.

He immediately barged into your apartment only to be greeted by the sickeningly sweet smell of flowers.

The room was dark, despite it being 1pm.

He walked slowly through the entrance and found a scatter of red flowers blooming everywhere.

He called your name, no answer.

He screamed for your name, no answer.

But he did get his answer when he arrived at your living room.

The entire room was almost covered from ceiling to the floor with red spider lilies, and the lushest areas where they grew the densest were in the middle of the room.

Deku screamed in agony as he held your hanging body close to his chest.

It wasn’t blood that now stained his fingers nor his clothes. It was the red petals falling down from the ceiling to his hair that taunted him.

It mocked him.

It told him that you gave all the signs, you showed him everything, and yet he was too drugged in the most addictive drug of them all, love, to even notice your hints.

And now he was paying the price.

After all, he was a hero, he needed to be responsible for his actions. Even if it meant finally accepting that you were gone… forever.

#deku angst #izuku midoriya #deku x reader #izuku x reader #midoriya angst #deku fluff #my hero academia #mha #bnha #boku no hero academia #mha x reader #deku x you #izuku midoriya x you #bnha x reader #izuku fanfic #deku fanfiction

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wearetheantspavilion · 4 years

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Sustainability

Choice of materials and sourcing

We could use recycled timber, which is more environmentally conscious than buying new timber, but our budget may not allow it as it’s hard to gauge whether recycled timber would be more or less expensive.

Using new timber, we would likely be able to get a deal through Zain so it would be more cost-effective, but not as sustainable.

Since we plan on painting it, the colour of the wood won’t matter too much. The things to consider in wood type would be locally sourced, its durability outside and its ability to be reused after this project. Assuming that we aren’t going to be using engineered timber, these are some options:

Douglas Fir, Kahikatea, Kauri (from Fiji), Larch, Lawson Cypress, Macrocarpa, Radiata, Saligna and Vitex (from Solomon Islands).

Consideration of waste during construction

(Can we reduce waste and then dispose of it sustainably)

As we are planning to make our panels out of slats of timber instead of cutting them from sheets, there will be less waste.

In theory, there would be very little waste during the construction of all of the timber-related parts of the design.

The concrete could be a different story. As we have to pour foundations and the base of the ponds, there could easily be waste concrete in the process. Apparently the easiest and most economic method of getting concrete to the site is with a mixer truck, so estimating how much we need as accurately as possible will avoid there being too much excess.

Deconstruction and what will happen to the materials

Can they be reused or recycled after dismantling?

To do that, no glues that will make the wood unusable. Instead we’ll stick our panels together with removable screws around the edge. These panels could remain as such and be reused as coffee tabletops, potentially making money back for the project after its deconstruction. Otherwise, the panels can be deconstructed and the slats that are left over could be donated to the UoA school of architecture to provide students with modelling materials.

Dismantling the concrete is a less reusable resource, though perhaps we could find a place that would take it to make aggregate for new concrete, or else it could remain on site, if Brick Bay was happy to keep the ponds as a permanent feature (unlikely).

#architecture #sustainability #timber #pavilion

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respectfulship-hanakotoba-2019 · 5 years

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Respectfulshipping Event is Coming Very Soon!

Hello~! I'm here with just a quick, little reminder that our Respectfulship Hanakotoba is starting in just 10 days! So get ready, folks~!

Remember, any types of content are accepted (art, fanfiction, edits, videos, head-canons, theories, AUs and etc.)

Prompts are the following:

Day 1 - Sunflower (Respect)

Day 2 - Red Rose (Passionate Love)

Day 3 - Hibiscus (Gentle) Day 4 - Dahlia (Good taste)

Day 5 - Haberania radiata (My thoughts will follow you into your dreams)

Day 6 - Lotus (Far from the one he loves)

Day 7 - Morning glory (Willful promises)

Let's have fun~!!

#respectfulship_hanakotoba_2019 #yugioh vrains #vrains #respectfulshipping #ryoken kogami #spectre (vrains)#revolver (vrains)

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algandarsplaguepositive · 1 year

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Statues of Radiata: Elf King

This statue of an elf with long hair and flowing robes is seen all throughout Algandars Castle where the former elf king lived. He seems to bear a striking resemblance to two other elven leaders. Whether or not they are related is unknown. It could be that all elven leaders dress this way.

#radiata stories #radiata theories #statues of radiata

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journeysintowebcomics · 6 years

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Worm Liveblog #78

UPDATE 78: Second Trigger

Last time the Undersiders and the Travelers concocted a rescue plan to reach Grue. They did find him! It just...was much worse than everyone expected – than I expected. As if that wasn’t enough, they were all captured. This plan was a catastrophic failure. I blame Trickster because it’s traditional to throw the mastermind of the plan under the bus. Let’s continue.

At least someone’s having fun here. Bonesaw is having a jolly time, taking her time with her tools and singing. Skitter is conscious, immobile, making herself stay awake, and analyzing her surroundings. Grue can see everything from the inside of the refrigerator, even if Skitter can’t see inside from where she is. No word on what the rest of the new prisoners are doing, but I imagine they’re still unconscious.

Not having any other option nor way to move, Skitter gives an order to the bugs: attack. No matter how, no matter what attacks, just...attack. The order goes through, the bugs gather to attack Bonesaw, and she defends herself with a spray that kills the bug. A few do reach her and bite and sting, with no useful result.

“Just so you know, I’ve rendered myself immune to all those pesky little venoms and allergens,” she said. “And I can turn pain off like I’m flicking a switch. Don’t want to do that on a permanent basis, but it does make this easier to deal with.”

Of course she can do such a thing. She’s really good at modifying bodies. It’s starting to seem like in order to kill Bonesaw – and by extension Jack and anyone else who received these augmentations – will require destroying as much of her as possible. That’d mean they’d be on the same level than Crawler. Killing the Slaughterhouse Nine sounds more difficult every time something else is mentioned.

...hey, wait a second, why did you complain about how much it hurt to get stabbed in the eye and getting your neck slashed hurt? It had sounded like you were in a lot of pain back then! Like, in a lot! I know it’s hard to think straight when in intense pain, and she’s like twelve, thirteen or something like that so I can’t really fault her, but still! The bugs are an annoyance, so there’s that, I guess.

It’s biology lesson time. Nice, I welcome this!

See, there’s this part of the brain that people who study parahumans call the Corona Pollentia, not to be confused with the Corona Radiata. It’s a part of the brain that’s different in parahumans, and it’s the part that’s used to manage powers, when the powers can be managed. More specifically, there’s this part of the Corona they call the Gemma, that controls the active use of the power, the same way there are parts of the brain that allow us to coordinate and move our hands.

Alright, let’s see...according to a search, the corona radiata is a structure resembling a crown, located right in the middle of the brain, connected to the corpus callosum, and the corpus callosum is the part that connects both hemispheres of the brain, allowing to communication between both areas. Following this, I suppose the corona pollentia could be connected to the corpus callosum too, given how the use of powers and all its skills and ramifications would require both sides of the brain. My guess is that in the general population, the corona pollentia exists, it just isn’t developed or active. The gemma mentioned here may be what awakens at the trigger event, maybe it even is that gives the vision of those beings and all that. It contains all the information and knowledge about the power, yeah? So, in those who don’t have power, the gemma maybe stays inert and devoid of function. That’s my theory.

The size, shape and location of the Corona and the Gemma changes from parahuman to parahuman, but it tends to sit between the frontal and the parietal lobe. Beneath the ‘crown’ of the head, if you will. They can’t really lobotomize the Corona in criminals. Some of that’s because the location and shape of the Corona depends on the powers and how they work, and trial and error doesn’t work with the scary bad guys who can melt flesh or breathe lasers.

What? Are you telling me that in parahumans this area of the brain just...grows? I sure hope this doesn’t mean it grows all at once, like some sort of mushroom in the brain! Wait, no, I think I get it. Parents with powers have higher chances of having children that’ll have powers. I thought there was some genetic component here, that not just any random person can get powers, so...hm...it could be that yes, the corona pollentia and its components grow for years and years, setting the stage for the person to gain powers after a traumatic event. At the moment of the trigger event, the corona pollentia activates and starts functioning, making the person hallucinate/have a vision, and this part of the brain starts working.

Also, they can’t remove criminals’ powers? Well I beg to differ! Ask Cauldron, looks like they have ways to remove powers! Maybe they lobotomize their targets. I mean, they’re really knowledgeable about powers, what with their serums. Say, now that I think about it, the serums make me think I may be right and all people may have a corona pollentia, even if it’s inactive. How else can a serum give powers if the base for that doesn’t exist? Because I sure would hate to think an entire region of the brain grows in a few minutes! That’s gruesome, no matter how small that new region is!

Bonesaw brags about how she’s really good where the corona pollentia is at, through power of deduction based on the powers of the person she’s mutilating. The anesthetics she used disable the gemma and leaves the corona pollentia intact. That must be why Skitter was able to use her power not long ago, even if it was in such a meager way.

Dealio is, the Corona’s way too small to be doing what it’s doing. As parahumans, our brains are doing these amazing things. The framework, all the details our minds are using to decide what works and what doesn’t, the sheer potential, even the energy we’re using, it’s too much for our brains to process, and it’s waaaay too much for a growth that’s no bigger than a kiwi. All of that? It’s got to come from somewhere. And the other reason you can’t just carve out the Corona? If you do, the powers still work on their own. The person just can’t control them. It becomes instinctive, instead.

Well...can’t say the size of that thing’s anything to be too concerned about. There are so many biological mysteries and impossibilities in our bodies and in many other living beings, lots of ‘shouldn’t be happening’. I’m not touching that part. The part about powers becoming instinctive if the corona pollentia is removed, though, that’s alarming. I thought the powers came from that area, but if removing it only makes the conscious part of the powers go away, that hints there’s some other component in all this, something that gives the powers themselves. Chances are it’s another part of the brain, somehow, what with many functions of our normal generic brains still being unknown. Heck, maybe the entire brain is what lays the framework. Maybe the brains work different than usual, have a different composition, or simply are wired differently. Who knows.

Skitter has the bad luck of being the first one to be under Bonesaw’s scalpel. I’m waiting for some sort of lucky strike here, something that’ll stop her from digging into Skitter. It’ll be difficult to continue being the protagonist if you get your brain meddled with like that. There’s a fight going on outside, maybe someone will enter and save them from Bonesaw?

I’m ten times as excited to take your brain apart, now! You might give me a clue about the passenger. See, I think it’s something that’s hooked into your brain. It was alive up until your powers kicked in, it helped form the Corona, then it broke down. I’ve seen it at work when I’ve provoked and recorded trigger events, seen it die after. But I’m pretty sure some kind of trace is still there, linked in, cooperating with us and tapping into all those outside forces you and I can’t even comprehend, to make our power work.

...wait, huh? This makes it sound like there’s some sort of parasite responsible for all the powers, that during a trigger event it creates the corona pollentia somehow, and then dies. I...ah...I have no idea what to think. Mainly because the idea a parasite may be responsible for the powers kind of goes against everything I have theorized in this update about how powers work. It sounds like this isn’t just a theory, that Bonesaw has reasons to believe she’s correct. She said it, she said she has seen it happen in real time.

In that case, that answers very few things and creates a lot other questions. Where does it come from? How can it make powers happen? How does it even get into the humans? Is there something about a few individuals that attract them? How is it related to the vision people have during trigger events? What about second triggers – if they’re real, do they have a second parasite? How does this influence the possibility of parahumans having parahuman children? How does Cauldron’s serums factor in this?

...

...well, it would certainly kind of give an explanation as to how Cauldron can make serums. If there’s such thing as a source, then it’d be a matter of extracting this parasite thingy and working on it. I suppose that’d work.

Bonesaw has thought through everything related to this passenger thing. Since Skitter is able to use her powers to some extent, even if it was just a little bit, maybe Bonesaw hopes she’ll find more about that thing in Skitter. Excited and eager, Bonesaw removes Skitter’s mask, revealing her forehead. No time to shave the head, I guess. A cut is made across her forehead, reminding Skitter of the bullying session she suffered mere days before her first night as a superhero wannabe. Boy do those days seem so far now. Back then I never imagined Skitter would ever find herself at the mercy of a crazy super surgeon with a ridiculously high death toll, about to get her brain scrambled to search for the source of her powers. Worm has gone beyond my wildest expectations in a story like this one, it really is like nothing I had read before.

She’s defenseless and exhausted. If nobody comes to the rescue, I see no way of getting out of this. Then again, I have said that before, and they always manage to get out of the troublesome situations. Surprise me, Skitter! What’s the plan?

Bonesaw had talked about this ‘passenger’. My ally, my partner, after a fashion. Was there some way to use it? To put more power in its hands?

Pretty doubtful. Judging by what she said, whatever this passenger is is long dead already. Any other plans?

Apparently not. She also searches around, trying to find a helping hand, there’s nobody who will help them. Tired and unable to do anything, Skitter feels the weight of failure.

We had fucked up here, had underestimated Bonesaw. I’d gone with Trickster’s plan to set Hookwolf’s contingent against the Nine and buy us the chance to infiltrate and rescue Brian, even though I’d known the strategy had too many holes, too many unpredictable variables.

That was the plan? Make Hookwolf’s group fight them, and rescue Brian during the fight? That’s nothing like calculated recklessness. That’s...recklessness, period. It doesn’t sound like there were any further plans, or counters to any situations that may happen. Trickster is not a good strategist, apparently.

The defeatist thoughts that were crossing Skitter’s mind stops when Bonesaw notices threads. Tripwires Skitter didn’t set, that is. Neither did the Slaughterhouse Nine. I don’t recall anyone else who could do such thing. I’d think Genesis, but she’s out there, being a decoy, so it can’t be here.

My bugs felt movement. Except nobody had entered the building, to the best of my knowledge. It was in one of the hallways. Big.

The huge stuffed animal I’d noted in the hallway.

Ah. Parian, right. This is her territory, it’s natural she’d be around here. That’s one of her creations moving. Is she coming to the rescue, or is she merely going to attack the Slaughterhouse Nine for killing residents of her territory? Anything would give Skitter a reprieve, hopefully for as long as she needs to gather her strength.

Is there really a way to reach the brain through the nose? Because that seems like a bit of a design flaw. Kind of a bad thing to leave such a vital organ protected by, I don’t know, a very thin wall of cartilage or whatever. Thanks, biology.

Hoping to stall for time and give the stuffed animal enough time to approach and maybe save her, Skitter gets Bonesaw’s attention, indicating she wants to talk. Yes or no questions. She starts by playing dumb...ah...well I sure hope the stuffed animal isn’t too far away down the hallway.

“That’s confusing. You’re not just trying to delay the part where I carve up your brain, are you?”

I’m so glad Bonesaw has the patience to not ignore Skitter and go straight into the surgery. Through blinks, Skitter manages to convince Bonesaw to talk about her art – more concretely, about what she’ll do with Skitter. That’d be interesting to hear, she must have something in mind already other than messing with the brain and look for maybe-power-parasites.

“I’m going to go all out. Way I figure it, I set your Gemma lobe to attract bugs around you, then remove it, so you’ve got no conscious control over it. But there’s a point to it! I make some physical modifications to you, see. Implant some of Mannequin’s equipment so you’ve got enough sustenance to keep you going, and sustenance to keep the bugs you bring to you alive. You become a living hive, see? We could even make it so they crawl inside you and build nests there.”

I keep imagining something similar to what she did to Grue, but Skitter’s power would be too useful not to use for their advantage. She could do something like what she did with Hack Job and the other capes she mixed together, turn her into a mindless soldier. And indeed, then Bonesaw says a few things I think would lead to that fate. An exoskeleton, a frame to implant in her to make her easier to control, make her more durable...yeah, a fate worse than death.

Since doing all this is better while Skitter is alive, Bonesaw starts working, cutting with her saw. That’s the stuffed animal’s cue, it attacks and strikes Bonesaw. That was risky, Skitter is lucky that saw didn’t do much worse when the stuffed animal hit Bonesaw.

It’s some sort of dinosaur. It keeps marching towards her, smashing all the mechanical spiders it can, while Bonesaw does something with one of the many substances she must have stashed on her. She throws a test tube onto the stuffed animal, causing it to start deflating, holes appear all over its surface. Some sort of acid, yep. Parian was inside, she steps out of the fabric mess.

“You killed my mom,” Parian’s voice sounded hollow.

“My teammates did most of the actual killing, so I don’t think I did, if that makes you feel any better.”

“My aunt, my best friend, my cousin… they were all here.”

Oh, damn. That’s rough. Parian had run away with the kids, leaving the rest behind and hoping they would escape. They didn’t. Bonesaw is largely indifferent, commenting they didn’t kill everyone, and what she means is that some were modified to look like the Slaughterhouse Nine, as one of the decoys outside. That’s barely better. As expected, Parian isn’t any happier to hear that. She attacks with needles, plunging several into Bonesaw and pulling from them while approaching. Bonesaw comments she got a broken tooth.

Broken tooth? No. When I’d kicked Cherish earlier, hadn’t she said that Bonesaw had reinforced her teeth? Surely the psycho would have done the same for herself.

She was lying.

And there was nothing I could do to alert Parian.

Trying to make herself look vulnerable, perhaps? Skitter and the others underestimated Bonesaw, Parian could underestimate her too. Bonesaw isn’t bad at manipulating people, she must have something in mind already.

Skitter tries to stop Parian, and fails at that. Too few bugs left alive, she can’t stop her. Parian gets to Bonesaw and stabs her several times in the neck, needless to say, she’s unsuccessful at killing her. Bonesaw uses that chance to spit acid onto Parian’s face. Did she fill a few of her teeth with acids? I bet she filled some of her teeth with acids.

While Parian tries to find something to wash her face off, Bonesaw is very calm, she just adds Parian to the list of people she’s going to make surgery on. There are others she has to deal with first, after all.

“Making friends, Bonesaw?”

No. Any vestige of hope I’d had disappeared.

Jack leaned over the counter. Burnscar stood beside him, looking troubled.

...well! Alright! Uh, so, maybe I should start thinking which of the Undersiders, the Travelers and Parian are more likely to die and which ones aren’t. Before I can do such thing, Jack says they’re leaving. That’s either really good or really bad. It depends on what Jack will do. Will he kill everyone here in a hurry before leaving? Everyone except three, Bonesaw is allowed to take three people in total to experiment on.

Let’s see...one undoubtedly will be Skitter. No question. I’d think Grue is another, but maybe not because it could take a bit too long to get him off the wall and keep him alive while they leave. Parian, maybe? And Imp, since she could be interesting to study?

“Then, um. Skitter…”

Of course.

“Um, um. Tattletale. I want to see what her brain looks like, too.”

Not a choice I imagined would be viable, but alright, Bonesaw surely has her reasons for that.

“And Trickster! Because Ball-of-fire girl killed Hack Job. I want another.”

The ambush on the Slaughterhouse Nine did kill someone! That’s good! And ironically, Trickster’s plan has led to him being a candidate to form one of Bonesaw’s creations. Maybe he’d even get stitched up to Skitter. It’d make a rather versatile creation.

The three have been chosen, the rest will get killed, starting from their earliest catch: Imp. That gets Grue’s attention, he tries to say something. Pretty difficult, given, you know...all that happened to him.

“You don’t want to see your sister die, huh? That’s sweet,” Bonesaw said. “Maybe you should have taught her the basics. Don’t have to see her if she’s going to walk straight into a modified wolf trap.

She what?

Did you know? She turned off her power just so she could beg for help. From us. She’s not very bright.”

She what?!

I had to stop for a moment to massage my temples. I can forgive stepping onto a trap because that can happen to anyone, especially if it was modified or concealed somewhere. Fine. What I find ridiculous is that she thought she could ask for help from the Slaughterhouse Nine. It was desperation, I guess, but still! That’s ridiculous!

Grue may or may not still have feelings for Skitter, when Bonesaw mentioned how she’ll take good care of them and patted Skitter, Grue’s heart started beating faster. Jack doesn’t have any patience left, he tells Burnscar to just light everyone on fire, they have to leave now.

Darkness rolled over Burnscar’s feet, a carpet. There was no direction to it, and very little volume. It pooled on the ground and spread.

“Yes! He’s doing it! Can I look? I just want to get the hard drive!”

He’s finally doing what she wanted, he’s generating darkness. Pretty impressive he’s doing that despite being flayed and stapled onto the wall. Whatever happens next sounds like it’s confusing for Skitter, so I expect the next few paragraphs to be a mishmash of sentences and brief situations that may not reveal anything. That’s the problem with stories narrated by a character. Careful, Mr. Wildbow, this is a double-edged trick.

Ooooor not! It’s not what I expected! It’s Skitter getting another vision like those from the trigger events. It’s a rather detailed vision, she describes the enormous creatures traveling through space, arriving to Earth, to many versions of Earth that I suppose are wildly differing timelines or something like that. Rather difficult for it to be the same timeline, given everything that was described.

It viewed a world, one point in time in the present, and in a heartbeat, it took in trillions of images. Billions of individuals, viewed separately and as a tableau. Innumerable scenes, landscapes, fragments of text, even ideas. In that one heartbeat, I saw people who were somehow familiar. A young man, a teenager, out of place among his peers, men who were burly with muscle. They were drinking. He was tan, with narrow hips, his forehead creased in worry above thick glasses, but his mouth was curled in the smallest of wry smiles over something one of the men was saying. A snapshot, an image of a moment.

It was my world, my Earth it was looking at.

I’m...not...entirely sure what’s the significance of this. The physical description of that person doesn’t sound particularly familiar to me. Maybe it’s in the future.

Skitter doesn’t shed any light over this either. It’s confusing. She does feel she has seen something like this before, she must be recalling her trigger event. Say, is there anyone nearby who may be having a trigger event? Because, as far as I know, there are no civilians nearby that could gain powers. Another possibility is that the second trigger event theory is true, and it’s happening now, in which case to who is it happening? Skitter, given the detail of what she’s seeing and how she’s the only one conscious right now? The other possibility is the person they were all talking to a moment ago: Grue. Given his horrible present situation and that he’s about to lose his sister and his friends, it’s plausible he may be having a second trigger event. Both?

I could feel another person, someone who hadn’t been there a moment ago. A man standing in the darkness.

The man strode forward, uncaring about the darkness. He caught Burnscar around the face with one broad hand, and he brought it down hard against the counter. I was dropped to the ground. Burnscar fell across me, limp and unmoving, and the man flickered out of existence.

Ah, it’s Grue! And...he’s moving. Somehow. Would a second trigger event heal him? I don’t think anything like that was ever said along the second trigger theory, so...ah. I don’t know.

It’s so weird to read descriptions of darkness slithering inside someone’s body.

A clearing formed. An expanse of dim light, lit only by one shaft of light that managed to come in through the corner of a window. Burnscar’s head was pulverized, unrecognizable. She lay limp, unmoving, dead.

Wait, she’s dead? Burnscar died? Someone from the Slaughterhouse Nine died, for real? Man, I’m a bit disappointed. Burnscar barely had any time to shine. I had considered the possibility someone from that group could die, yeah, but in my heart of hearts I never really thought it could happen so soon! I thought them dying would be something that’d happen near the end or at the end of the Slaughterhouse Nine plotline, and I really doubt it’s almost over. Oh well. It’s a shame, Burnscar.

The problem with a villain dying early is that you don’t feel as impressed as you should be. If it had been, say, Mannequin, it would have been much more striking because Mannequin already had shown a couple times for much of a threat he was for everyone. Burnscar here did show she was no pushover, that she could fight, but...I don’t know, I wish she hadn’t died. Yet. I feel she had some more potential yet to be tapped. At least I can say she wasn’t wasted, though, I guess I’m kind of satisfied with what was shown of her.

Bonesaw is ecstatic about these developments and rushes inside the refrigerator to get the hard drive she had mentioned, Jack tries to stop her but she slips out of his grip and opens one of the cases Mannequin made. From the darkness, a figure came out.

It was Brian, but it wasn’t. It was colored in monochrome, with one eye open, the other half-formed. Markings in white covered his flesh, spiraling out from one pectoral, covering his chest and stomach. His hands were white to the elbow, and he was sexless. A ken doll with only more white patterns between his legs.

Oh. Oh my goodness, is this the power of the second trigger? It sure sounds a lot like the Siberian. Does that mean the Siberian’s powers partially come from a second trigger event too? Then she would have some sort of power before her current state. Not sure what it could have been.

Grue grabs Bonesaw, lifting her in the air, while Jack slashes at him. It has no effect. Invulnerability, again like the Siberian. Add this entire thing with New Grue to the already long list of moments I never saw coming.

Despite her augmentations, Grue manages to cleave Bonesaw’s hands off. That’s a lot of strength! As soon as she touches the floor, she runs to Jack, and Grue lunges at them.

Monochrome Brian lunged after them, but the floor of the freezer shattered beneath one foot. He lost his orientation, then flickered out of existence once more.

...it flickered out of existence? Was that a fake Grue, like some sort of copy or a projection? Is that why it couldn’t be hurt and why it was so strong? Could it be...could it be the Siberian is some sort of projection too? The real Siberian, the squishy body may be somewhere else, projecting herself as an invulnerable entity, then?

Slowly, Grue starts pulling himself together, literally. All its organs are taken back inside his body, everything heals. Skitter has the absolutely delightful – sarcasm – experience of watching Grue undo the vivisection during five, ten minutes. That’s a pretty long time. I kind of hope Skitter is a bit too dazed to remember any of this later, because seriously, that can’t have been a fun thing to watch.

He had another trigger event. Two new powers? Three, if I counted the way his power was diminishing my own?

Projection, healing, interfering with other capes’ powers...all this would make Grue very powerful indeed. I wonder what Mr. Wildbow will do so everything isn’t too easy for the Undersiders, given how versatile and powerful Grue would be with all that.

While Skitter is pondering this, Grue drags himself towards her and touches her, healing her with his newfound power. Then he moves to Imp.

Four new powers?

I hadn’t heard about anything like this.

It’s unprecedented, I think. Faultline was trying to make it happen, and Bonesaw was researching about it, but it always sounded like it was just a possibility, instead of something that could happen. It may be possible someone at some point got a second trigger event, gained powers, and that’s why the rumors about a second trigger event started. I can’t think of any known parahuman so powerful they may have gone through a second trigger, though.

Soon everyone is standing up, the darkness dissipates, and Grue is intact, just weakened instead of something worse. Good! I’m really glad he’s alright! After what happened to him, I really was prepared for him to die, so yeah, I’m glad he didn’t die! Grue is on all fours, crying. Skitter tries to approach but Tattletale stops her, instead telling Imp to approach and help him.

I watched Brian as I walked behind him. I’d just been paralyzed, about to receive involuntary brain surgery. Now, in a much different way and for different reasons than before, I was again unable to offer him a hand. I couldn’t even talk to him without being afraid I’d say the wrong thing.

Even compared to being in Bonesaw’s clutches, I felt more helpless as ever.

Quite the end for the chapter. It’s like Skitter has no idea where things will go now.

So, I suppose there’s one chapter more, to close this arc now that Grue has been rescued. Well, “rescued”, because it wasn’t like it was thanks to the plan. But hey, it ended better than expected. Kind of. Can you really say things ended well when Grue went through so much pain and fear for Skitter and Imp he got a second trigger event? And now has new powers to get used to? Some may see it as a boon, but I imagine there’ll be a lot of trouble still yet to come thanks to this.

Besides, there’s grounds for retaliation from the Slaughterhouse Nine. Burnscar is dead, very dead. Luckily for everyone, her corpse is likely to have been left behind, so the odds Bonesaw will revive her are pretty low, thankfully. Still, now they have lost two of their members if you count Hack Job, and Shatterbird and Cherish are in Coil’s clutches. Jack may find it interesting and fun, but that doesn’t mean he won’t strike back. I wonder which Slaughterhouse Nine member will be in trouble next? Bonesaw is starting to seem like the second to last member to be dealt with, thanks to how fearsome and resourceful she was here. If I had to guess...uh... Mannequin, Crawler, the Siberian, Bonesaw, Jack. In that order. Mannequin may be next – although he has already intervened twice and he got away both times, he’s more vulnerable than Crawler or the Siberian. That’s why I think he could be the next Slaughterhouse Nine member to be captured, irreversibly injured, or maybe even killed, if the stars align just right.

For now, Grue’s new powers are quite the development for this story. I can only imagine what it’ll bring, what’s for sure is that it’s an advantage. Things are going to change!

I’ll end the update here.

Next time: next update

#worm #worm liveblog #webserial #webserial liveblog #liveblog

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pecteilisradiata · 3 years

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hi! welcome to my OMORI sideblog ✨ i’m currently hyperfixating on this moving & beautiful game and wanted a place to post about it!

pecteilis radiata is the scientific name for the egret orchid 🤍

• spoilers will be tagged #omori spoilers

• i’ll tag various ships such as sunburn, suntan, sunflower, etc.

• i will also tag lore, theories, & cute character/area art 🖤

my main is @cybermoonbunny, feel free to follow me!

#omori #omori game #sideblog

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kevinscottgardens · 4 years

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13-19 July 2020

This week we made great progress weeding the dicotyledon order beds. Jess was on holiday and Joe was off Monday through Wednesday, so only Nell, Allison and I were in. That meant that Allison and I were on glasshouse duty as well, which I miss when it’s not my turn. I hope we return to everyone with their glasshouse duty soon. I worked from home Friday. I also worked this weekend so I’ll have a four-day weekend next weekend.

I spent a lot of the week and most of the weekend irrigating. It’s been dry, and when there has been a bit of precipitation, it’s been minimal. Now that the order beds have been weeded, they can be well watered in preparation for a good layer of mulch that would usually have been put down in spring. The mulch should help retain some moisture and improve the soil structure, which is very free-draining. In theory it should also suppress weeds; however, after mulching the tropical corridor a few weeks ago, I now have weeds everywhere. I never had to weed in that glass house previously. To me it is obvious that our compost doesn’t get hot enough to kill all the weed seeds.

Plant of the week

Hydrangeaceae Hydrangea quercifolia W.Bartram

common name(s) - oak-leaved hydrangea synonym(s) - Hydrangea angulata Tausch; Hydrangea quinquefolia D.Dietr.; Hydrangea radiata Sm. conservation rating - none native to - S.E. USA location - Embankment east, accession 2019-0319 leaves - large, deeply lobed leaves turning red and purple in autumn on young stems covered in a felt-like light brown bark, and larger stems with attractive cinnamon-tan-orange bark that shreds and peels in thin flakes flowers - cream, in conical panicles with numerous large sterile florets on old wood; flower colour does not vary with soil pH habit - spreading, coarse-textured, deciduous shrub to 2m wide and 1.5m tall habitat - mixed hardwood forests, along streams and on forested hillsides, usually on calcareous soils, and often where limestone is at the ground surface; it is an understory shrub, often in the shade of large oaks, hickories, magnolias, American beech, etc. pests - aphids, capsid bug, glasshouse red spider mite, hydrangea scale disease - generally disease-free hardiness - to -15ºC (H5) soil - moist and well-drained, organically rich, clay, sand or loam sun - full sun to part shade, sheltered propagation - softwood cuttings; the plant sprouts shoots from underground stolons and often grows in colonies pruning - damaged, dead, diseased nomenclature - Hydrangeaceae - Hydrangea - from hydor meaning water, and aggeion meaning vessel, in reference to the cup-like capsular fruit; quercifolia - leaves that look like those of Quercus NB - the official state wildflower of Alabama; in Britain it flowers less profusely and even has a reputation for being tender

References, bibliography:

Gledhill, David, (2008) “The Names of Plants”, fourth edition; Cambridge University Press; ISBN: 978-0-52168-553-5

IUCN [online] http://www.iucnredlist.org/search [19 Jul 20]

Missouri Botanical Garden [online] https://www.missouribotanicalgarden.org/PlantFinder/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?kempercode=d380 [19 Jul 20]

Plant List, The [online] http://www.theplantlist.org/tpl1.1/record/tro-29100401 [19 Jul 20]

Plants of the World [online] http://plantsoftheworldonline.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:791666-1 [19 Jul 20]

Royal Horticultural Society [online] https://www.rhs.org.uk/Plants/8949/i-Hydrangea-quercifolia-i/Details [19 Jul 20]

SARS-CoVid-2 update

#Hydrangea quercifolia

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theeurekaproject · 5 years

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A Painstakingly Complicated Discussion of the Caste System

This post is mirrored from my Wattpad story Eureka in Excessus, which is a collection of miscellaneous pieces of the Eureka Project that never quite made it into the book. You can find it here.

Today on "Wren Has Too Much Free Time: The Book," we discuss the painful intricacies of the caste system in a society that doesn't exist! I'm the type of person who gets super into worldbuilding (sometimes at the expense of the actual story) so writing this type of guide is really entertaining to me. That being said, if you would rather not listen to two thousand or so words of rambling about the social order of a fictional empire, you are by no means required to read this—the actual story can be understood just fine without it. If you're a lore-obsessed geek like me, though, read on :)

I knew from the very beginning that Eleutheria had to have a caste system. I needed a quantifiable way for characters to compare themselves to other characters, and "she's rich but I'm poor" didn't really work because poverty and status are so relative. The noblewomen consider everyone beneath them "poor," but then there are people like Lyra, who were literally raised on the streets. There's also the fact that Eleutheria's social order is incredibly complicated and alien—it's almost nothing like our own, owing to the fact that they have larger gender differences, a weird history, and bizarre societal norms that are often at odds with what readers consider normal. So I knew I needed a quantifiable system that shows which characters are ranked higher than other characters.

The caste system started as simple ranks and numbers, but that got boring and difficult to keep track of very quickly, so I started giving the castes names. Like everything else in Eleutheria, they're in Latin, but I'm hoping that a combination of context clues and obvious English loanwords will be enough to give readers an idea about what they mean. Eventually the system grew from ten vague groups to exactly twenty extremely specific castes grouped into several different cohorts. I like this way of organization because it allows me to make certain jobs equal without combining them into one caste—scientists and medical types are different things, but they're in the same cohort and thus relatively equal. I finalized the hierarchy with a few additional groups that aren't quite considered castes, and that led to the system I—and Eleutheria—use now. So, without further ado: the twenty castes of Eleutheria!

The Trinitarian castes are the "best of the best"—the old money noblewomen who lead Eleutherian society and serve as models to everyone else. Nothing a Trinitaria says or does is wrong—they can get away with murder if they so desire, and there's nothing anyone can do to stop them. Despite their high status, though, the Trinitarium are constantly fighting amongst themselves, frequently resulting in bloody civil wars that leave hundreds of thousands of people dead. Naturally, the people who start said wars get off scot-free; they always do.

Caste Cipher is the highest Trinitarian caste. Supposedly descended from the Founders of Eleutheria, the Ciphers are said to have unflinching brilliance, impossible beauty, and the divine wisdom of their ancestors. Their shockingly blue eyes, unflinching gaze, and uncanny-valley nature distinguishes them from the rest of the nobility (or, well, at least it did; Acidalia-Planitia, eldest daughter of Alestra Cipher, has, to the rest of the court's disgust, very plain, very human brown eyes.) Ciphers are considered almost gods by quite a few denizens of Eleutheria, and anyone who dares question them will be swiftly and violently stricken down by Alestra Cipher's hand.

Examples: Alestra, Aleskynn, and Acidalia (the latter only sort of.)

Caste Princips is the second-highest caste, consisting of nearly all the other noble families on Eleutheria. Noble houses Vulgaris, Communia, Summus, and others reside on this level—just below the Ciphers, but above everyone else. They are said to have descended from Eleutheria's earliest settlers, a population chosen by the Founders to spearhead their new civilization. Despite their high ancestry, though, they are not above stupid, petty squabbles, and they spend most of their time arguing with one another over nothing of importance. Though Caste Princips are not nearly as revered as Ciphers, they evoke the same anxiety in ordinary citizens—mostly because they too are wealthy and powerful enough to erase people from existence.

Examples: The ladies-in-waiting, most of Aleskynn's friends

Caste Praelia is the final, dying Trinitarian caste. It once consisted of numerous noble houses who served as military powerhouses; Praelium houses produced an untold amount of warriors, generals, and gladiators. However, Alestra came down on them hard during her reign, not wanting to be superseded by charismatic Praetors and their extremely loyal armies. Now the only remnant of caste Praelia is the noble house Generalis, which is also slowly fizzling out—its matriarch, Anatolia Radiata, died several years ago, leaving her daughter Cassiopeia as the lone survivor.

Examples: Cassiopeia, the late Anatolia

The Logos castes are just underneath the Trinitarians. Consisting of scientists, doctors, businesswomen, and other academic types, this cohort has given rise to some very powerful people. However, most women in this category remain solidly middle-class—not every researcher is an Einstein, you know? Despite this, they are treated with a sort of reverence by the rest of the population, because they're considered the "movers and shakers" of Eleutherian society. They discover new things, uncover the past, and help move humanity forward; who wouldn't love them? So they usually get off pretty well in the grand scheme of things... sure, sometimes they discover things they weren't meant to know and get themselves shot for treason, but considering that this is Eleutheria we're talking about, that's not that bad.

Caste Negotia is mostly composed of businesswomen, economists, and management types. Some are your ordinary office busybodies, and others are CEOs. They can be enormously wealthy, but many are your regular old run-of-the-mill managers. Still, the caste is associated with luxury anyway—very few Negotium are cripplingly poor.

Caste Scientia consists of researchers and scientists, who are further divided into specialties depending on their field. Again, they can be very rich, or kind of in the middle, but rarely ever impoverished. Outside of the Trinitarian castes, the Scientias are one of the most respected groups in Eleutherian society—after all, they invent the technology that's made the empire so powerful. Despite this—or maybe because of it—they are under intense scrutiny. Alestra is so afraid of the Scientias mobilizing against her that's she's started an aggressive campaign to keep dangerous ideas from spreading: she takes away their children to be raised by the state, kills anyone whose research goes a little too deep, and brutally slaughters everyone who disagrees with her just to make examples out of them. Scientias also have a tendency to die young due to completely unrelated reasons—they're often frail, sickly, and inexplicably weak. Conspiracy theories abound about this, but every time someone makes a breakthrough, they wind up dead.

Examples: Athena, Carina

Caste Medica contains medical professionals—doctors, nurses, dentists, and the like. Alestra sees them as slightly less of a threat, so she's a little more lenient with them. Besides, she kind of has to be nice to a degree—even Imperatrices get sick, and she wants to avoid being killed by her own doctors if something goes wrong. This caste is generally kept happy, just because Alestra knows offending them could result in her death. It would be very easy for the royal physician to cut the wrong thing during surgery and make an assassination look accidental.

Caste Historia ostensibly contains the historians, archeologists, et cetera. In practice, though, it's hardly composed of unbiased historical researchers. Most Historium are paid off by the state to publish the truths the government agrees with, and dissenters are simply killed. Much like the Scientias, Historium are subject to an intense amount of scrutiny; if someone publishes a document they aren't supposed to, Alestra's whole reign could collapse in on itself. This, compounded by the fact that society doesn't really need historians in the same way it needs scientists, has led to the thinning of caste Historia. After Alestra took power, their numbers were greatly reduced, and they never regained their lost power again.

The aptly named Artem castes are the creative types. Dancers, actors, artists, designers, animators, and anyone else who works an "artsy" job is classified into this cohort. Unlike most castes, the Artem castes are incredibly diverse and offer a high degree of social mobility for anyone fortunate enough to swindle their way into a high-paying job. Starving artists can become millionaires overnight if they're lucky, and famous stars can fade into nothingness if society forgets about them. It's a high-risk, high-reward game, but if you're skilled, loyal, and reasonably attractive, you have a decent shot at making a good living for yourself. Of course, artists who choose to defy the status quo never seem to remain in the spotlight for very long.

Caste Auctor is composed of writers, authors, and scribes. Auctores can be almost anything, so long as it's related to writing or communication. They can work in conjunction with Scientias and Medicas to do the paperwork surrounding scientific studies and case reports, help Magistratum with investigative journalism, translate ancient languages alongside Historium, create works of fiction, et cetera. Like the Scientias, they're somewhat respected by the majority of society, but that just means Alestra hates them more because they have so much influence. Any Auctor who finds themselves on her bad side will meet a swift and merciless end.

Caste Momentum consists of the people who are involved in creating "movies" and "TV shows" (read: "thinly veiled propaganda presented to the citizens as if it's truth.") It's a somewhat odd caste limited to propaganda professionals; there are actors and directors, but also certain psychologists and writers who specialize in messing with the human mind. Momentum castes regularly collude with Auctores, Medicas, and Scientias—and sometimes even Ciphers themselves—to create terrifying, mind-melding cocktails of half-truths that can convince weak-minded citizens of anything.

Caste Incentor is much more innocuous, containing mostly musicians. They're monitored heavily to prevent Dangerous Ideas from spreading, but they have more freedom than most Artem castes, mostly because Eleutherian music is by and large kind of terrible. Incentores are stereotyped as being dizty, lovestruck morons, because they're one of the few castes that never really does anything with science or history or government—mostly they just sit around and look pretty, and some of them sing on occasion. (Of course, most of them are not really that brainless, but they pretend to be stupid anyway—the dumber Alestra thinks you are, the less she'll want you dead.)

Caste Sollertia is a weird, catchall mixture of other "creative types." All sorts of career artists wind up here—designers, certain architects, tattoo artists, and anyone else Eleutheria can't shove neatly into their own little category. Sollertium are stereotyped as "free spirits" because they can grow up to be pretty much anything, so long as that thing has a creative component to it. The daughter of an architect can easily become a graphic designer if she so chooses (though it's customary to take your mother's job upon reaching your age of majority.) Sollertium associate with Logos castes like Scientias somewhat frequently—you kind of have to consult engineers if you're designing a building—so they have slightly more respect than Incentores, despite their caste's lack of structure and organization.

The Auxilium castes are where things start to get depressing (if the government surveillance wasn't depressing enough.) Auxilium are "helper castes," and that describes them pretty accurately—they only exist to serve other people. They range from middle-class to extraordinarily, horrifyingly poor, and they don't have the greatest of reputations. Most of the upper castes look down on them at least somewhat, and anyone who makes friends with an Auxilia will be made fun of mercilessly. There is one exception to this rule, though—Ministratora, especially the Imperial servants, are treated with a great degree of respect. Mostly because they report back to Alestra.

Caste Suffragia is the most fortunate of the Auxilium castes. They're called Suffragium because they used to be one of the largest voting blocs back when Eleutheria held elections (same root word as "suffrage.") Suffragium are, by and large, everyday workers just trying to make a living. Regular old salesmen, secretaries, and the like are mostly Suffragium, as well as most retail employees. It's rare to see a Suffragia rise above middle-classs mediocrity, but this is Eleutheria, so dull suburbia and ticky-tacky box houses are pretty decent. And they don't get murdered by furious Ciphers on a semi-regular basis, so... that's a win for them.

Caste Ministratora is domestic workers. Personal assistants, maids, nannies, and some cooks are all Ministratoras, and their quality of life varies depending upon their employer. They can make very good money if they work for very rich people—you'd think noblewomen would treat their servants pretty poorly, but it'd be extremely easy for a resentful maid to slip something lethal into a drink or let important information slip, and sure, they might get themselves killed for it, but what good will that do if you're already dead? Alestra in particular is shockingly nice to the Ministratoras she employs, mostly because she's terrified of them turning on her.

Caste Raeda consists of the people who keep Eleutheria's public transportation system in check. It's a more important job than it sounds, but it's also too dirty and grimy for Scientias to want to do it, so the grunt work falls to the Raedae. They range from train conductors to mechanics to spaceship pilots, and though they're looked down upon by most other Eleutherians, their card isn't actually that bad. They don't make a lot of money, but that means they have more freedom than most, and they can escape Eleutheria with ease if things turn nasty—Alestra doesn't care about them enough to look into it when they vanish mysteriously.

Caste Vilicius is where things start to get human-rights-violate-y. Vilicius is a small caste that only exists to keep the Laborum and Cantatores in check—the second the lower castes start causing a problem, the Vilicii are there to beat them into submission. Allowing Vilicii to go mad with power and indiscriminately maim or kill Obscuri is one of Alestra's favorite ways of keeping Eleutherian society the way she wants it. Vilicii are another group that can get away with murder—provided they're murdering the "bad" people, of course.

And, finally, the aforementioned Obscurus castes. They're called Obscuri because they quite literally live in the darkness, populating the pieces of Eleutheria nobody else will tolerate living in. They're mostly orphans and other people with no family name or legacy, and they're often considered "resources" that can be bought, sold, and used rather than human beings with valuable lives. The one plus about being an Obscurus is that Alestra doesn't care about them, either, which means they can get away with doing "treasonous" things others would be jailed or killed for. On the other hand, they don't reap the benefits from the government, either—meaning they have no access to programs intended to help the impoverished.

Caste Labora is made up of factory workers. They're one of the largest castes, and they're incredibly strong, rivaling the greatest athletes and gladiators Eleutheria has to offer. This means that, hypothetically, if a Labora was to start a large revolutionary movement, things would be very, very bad—they probably wouldn't win anything, but they'd cause a significant amount of damage before the military came to shut them down. Somehow, though, they never stay strong for very long—every Labora seems to get some horrible, immobilizing disease that cripples their ability to move or communicate once they outlive their usefulness.

Caste Cantator is like the catchall caste for people Eleutheria doesn't like. Bastard kids, orphans, illegal second daughters back when Alestra had a one-child rule, et cetera, all fall into the Cantator category. Cantator is one of the smallest castes, but Alestra hates it more than anything because every Cantator is a living embodiment of a broken rule. She hasn't outright killed them all yet, mostly because doing so would be inconvenient, but she's dangerously unsympathetic to their problems, and she's revoked what little support the government used to offer them. They're a constant thorn in her side just by virtue of existing, and she'd be very happy to see them all wiped off the face of the Earth.

Examples: Lyra

Caste Servum consists of slaves. Chattel slavery hasn't been legal in Eleutheria for over two hundred years, but the fact that this caste is still on the roster shows how little the government cares about enforcing that rule.

"Outcaste" is a sort of general term for a person who doesn't fit into the official hierarchy. It doesn't actually have a negative connotation; whether or not being an Outcaste is a good thing depends on the circumstances of a person's birth.

The Magistratum are the police force. They aren't considered a part of the official caste roster because they're technically military (though they're rarely treated as such.) Certain units of the Magistratum are terrifying and efficient, especially Alestra's not-so-secret police, but most of the time they're kind of a mess because they're always fighting with each other. Most units are ruled by the government, others are run entirely by the various gangs/mobs that pop up in the Eleutherian underground, yet more work for various non-government paramilitary rebel groups, and some just serve themselves. And for every cop who works for an ulterior motive, there's some poor guy whose entire job is filling out paperwork and fighting with idiot sov cits.

"De Caelo" is the what non-Eleutherians get on their paperwork in the place where the caste name should be. It literally means "from heaven" because it most often refers to people from other planets (usually Mars.) Eleutheria doesn't get many tourists (because it's kind of a dystopian hellscape) but it does get visiting diplomats, and the "de Caelo" classification is just a way of saying "no, they don't have a caste; they aren't from here."

Miles (pronounced mee-lays) are soldiers. Most men fall into this category because Eleutheria has compulsory military service. The military has its own ranking system, which is kind of impossible to memorize because it's so needlessly complicated—some of it is meritocratic like a traditional military structure (i.e. you get promoted if you do a good job), but most of it is just based on what you were born as, and it all uses random letters instead of fancy Latin names. The random categories are intended to confuse enemies so they won't intentionally target higher-ranking men—the idea is that they wouldn't single out a TB soldier over a DX soldier, because their names don't indicate how important they are. Of course, different categories have different uniforms and appearances, so the whole "random alphabet soup letter" names are functionally useless.

Examples: Ace, T (or AX-C240 and TB-2115, respectively.)

Luminosa is the title given to the founders of Eleutheria and other historically important people. It means "enlightened," and it's the highest honor an Eleutherian can ever hope to get. It's virtually impossible to receive this title—even Alestra didn't dare award it to herself. Less than fifty people have ever been called "Luminosa," and it's almost always awarded posthumously. Luminosae aren't considered a part of the caste system because they're theoretically above it—everyone on the planet would bow down to them, even the Ciphers themselves.

Examples: Katherine Amelia Davis, better known as Katerina Aurelia Luminosa (the woman Acidalia's coronation oath references, and ostensibly her ancestor.)

#lore #d e e p e s t l o r e #wren has too much time on her hands #worldbuilding #caste system #eleutheria #terra #solis #eurekaproject

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missingmorethanmyskull-arch-blog · 7 years

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Lycoris Radiata

Word count: 1005 Characters: Arum (Horrorfell Sans) and Lycor (Horrorfell Alphys) Trigger warnings: suicide Songs: -Drops of Jupiter - Train -Feathery Wings - Voltaire

- - - - -

Tell me did you sail across the sun Did you make it to the Milky Way to see the lights all faded And that heaven is overrated Tell me, did you fall from a shooting star One without a permanent scar And did you miss me while you were looking for yourself out there

- - - - -

It was not love at first sight, but it was like at first sight. An instant bond, simply due to their shared interest. Peeking at each other over their respective textbooks, far above the level children their age should’ve been able to understand, they would blush at the same time and duck back down behind the cover of studying. When courage was worked up, it was the musing of theories that spilled from their lips, emphatic nodding more often the response than not. Afraid to disagree with each other, until more courage was gained. Hesitant criticisms, hastily agreed to. Over the years, debates became a delightful pastime. When puberty hit, a natural progression was made. Hand holding. Soft, quick kisses. Hesitant touches exploring.

He had been so focused on finding his father ever since he had disappeared. It was almost everything he could think about. Everything else was hardly given the time of day. Except her. She was given at least a few days of the week, all of his attention when he could bear to tear himself away from his work. And though he daren’t tell her his secret – a father gone from everyone’s memories, a project hidden under the basement – he asked for advice often, shared other ideas, sought comfort. It was all given freely. She was born to give herself to causes. Science was one. He was the other. It was endearing, and very appreciated. He reciprocated, of course, offering his shoulder, his advice, his encouragement, his arms. She wasn’t very confident in her abilities, a fact that always shocked him.

The DT experiments might have been something of a failure, but there was salvageable information. Moral reasoning behind it that he could remind her of when the guilt became too much. Still, she was distant after that. It was never the same. Touches, rambles, and collaborations fizzled out. When she suggested going their separate ways, he accepted it. Agreed with it, even, thinking it was for the best if it helped her. Went home. Went to the basement lab. Tried not to cry. Worked some more on his father’s machine. Slept on the ground.

Nothing to distract him now, nothing to keep him from his work. His brother, long grown independent and resentful, did not disturb him much. He spent minimal time checking in on her. Spent minimal time outside his lab. Laser focus ran in the family, and so did somehow finding comfortable positions on the flat tiled floor. But like her, his efforts always seemed just out of reach. There, in front of him, and yet far away.

If there was anything he had, it was time. Yet still not enough for this.

Then the human fell and everything changed. It was possible he might’ve loved that human too. Not that he would admit it. Perhaps there was something about that human that reminded him of her. The drive to do good, despite the struggle. The smile that made their gloomy world seem a bit brighter. He didn’t trust the human, didn’t let them too close. But it was possible he loved them. Right up to the moment they took away everything. The plan, the king, the souls, the hope that flowed through all of them. Especially her.

He couldn’t understand how she could place all of the blame on herself. How she could let the guilt eat away at her like that. The failed experiments were one thing. The whims of a heartless human was another thing entirely. It hadn’t even occurred to him that she might feel she played a part. They had all been tricked. They had all wanted to believe in good. Perhaps she was doomed from the start, with her gentle soul in this kill or be killed world. Perhaps it was just a matter of time until the universe crushed her. Perhaps he should’ve tried harder to keep in touch.

He was not there for it. Did not have to witness her clawed toes slipping over the edge of the waterfall, thick tail the last thing visible on her as she plummeted into the abyss below. Did not have to hear any apologies, see any tears, or reach for her falling body only to have it be just out of reach. He only knew of it after the fact, stiffly informed of it by her robot. Only had to fall to his knees and imagine it himself, a hundred different ways she might have done it. Was it an honest to god leap headlong? Was it a small jump? Was it a tentative step? Was it just a lean forward, until there was no way to lean back? Did she hesitate? Did she regret it as soon as it was done? Could he have prevented it?

What if he had confided in her about his father? What if he had stopped the initial experiment? What if he had found a way to reverse the damage once it was done? What if he had not agreed to break it off? What if he had taken her by the shoulders and screamed how she was doing her best, how sometimes things happened the way you didn’t want them to, how at least she had not had any ill intentions like plenty of other people around them. What if he had kept in touch? What if he had insisted upon more collaborations? What if he had stopped the human? What if he had gone to her after the human left them there to rot? What if he had begged her to take him back? What if he had accompanied her to the dump because he’d seen her staring into the abyss plenty of times before? What if he had jumped after her?

The only thing he could do was to hope that time and a face just as sweet would heal his broken soul. That in time it might stop hurting.

If there was anything he had, it was time. Yet still not enough for this.

- - - - -

You're gone from here Don't leave from here Don't leave me here I hate it here You're gone from here Don't leave me here I need you here I need to see you smile

#my art #my writing #its just chicken scratch (drabbles)#its just how i am now (headcanons)#death flower (lycor)#when my mind was clear (arum backstory)#tw: suicide

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notstatschat · 7 years

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Haere mai, statistical computing folks.

Later this year, Auckland is hosting the Asian regional meeting of the International Association for Statistical Computing. For the benefit of conference-goers, here’s a brief introduction to the locale.

Nomenclature:

The Owen G. Glenn Building (OGGB, or building 260, in university abbreviations) is named after Owen G. Glenn. He’s a New Zealand businessman and philanthropist.

Auckland is named after George Eden. The subantarctic Auckland Islands were not named after George but after his father William Eden.

New Zealand is named after the Dutch province of Zeeland; the lack of resemblance is quite striking.

Formally,(Actually It’s more complicated) the country is Aotearoa New Zealand, with Māori and English names of equal status. The city has a Māori name, Tāmaki Makaurau, but its primary name is the English one.

The Māori language (te reo Māori) is fairly easy to pronounce roughly right. The consonants are the same as in Western European languages (or pinyin), except that ‘wh’ is pronounced /f/. The vowels are pure, as in Spanish or German or Italian. The bars above vowels mean they are about twice as long. There isn’t strong stress on any syllable.

People over 30 who grew up in a place with a Māori name may well use an older, anglicised pronounciation for it, but there’s been a trend away from that. In particular, weather forecasts and airport announcements will typically use something relatively close to the Māori pronounciation.

Mountains

Auckland is full of little pointy hills that look like baby volcanoes. They are baby volcanoes. One of them, Maungawhau/Mt Eden is data(volcano) in R. Every few thousand years, a new one pops up at some unpredictable location in the Auckland area, erupts briefly, and then stops. There’s only a few of these volcano fields around the world — another is the (extinct) Boring Volcano Field in Portland, Oregon. The Auckland one is still active and so is less boring.

The most recent and largest volcano, Rangitoto, is just outside the Waitemata Harbour. There are ferry rides a few times a day, and it’s a nice walk to the top. Parts of Rangitoto are still bare rock, parts are pohutukawa forest, and there’s some areas on the south side that have developed proper soil and a variety of plants.

Auckland Domain, just across the motorway from the conference, is the crater of the closest volcano; Mt Eden is a short bus ride away.

Peoples

New Zealand was the last worthwhile land mass to be settled — about 800 years ago, by Polynesians in big ocean-going canoes. You occasionally see people raising alt-theories of earlier settlement by, eg, Celts, but there’s scientific consensus and fairly wide social endorsement for the view that these people are probably racist whackjobs.

The British arrived in increasing numbers in the early nineteenth century, with the usual consequences — though the Treaty of Waitangi was somewhat more successful than most attempts to negotiate with the British. Recently, the NZ government has settled treaty claims with many iwi (tribes, clans).

At the start of the twentieth century, about one in four residents of New Zealand was an immigrant. The proportion decreased to a minimum of about one in six in the 1940s and has been slowly increasing again. What’s different this time is where the immigrants are from: many are from the Pacific Islands and from Asia. Auckland, in particular, has about 40% immigrant proportion, similar to New York and London. The increase in diversity has gone reasonably well by international standards, but there are certainly some people who aren’t happy with things being different from fifty years ago.

Plants

The trees with dense, gray-green leaves are pohutukawa. Some of them might be flowering by the time of the conference. Stylised versions of the red spiky puffs of flowers are starting to displace winter-based symbols for Christmas in Auckland. You’ll probably hear people worrying about myrtle rust, a South American fungus that has recently arrived; no-one knows how much damage it will do.

Many of the conifers you see are native: rīmu, tōtara, kauri, kahikatea (native plants are typically known by their Māori names). The things like enormous fake Christmas trees are Araucarias; not native but regional — A. heterophylla, ‘Norfolk Pine’ from Norfolk Island and A. columnaris, ‘Cook Pine’, from New Caledonia. There are also two conifers from the Monterey area of California: “radiata” (Pinus radiata) and “macrocarpa” (Cupressus macrocarpa). They grow much more vigorously here.

The Dr Seuss trees looking like bunches of grass on top of tall trunks are Cabbage Trees (Cordyline australis). The name comes from the edibility of the new stem and the roots, rather than their appearance.

Tree ferns are native; the Waitakere hills to the west of Auckland are packed full of them. They’re culturally important: the major women’s professional sports teams are named after them, and the unfolding fern frond (the ‘koru’) is a widely-used symbol of growth.

Kauri are massively huge living-fossil conifers that used to be common in Auckland and points north. Sadly, a lot of the nearby ones were turned into houses, and they grow slowly. Some of the ones on the west side of Northland (day-trip distance) are almost as big as redwoods (Sequoiadendron).

New Zealand Flax is known and loved and/or hated by gardeners around the warm temperate world. It was a traditional fibre source, and the nectar was used as a sweetener. It’s not related to the `true’ flax of the northern hemisphere; it’s a lily.

Birds

New Zealand is famous for its weird native birds. The ones you see around you in Auckland mostly aren’t them. You can easily see a lot of stupidly-introduced English birds: sparrow, starling, pigeon, blackbird, thrush, chaffinch, goldfinch. The cute urban parrots are Australian, as are the magpies and the tiny green silvereyes. The leggy blue and black pūkeko are ‘courtesy natives’ — they arrived before Europeans but after Māori — but they are the same species as the ones all over Europe and Asia. The large black gulls actually are a native species, but the differences would only matter to another gull.

You might, in the parks near the University, see the kererū, the big native pigeon. It’s about twice the size of the feral pigeons, and colored purple, green, and white. There’s a few fantails (pīwakawaka) around, which are very cute.

There’s one common, distinctive, native bird. If you walk past a tree that sounds as if it’s full of old 28k dial-up modems, you have met the tūī. They’re about the size of a blackbird, with a puff of white feathers at the throat, and they’re boisterous, musical, and give the impression of being slightly drunk.

If you want to see more native birds, the day trip to Tiritiri Maitangi Island is highly recommended. You still won’t see kiwi (they are brown, shy, and nocturnal, so are essentially unobservable) but you will likely see saddlebacks and kākāriki and black robins and hihi and bellbirds and kēreru and maybe kōkako and takahē.

Death Rays from Space (update)

Auckland has a relatively mild climate, since it’s surrounded by water, but we’re the same distance from the equator as Las Vegas or the Greek islands. There’s also less continental dust in the atmosphere here than a lot of places. It is surprisingly easy to get badly sunburned.

Foods

The best-value inexpensive food in central Auckland is in Asian restaurants, and particularly in Asian food courts. Non-foodcourt examples especially worth mentioning are Selera (Malaysian, in Newmarket) and Chom Na (Thai, downtown). Another inexpensive option is fish and chips, which is as good here as anywhere in the world: it’s worth paying extra for snapper if it’s fresh. A lot of pubs also have reasonable food.

The best Indian food is in Sandringham, about 6km south, but there are some good places at the top of the hill, along K Rd (Satya, in particular)

Mexican food is not recommended: it tends to be either bad or expensive. Pizza mostly isn’t great (with a few exceptions). Otherwise, any restaurant that can survive in Auckland is unlikely to be terrible.

At the higher priced end of the market, there are a number of good restaurants on Fort St. Ima does family-style Israeli food very well. Indochine Kitchen is Vietnamese, a bit noisy but good flavours. Beirut is posh Lebanese. Cassia is modern Indian food and was the Restaurant of the Year last year. There are lots of well-regarded places in Ponsonby that I don’t know much about.

At the top: for high-end French-style food, The Grove is really excellent; I’ve heard good things about The French Café, but have never been there; Grand Harbour does Hong Kong-style seafood and is by acclaim the best Chinese restaurant in the country, but I’m not really qualified to judge whether it’s worth it. The revolving restaurant on the SkyTower is expensive because it revolves; unlike some revolving restaurants it does actually have good food.

Finally, Giapo, on Fort St, does absolutely over-the-top decorated locavore gelato. You have never seen anything like it.

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