#theyre so pretty and dreamlike

[espytalks]

Watchin ghibli movies for the first time as an adult is like asking me to experience the most magical, relaxing dream of my life, and expecting me to move on with my day like it never happened.

[autoexsanguine]

what are the major factions in Eyecandy's setting? are there any important-but-small factions? which factions will be in focus, narratively?

absolute shambling ramble below the cut!

The largest faction in the setting is definitely the Dragoon Navy - the godslaying navy we've mentioned in the captions of our drawings we've been doing! They're essentially a nation-sized navy of airships formed to kill the godlike monsters that show up every few decades, now with 600 years of history behind them. The long gaps between Leviathans actually showing up leaves a lot of time where they still need to somehow support themselves, so 85% of the time theyre seen as essentially a pirate navy hoarding the technological secrets that make their ships actually work. The Admiral Bloodied Dove has also, on a few occasions, used the navy to intervene militarily against the nation-states forming groundside.

While they use naval ranks, Captains are elected from among the crews annually. Technically, Captains can then vote amongst themselves to elect a new Admiral, but running against an immortal that half of your weird paramilitary sees as a saint doesn't tend to appeal to many.

Other than them, theres various nation-states which… we dont have much to say about. They're all fairly small (think princedoms in the HRE.) because of the nature of the setting - reality is only stable enough to do things like Build Cities in small pockets, surrounded by a morass of dreamlike uncertainty. The narrative mostly unfolds between three of these nations, with their tensions simmering in the background: Illrd, Stacks, and Vermillion.

With that said, there are several nomadic groups who live out there in the fog, the Covens! Their direct involvement in the narrative is limited (though one of our protagonists comes from the covens), but their actions come up a lot - living in the mists outside of the established nations, the covens are the ones who are able to chart and map the dreamlike demi-reality enough to find spots where it can be Forced into a shape enough to run railroads and such.

The actual story is on a pretty personal scale, so national/factional conflict mostly forms the backdrop to the core narrative, rather than being a particular focus? We do have some really disorganized docs with things like railroad companies and unions and which covens mostly deal with the cities where the characters live, but thats mostly for us to keep names and dates and such straight, and probably not an interesting read even if we did rewrite them to be halfway comprehensible, ehe.

[nonbinary-sticks-the-badger]

ummm errr heres my NiGHTS playlist

tbf its just meant to be songs that feel magical and NiGHTS was the best character i thought i could assign to a playlist of that theme but whatever. explanations under cut

1. Gate of Your Dream SEGA SOUND TEAM

hurrrr hurrr NiGHTS into dreams song fits NiGHTS' character

2. Peaceful Moment SEGA SOUND TEAM

yeah this is pretty magic and from NiGHTS hurrrr

3. Fragmented Nights SEGA SOUND TEAM

guess the explanation

4. Introduced Dream SEGA SOUND TEAM

hmmmmmmmmm

5. Paternal Horn SEGA SOUND TEAM

ummmm

6. After The Dream SEGA SOUND TEAM

see 1 - 5

7. Star Light Zone Masato Nakamura

THE STAGE TAKES PLACE WITH STARS IN THE NIGHT SKY!!! LIKE NiGHTS!!! AND ALSO IS SONIC TEAM!!!

8. Special Stage (Sonic 1) Masato Nakamura

mysterious and surreal... some may say dreamlike... and also sonic team

9. Duel in Dream SEGA SOUND TEAM

like the first one but instead of NiGHTS into dreams its journey of dreams

10. Peaceful Moment SEGA SOUND TEAM

if i include the NiD version i may as well include the JoD version. i didnt do this with gate of your dream because the JoD version sounds so bad

11. Merry Memory Go Round SEGA SOUND TEAM

this is getting exhausting

12. Eloquent Echo: River Rescue SEGA SOUND TEAM

do you hear the flibberty jibberty jibber jabber with an 'oh my god ive gotta get out of here or ill have another word to sell another story to tell another time piece ringing the bell' do you hear the clocks stop when you reach the end no you know it must be neverending comprehend if you can but when you try to pretend to understand you resemble a fool although youre only a man so give it up and smile

13. Dreams Dreams - Located Link Mix (Instrumental) SEGA SOUND TEAM

see 9 - 12

14. Collision Chaos - "G" Mix SEGA SOUND TEAM

yeah this feels like NiGHTS

15. Tidal Tempest - "G" Mix SEGA SOUND TEAM

these are also obviously sonic team, yeah, you get it

16. Zone Clear SEGA SOUND TEAM

TELEPORTATION YEAH! ZIBITTY BUP-BUP!

17. Sky Chase Zone Masato Nakamura

i think you get the point

18. Special Stage (Sonic 2) - Demo Masato Nakamura

i recently got into the sonic 1&2 demos. some of them are bangers, such as this one

19. Special Stage (Sonic 1) - Demo Masato Nakamura

see above, with the additional bonus of me adding the mega drive version before

20. Vanilla Jack Stauber

FINALLY!!! FINALLY!!! A SONG I CAN ACTUALLY EXPLAIN BECAUSE IT ISNT NiGHTS OR SONIC!!!

and i just realised its instrumental. great. if it helps, its sort of like a lullaby.

21. dancing around in circles until my little feet fall off spellcasting

WOOHOO!!! SILLY CLOWN MUSIC!!! LIKE NiGHTS!!!!

22. Dream Sweet in Sea Major Miracle Musical

alooooooooooone

i think less about the lyrics and more about the fact this sounds vaguely magic and a little christmassy (because, yk, christmas NiD)???

23. A Lady Tally Hall

idk its kinda calm ig. if you ignore the 'lady' bit (although NiGHTS probably wouldnt mind being called that) i suppose you could say theyre good and evil? idk

24. 13 Tally Hall

i probably should have added ruler of everything afterwards but idk why i feel i shouldnt

25. Spring Yard Zone Masato Nakamura

this is my favourite stage in sonic 1!!! so much so that i made up loads of lore about it having homes just so that i could make an oc be from there!!! anyway yeah the usual. its sonic team. sounds vaguely magical.

26. Temptation Stairway (Waltz Variation) Metaroom

when i got into ena temptation stairway was the latest episode, or really anything to do with ena. maybe the first teaser for dream bbq was out??? before we knew it was a game??? idk. point is, ena is absolutely bafflingly surreal, and i could sort of imagine this in a NiGHTS game. sonic team please contact metaroom for any future NiGHTS projects please please please 🙏🙏🙏

27. Fancam RYL0, Aron Enoch

the lyrics dont fit even slightly ���️ but it sounds cute

28. Theme of "CHAO" SEGA SOUND TEAM

this is such a silly happy song from a game that references NiGHTS! also ive literally gone bankrupt from buying stuff in the chao garden black market in sadx lol

29. Isle Unto Thyself Miracle Musical

to me, this DEFINITELY fits the magical theme, as well as the sensation of flying. i have absolutely no idea what any of the lyrics mean.

30. Black Rainbows Miracle Musical

it also feels kinda magical and follows isle unto thyself

31. White Ball Miracle Musical

see above only less because it feels magical and more because it follows black rainbows. i didnt add murders because that's definitely a stretch to say it fits NiGHTS

[gokartkid]

the part in the pacific rim au where daniel experiences max’s nightmare/trauma about his family

omg pacrim!!!

its a bit long so under the cut lol

“Neural handshake, initiated.”

The robotic voice is the last thing he hears before it feels like his brain is being sucked out of his skull, thrown backwards into the blue haze of the Headspace. [in pacrim the transition into the headspace is always rlly funny their faces look like theyre sucked inwards so just wanted to write that feeling] He spins through images, his own memories, squeals of children running through feels, his mother’s voice saying something muffled, his own pealing laughter. [wanted the feel of smashcut movie-isms here]

Already, it feels better than before, his vision clear when Daniel opens his eyes and looks around.

He’s standing in a room, darkened by nightfall. He can hear a faint sobbing noise, coming from somewhere, a darkened closet. [scene setting, wanted it to be pretty dreamlike. like, there are only specific details that daniel is catching. fuck the rest of the room lol.]

When Daniel looks to his right, in the real world, vision double-layered, he can see Max frozen looking into the distance.

“Max,” he shouts, voice echoing back in the dream and the pod, “Max, snap out of it.”

He’s unresponsive. 

Daniel walks carefully through the room in the Headspace. There’s another, hitching cry and he opens the door of the wardrobe to see a boy, clutching at a blanket and sobbing, round red cheeks and a scrap of pale blond hair. [hes a little guy 😭 the littlest guy]

“Mama!” He’s sobbing, tears coming too quickly for him to be able to see, soaking into the collar of his shirt, down his neck. Daniel watches as he wipes them away, futile, little chubby hands digging fists into his eyes. [that feeling kids get when they are literally overwhelmed by tears. no self soothing skills. hes been crying for so long his shirt is wet...]

“Hey, hey, Max.” Daniel drops to his knees and starts shushing him, like he did his nieces and nephews at home. [uncle daniel feature! also... lightly touching on like. he never gets to see the kids but he always is thinking about them...] “Hey, come on.” 

He lets him fall forward into his chest, little fists clutching at the grooves in his armour. [the contrast between his child hands, and the harsh lines of daniels armour-- the reminder he is here for a purpose]

“Shh, that’s alright, shh,” he murmurs. Daniel feels little-Max tense as the muffled sound of shouting comes from another room, distant in the house. Looking around, he’s starting to get an idea of where he is. [creeping suspicions, WHY hes upset, but daniel still doesn't want to assume anything. all he cares about is that max is upset, and theres danger]

“This isn’t real Max.” 

The best way to wake someone up from a drift-nightmare is to tell them, calmly. That’s what Sebastian had told him. [rlly wanted to emphasise the way seb was a mentor for him and even in their short time together they rlly connected. daniel saying 'thats my friend' abt him driving past 😭]

“Calm and collected, you don’t want to scare them more,” He’d said, gesturing into the air, “but you have to wake them up, quickly. Otherwise things can go very wrong. You just have to keep telling them until you can continue the handshake.”

It’s hard to not feel nervous though, when you’re confronted with the maybe 5 year old version of your teammate.

“I want my Mama,” he says tearfully into Daniel’s chest. There’s more shouting, a crash from somewhere, all muffled like the soundwaves are travelling through water.

“Yeah, yeah buddy,” Daniel nods, pats at his head and down his back. “It’s alright. This isn’t real, you just have to wake up, alright?” 

“It is real.” Even as Max says it he seems to come back to himself, slowly, “my mama and my sister, they’re sad and I’m going to have to go away-“ [max's brain is going between being a kid and being himself, adult max, and so its like moments of illogical logic... still the thoughts of a kid but able to deliver it more and more like an adult, and he knows whats going on too that this isn't real]

He wails and Daniel bites back a curse, just puts his hands on his shoulders, smooths them down. 

“I’m sorry Max but this isn’t real. You have to wake up, and then everything will be fine.” 

He casts about for things to say and settles on- [daniel's child comforting skills/child rearing skills in videos are... um... i was rlly thinking about that one where he's just laughing at his nephew falling over lol so hes obviously feeling a bit ?!?!?! here]

“Come on, okay, just breathe with me, alright? In-“ he sucks in a deep breath, watches Max’s cheeks puff up [literally his round cheeks in baby pics] as he struggles to breathe in smoothly, chest hitching with hiccups. “-and out.” An exaggerated ‘whoosh’ out of his mouth that makes him giggle.

“Good job, in, and out.” Daniel moves into the wardrobe, and shuts the door on them, as if to protect them. [again, not talking about what is happening. they dont need to talk about whats happening. the only thing is max feeling more okay!] They repeat that, and then Daniel starts to feel the telltale tug in the bottom of his stomach that they were leaping through again, Max’s face going funny.

He gives his small, chubby hands [BABY MAX. AGAIN.] a squeeze before-

ask me for directors commentary!

[kangtaebins]

I literally did an artist rebrand for TXT for my digital media class (I did a narcissus album concept called The Lost Chapter: ECHO) and while they aren’t doing a Greek concept they ARE doing the hazy, dreamlike, fairytale aesthetic and color palette that I also wanted my rebrand to have so I’m like, THRIVING rn ‘cause THIS IS WHAT I HAVE BEEN ROOTING FOOOORRRRRR

ITS ACTUALLY SO PRETTY IM LIKE OMFG

I saw the photos the second I woke up and my jaw just dropped immediately bc wTF THEYRE CRAZY

[tricewithaz]

Do you have any Zoya and Nikolai wedding headcannons I would really appreciate it

*screams* I DO I ABSOLUTELY DO

listen none of that bullshit of an ✨intimate wedding✨ they go ALL OUT its HUGE and theres a lot of food and a big ball and everything

Both of them wear white. Nikolai wears a typically russian kaftan with golden details and big sleeves, and also a sword cause decorative swords are my shit. He also has a crown that falls on his forehead its pretty and it makes his eyes shine.

And she wears an off the shoulder gown, with a sweetheart neckline and a princess cut with big skirt. It also has big long sleeves. She wears a big tiara too with beads that frame her face and fall onto her neck.

The wedding has reporters and photographers and all like, its that big. i mean irs the king of ravka getting married i guess it makes sense.

Everything is decorated in white blue and gold, with delphiniums and jasmine, the place smells so fresh and summery

Oh its a spring wedding. They have it at the palace cause fuck institutionalized religion idc. And its on a very sunny and fresh day 😌

He just!!! cant!!! stop!!!! smiling!!!! And everyone notices it. In fact him being so smily gets into most reports cause its dashing.

They hold candles during the ceremony (yes i did look up russian wedding traditions for this hi i didnt include all but i did add some) and the way it illuminates zoyas face..... saint like i say sAINT LIKE

her eyes look so bright (ah yes the esrrings.... they make it even better) nikolai cant help but spurt out a "im dying to kiss you" to which the officiant asks him to "be patient, boy! ".... this also makes it into newspapers and cronicles.

And when they kiss its so cute too cause theyre both so impatient for it, afterthe first kiss nikolai kisses zoya all over her face and shes so smiley and all

im thinking that decades after some of the most emblematic historic pictures from Nikolis reign are him and zoya kissing and zoya signing the marriage ceritifcate with him smiling behind her, as well as zoya feeding him cake with a knife

Their first dance!! its a rather animated dance he twirls her around and lifts her up and all and its full of cheers

He also dances with pretty much all of his girlfriends, genya first. And with some little girls too. And with his mom of course.

They cut the cake together and zoya feeds him a bit of it on the same knife and he gets all messy cause i mean look its difficult to est a whole piece of cake from a knife. And he kisses her after and she gets cake all over herself too but its ok cause it tastes good. She picks a bit of cake from the corner of his lip and eats it.

The party gets.... intense okay..... very much so.... lots of stories to tell...... not all are child friendly.... theres also fire

Everyone gets tipsy. Drunk Genya is a delight she dances around a lot, with everyone, like, generals, commanders, nobles, and she compliments them all and fixes their hair and is very chatty

Of course she lets embarrassing stories about nikolai and zoya slip out "no colonel you dont understand i used to erase love bites from the kings chest back in the day" "well miss petrova the new queen seems uptight but ive seen her breasts probably more than anyone else in this room has, shes just like that with a couple of drinks on her, unlike me" "i know the king seems brave but if you put a spider in front of him hell scream like a 5 year old trust me ive seen it myself"

Tamar also talks a lot about their endeavors some of which shes included in. The kids seem fascinated by her and admire the king and new queen even more than before.

Young girls chat about how they wish they were the queen right now cause everything is so dreamlike and they seem so in love.

Nikolai eyes leoni and adrik cause adrik has gotten a bit drunk and hes reALLY trying to dance with leoni and shes just laughing and "oh saints they kiss" both he and zoya feel so proud of them

a couple of drinks in zoya steals sweets from everyone 😔 she feeds a couple to nikolai too

At some point nikolai and zoya just disappear 😶 but the party continues and it gets even crazier

But Nikolai and zoya share one last dance far from the party surrounded by flowers and a chilly breeze. At this point her shoes are off and shes holding her crown in her arm, she rests her head on nikolais chest and his heart is pOUnding. She cant quite believe this isnt a dream.

And she tries on his crown 👁 it looks weirdly good

Oooh she also keeps her last name. Welcome to the Lantsov-Nazyalensky dynasty?

Now that shes officially a queen she jokingly orders nikolai and the triumvirate around, starting at the wedding "tamar as your queen i order you to bring me more champaigne" "david im signing a law right now for you to cut your hair every month"

he does it to nikolai too the next morning while still in bed shes like nikolai as your queen i order you to bring me a tea and bath salts will ya and hes like ok but as your king i order you to give me a kiss 😌

The next day everyone is reading the cronicles of the wedding like its the most engaging romance novel ever cause its just!!!! so cute!!!! Theyre thE STANDARD

[greeds]

fucking god..... throughout the entire show theyre all like “oh we arent exactly a family we just come and go as we please and we dont love each other” etc and like maybe the viewer would believe it bc domestic scenes/moments are sadly pretty sparse and they dont really show their affection much (im gonna definitely be more focused on it on my rewatch) but then ed ein and faye leave and its just jet and spike....... after 3 years of being this messy found family, theyre on their own again. the egg dinner scene that follows is so quiet and joyless compared to how it usually is with faye ed and ein... i come from a loud and rowdy family so i know that silence, the way the house feels empty when just one person is missing from the dinner table; the contrast in energy is heartbreaking. in the next episode jets like i see now why you hate kids and women bc ed and faye caused us sm trouble, but spike doesnt say anything to agree or disagree. theyre both trying and failing to cope with the loss of half the family in one day. spike calls faye like where the hell are u, hes basically expecting her to come back bc of course they always come back even when theyve been out for a while and faye is thrown by that bc she never once has felt like she belonged anywhere since waking up from cryosleep with no memory of her past. shes stubborn as hell so she tells spike to fuck off and yet she still finds herself back at the bebop in the end. she opens up and tells spike the ship and him and jet are the only thing she can return to now, bc its her home!!!!! its their home!!! and spike opens up too and he confesses to his dreamlike grieving state and how he literally has not moved on or healed like at all since faking his death all those years ago. it makes me want to cry how emotionally closed off this entire crew is. all that time spent together and for what?? even after they share their fear and their pain with each other, nothing changes. spike leaves faye and jet to grieve in separate rooms of the ship, choosing the stasis of his past over his family, and they dont try to stop him. why is it so hard for this crew to admit their love for each other!!! why!!!!!! how can you spend three years together, eat and fight together, and resist the natural healing process i just dont understand!!!!! they put all their energy into pretending they didnt care about each other bc they were so afraid of losing ppl they cared about again......

[angrylizardjacket]

avoiding the winter sky

A/N: 1374 words. it’s me, back again with a All The Queen’s Men ‘verse mini fic that makes me feel that Riz Ahmed ‘im sad’ picture. anyways..... im sad.

[And All The Queen’s Men ‘verse Masterpost]

September, 1991.

“Mornin’ ‘Zelle.” Jim opens the door for her, giving her a smile and a hug in greeting, she’s got a stack of paperwork in one hand and tupperware contained full of cookies in the other, and she offered him one.

“Rog and Lilith made them yesterday, they’re good, though the kitchen may never recover.” The cookies are chocolate chip, and he takes one with a quiet laugh and thanks, leading her through the house to where she could hear the sizzle of something cooking, and Freddie humming cheerfully. “He sounds bright.”

“Yeah, he’s very cheery today; always looks forward to seeing you.” There’s a smile in Jim’s words that Gizelle can hear without even seeing his face, and when they enter the kitchen, Freddie’s positively beaming at them.

“I think we should go on vacation.” He says, in lieu of a greeting, sitting at the kitchen table chopping onions, his eyes watering just a little. Giselle laughs lightly, swanning over to him to press a kiss to his cheek and put her papers on the table.

“And what makes you say that?” She asks, and he resumes his work as she put her folder down on the table. It’s tradition, they have lunch together on Thursdays, Giselle brings some of her cases with her to look over, or sometimes they watch a movie or play board games, but usually they just end up talking, about everything and nothing, distracting themselves from how tired Freddie is, and the marks that keep appearing on his skin.

“I want to go somewhere warm, everything’s so dreary around here.” And he wasn’t wrong; even though it was only the start of Autumn, the sky was grey more often than it was blue nowadays. “I want an adventure, I miss our adventures.” Once he was finished with the onions, he passed them off to Jim, who was quietly cooking over by the stove, smiling to himself.

“We could go on a pub crawl; see all the bands London has to offer in one night like we used to.” Giselle offers, something in her chest tightening as Freddie’s expression brightens.

“Oh yes, I love a good chance to dress up in disguise.” His eyes shine with amusement at the idea, reminiscing fondly about their old haunt at the edge of town where they used to head when they wanted to remember their roots.

“I could wear a wig and put on a fake nose!” Giselle grinned, getting up and moving around the kitchen with practiced ease, pouring all three of them a glass of orange juice.

“So could I!” Freddie enthused, his smile only brightening as Jim chuckled.

“I think you should both invest in a bright pink bob, very subtle.” He added, thanking Giselle again as she pulled out three plates, smiling at his husband’s obvious delight at the suggestion.

“Oh, we should tour together again! A reunion tour, a new and beautifully bright wig every night!” And Freddie leaned back in his chair, watching with an endearing smile as two of his favourite people finished plating up lunch. The serenity only lasted a minute before he was overcome with a violent coughing fit, and Giselle was by his side as Jim fetched him a glass of water. “Perhaps a tour isn’t for me right now.” He mused, a small, self-deprecating smile on his face as he accepted the drink and hummed with contentment when Jim kissed the top of his head, before heading back to the kitchen.

“What if I go on tour, and you come along as my main backup dancer who sings when he’s not coughing his lungs up?” Giselle offered, and there was something grateful in Freddie’s gaze that she tried not to dwell on.

“And if I do start coughing my lungs up on stage?” He asks with a raised eyebrow, Giselle waves him off.

“It’s interpretive dance; kids these days love that sort of stuff.” She half laughed, and Freddie chuckled.

“Touring’s such hard work though, darling, I don’t want to be dragging dear Jim halfway across America.” He mused, gaze sliding to fix the man in question with a fond smile, which, when he looked up from pushing eggs onto the final plate, Jim returned in kind.

“You think you’ll be dragging me along? Dear, I’ll be right there beside you, whether you like it or not.” He informed them, matter-of-factly, bringing two plates over to the table, before getting the third, all three plates stacked with neatly arranged eggs, bacon, sausages, and cooked onions, along with a slice of toast.

“Well lucky for you, I love it.” Freddie grinned at him, tucking into brunch with Giselle and Jim on either side of him doing the same. “But it is work, touring, I don’t think I have it in me, can’t we just go somewhere nice and warm? I’d love to lie on the beach somewhere.” He mused, and Giselle grinned.

“And which beach would you prefer?” She asked, as if she were already making plans, taking a large bite of her egg on toast.

“Oh, you two pick, I could never decide, I’ve seen too many beautiful beaches to have a favourite.” Freddie grinned, and they sank into silence, all contemplative.

“I haven’t seen nearly as many beaches as you two have.” Jim said, quietly, though he didn’t seem unhappy about it, just thoughtful. Without hesitation, he reaches out, taking Jim’s hand across the table.

“Then we don’t have to pick, we’ll see them all.” Freddie announced firmly, giving Jim’s hand a squeeze.

“All of them?” Giselle asks, eyebrows raised, and Freddie turns back to her with a bright and toothy smile.

“All of best, all over the world; we’ll start with Australia, right after Christmas I’ll fly us there, a holiday present! We can bask in the sun while it’s snowing here in dreary England, how does that sound?” He’s lost in his own world, eyes glazed over as he sits on the edge of his seat, food all but forgotten in front of him; he can see the scene before him, can practically feel the sun on his skin.

“Sounds lovely, Freds.” Giselle said, quiet and kind. “I think we could all use a holiday from this city.” She agreed. “We could visit some friends, oh,” eyes lighting up, Giselle reached out to take Freddie’s other hand, “I know it’s not a beach, but Jim has to see Venice, we could visit in the middle months where no-where’s really right for beaches, we could visit Elton’s little place up there.”

“That does sound pretty nice.” Jim agreed. “I mean, a world tour without the actual tour bit? I think I could handle that; what do you think, Freddie?” And finally, hearing Jim’s voice, Freddie feels his fantasy slipping away, and all he can do is smile.

“Sounds perfectly wonderful, exactly what we need.” And there’s almost a dreamlike quality to his voice, which vanishes once he spots his food going cold before him. “We should eat up, I wouldn’t want to let your cooking go to waste.” And he smiles at Jim, taking back his hands from his companions to keep eating, but Giselle just smiles softly at him.

“I’d follow you to the ends of the Earth if you asked me to.” She tells him, surprisingly serious, and when Freddie looks at her, there’s something a little sad in his eyes as he gives her a fond smile.

“I know, Gizelle.” 

Neither one can bring themselves to say it, but they never get past the planning stages. Their time together over the following months is spent poring over travel magazines, Giselle fills a binder with tourist traps they’re determined to see, and picturesque sunset shots they’re determined to recapture, and she pretends it doesn’t hurt her heart when Freddie’s expression fall and he has to outright skip all the pages with actual booking information.

They plan and they fantasize about cocktails at sunset, and when Freddie’s gone, Gizelle puts the folder in the back of her closet, and can’t bring herself to open it again.

[honeydrippingbeehives]

Film Asks: #10, 21, 47, and 49

Yay, thank you!

10. Favorite movie from your childhood.

Life-Size, Groundhog Day, Cinderella, and The Parent Trap with Lindsay Lohan!

21. An overrated actor.

I liked Call Me By Your Name as much as the next guy, and he was perfectly cast in Sorry To Bother You, but I have a negative visceral reaction anytime I see Armie Hammer in a trailer. I feel like this summarizes my feelings pretty well.

47. Movies that you think everyone should watch (not necessarily your favorites).

If we’re talking recent-ish films that tackle important issues, I’d say Two Days, One Night or 99 Homes. Two Days is both one of the best contemporary working class stories I’ve seen as well as one of the best/most accurate/least sensationalized portrayals of mental illness I’ve seen in a film. 99 Homes is one of maybe two movies I’m aware of addressing the housing crisis during the great recession, and the more personal-is-political of the two. It’s one that really impacted me because my family walked away from our house in 2009, as did many other people, but you never hear anyone discussing that.

On another note, everyone should watch Spice World and learn how to have fun. When I worked at a local arthouse theater a few years ago, we did a midnight screening that was REALLY popular and almost all of my male coworkers were DREADING it. It’s like you legally aren’t allowed to enjoy fun, maybe technically bad but super enjoyable and energetic, movies unless they’re also pumped with testosterone.

49. A book you want to see adapted to the big screen.

A few years ago, Sofia Coppola was signed on to direct an adaptation of The Little Mermaid based more of Hans Christian Andersen’s original story. She would have balanced the darker themes and dreamlike imagery so well, but the project got scrapped and I’m still heartbroken honestly.

[jagaimogoshujinsama]

rambling about shin men and hyu/kan. its long and self indulgent but if ur curious where my brains been at recently here it is

ive been in an out of a couple fandom interests recently, im still following new shin chan episodes closely (and i’ll get back to subbing some eps probably, at some point)...

anyway the past couple weeks i got, weirdly, super into hyu and kan as a ship. even though theres not a TON of content to work off, and also theyre ostensibly a het ship which can turn me off (and did at first, when i first realized kan is a ~secret girl~, in fact i have my reaction in writing

but then i gave shin men more of a chance and rly grew to appreciate all of the characters and.. the thing as a concept, and BOY!! i love kan a lot, like a heck of a lot. and since shes a girl who deliberately takes on a lot of masculine attributes its very easy to read her as genderqueer or transmasculine or even a trans dude straight up - though as a demi...gender?? person myself i like reading her as Soft Transmasc, because projecting onto cute little cartoon ppl is my favorite thing to do

so one of my main questions when i encountered this series was: who came up with this and why? what IS shin-men? this post will be me trying to explain it to myself:

shin-men was a concurrently-running anime AND manga series created in 2010 to celebrate the 20th year anniversary of shin-chan. the anime is obviously more well known, but the manga chapters tell the stories quite a bit differently and provide some more backstory - i own the first two volumes with the third on the way. the anime is awesome because it was seemingly spearheaded by Masaaki Yuasa (the kaiba dude), and as soon as I saw the first episode i assumed Shin-Men was his brainchild from start to finish. i’m not sure EXACTLY how much was his creation, conceptually speaking, but it is true that he finalized designs and a lot of basic concepts for the characters.  (parabon is straight up hyo hyo!)

(from masaaki yuasa’s super huge sketchbook, which runs in the 40-50 dollar range. let me know if you find it cheaper anywhere ill accept a used copy with heavy spaghetti stains)

yuasa boarded the first five episodes of shin-men, and a subsequent 8 episodes were released with different boarders (primarily yuji mutou, who’s been a heavy hitter on shin-chan since 1998). yuasa’s 5 episodes are beautiful - i mean look at this

yuasa always brings an otherworldly, dreamlike quality to whatever story he’s telling. on shin chan he generally seemed to prefer fun AUs and outlandish stories about buriburi zaemon that would allow him to invent colorful new settings and costumes.

that’s what’s so refreshing about shin-men - it’s the first time the show completely abandons its core cast of characters and focuses on NEW ones, in a universe with different rules. except, just kidding, because shinnosuke is still the main character, he’s just red now and called gou. so even while shin-men is TECHNICALLY breaking the fundamental rule of shin-chan - that shin is the main character who is in every single episode no matter what - it’s still abiding by it, and it still feels like shin-chan. that’s not criticism, though - i like the various alt-universe appearances of shin-chan characters in the shin-men universe. my favorite is matsuzaka, who is called “matsuzakaroni”, is STILL a kindergarten teacher even in this very alien universe (and despite the fact that she, i think, hates it?), and most uncannily of all, gets hit on by gou?? also gou is an adult i think, in this universe’s rules, he’s just really short like all of the other shin-men who are also adults?? i mean, i THINK? why does nobody in universe ever seem to mention how tiny these apparent grown-ups ar

anyway i’m not an expert on shin-men. despite my efforts i don’t really understand exactly where it came from or where gou’s ears are

i hope some day someone will create really good english subs of it, though i realize that’ll be a serious effort since yuasa’s episodes ABOUND with onscreen text - fuck, just imagine editing the moving gossip clouds on botswanawana to have english text. how would you even do that.

but i do wanna talk about kan a little and why shes cool thats the topic of this post

kan akaluislar (thats her last name..) is one of the 5 shin-men, superheroes with elemental powers who all look like a 5 year old named shinnosuke nohara from another universe, but don’t think too much about that. kan’s the only one who doesn’t actually have a superpower - she’s the Iron Man of the group, like, literally she’s tony stark, she’s the super wealthy and successful president of a major automobile company and rules the school in her home country, Detahoit. (which is maybe a pun on detroit? i’m not sure what’s up with that name)

anyway in addition to being iron man she’s also Transformers and Fullmetal Alchemist, she’s all three of those guys. she turns into a car a lot and transports her teammates everywhere. she also OWNS a car and drives it around when she’s not being a secret car superhero. is that bitterly tragic, or does kan secretly PREFER to be the car? is that her darkest fantasy? to be a full time car instead of a car-driving ceo? that is my headcanon

kan guards the fact that she’s female from the group, convinced they’d treat her differently. specifically, she’s convinced gou and nyoki would hit on her (confirmed), sui would bitch her out for not having a proper skin care regimen (that’s sui’s big thing, by the way, is that he’s a bitchy youtube beauty vlogger), and - worst of all - hyu would kick her out, since girls can’t fight.

...which seems like a pessimistic view of hyu. hyu is the wind elemental in the group - he’s buff and a little dopey but kind hearted and sweet, the noble hero type. also a bit of a spoiled prince.

each member of shin-men gets a yuasa episode dedicated to them, and hyu’s episode - his main arc, really - centers on his love for kan, which he keeps secret, despite the powerful curiosity of his country’s gossipy citizens.

what interests me is the disparate ways the anime and manga handle this plot thread. the anime treats hyu’s crush very earnestly, maintaining an undercurrent of quiet affection from him that appears in the majority of its episodes. the manga, however, emphasizes kan’s disinterest in romantic advances from both gou AND hyu, then practically drops the topic of hyu’s crush. it doesn’t exactly defy or contradict the relationship they have in the anime, however -- but it makes me sad, because hyu’s crush on kan is extremely cute and endearing. (as a sidenote, gou’s thing for kan is also pretty  cute, but it only exists in the manga, and, well - it’s not really a /romantic/ crush.

the shin-men manga makes a lot of different choices to the anime, and since the two were released concurrently i have no idea which “version” of any one story was the “original” - and in some cases i’m sure there isn’t an “original” version of a story, just two different ones. sometimes i really prefer the anime’s decisions (not drawing eyelashes on kan) and other times i’m... not sure what to think (the manga chapter with pimawari does NOT focus on kan, so did the anime decide to highlight kan’s relationship with pimawari because... kan’s a girl?? did they really do that? am i over thinking this?)

the manga does a GREAT job of fleshing out kan, though, even though it does so by torturing her, endlessly. she gets trapped inside of a washing machine. then has to use up all her fuel exploding out of the washing machine. the good news is, kan can repair washing machines, we learn this in episode 5 of the anime.

but be it manga OR anime, kan and hyu frequently wind up as partners who work well together, and its understandable. kan and hyu have private lives that mirror each other, both of them being high-profile and wealthy, pressured (kan by her conniving older sisters, hyu by his palace’s grand chamberlain) to settle down when neither of them is particularly interested, both preferring the life of a superhero. their private lives seem lonely and neither of them has any friends outside of shin-men. but within shin-men they team up frequently, and (being natural leaders) the two of them tend to take charge and stand out as The Responsible Ones.

(pointing = leadership)

this is what sells me on them as a couple - that they have this core of collaboration and mutual care in their superhero lives, which could build into a supportive friendship in their personal lives.

i very much love that hyu has a crush on kan despite thinking kan is a guy. that angle never comes up in the anime, though its lightly touched in the manga - and yuasa explicitly addresses it in his earliest notes. to quote,

“kan (iron shinnosuke) is the only girl within shin-men. since only men can be shin-men, she wears an iron suit to conceal the fact that she's female from everyone. and since she doesn't have a superpower, she relies on the power of her suit. hyu (wind shinnosuke) secretly likes kan but keeps thinking things like "could it be that i actually swing that way.." (lol). eventually, he's the only one who knows about her true self, but hides it from everyone so it won't be known.”

so, kan’s expectation of how hyu would react, having a sexist freakout and banning her from battle? apparently not representative of reality. which is good news because, even if kan doesnt want a love connection, she DESPERATELY needs a friend whom she doesnt feel the need to hide her private life from.

and at th end of the day thats what makes me happy: the idea that hyu can be this friend to kan, and they just chill out together, smoke a bong, get their truant son gou to cook them some curry, consolidate oil and wind technology to make both of their countries more sustainable and energy efficient, kiss etc.

im so curious if vol3 of the manga will give me any further insight.. i doubt it but im excited anyway

[rigelmejo]

Yo welcome back to where I rant about my experience and progress learning chinese. So, here’s where I’m at as of 7/19/20:

1. Got through 500 cards in the 1000-2000 most common word deck. So based on my own tracking, since I’ve done the HSK 4 deck, I know most of the HSK 4 words (I’m a little rough on a few especially financial words), and a few extra words that the common deck has that the HSK 4 deck did not. I am halfway done with this last common word deck, I’m still aiming to finish it by 8/1. But realistically it might not be done until 8/10. That’s still pretty good. If I finish then, that’s at minimum 2000 words learned since I started studying chinese in August 2019, so about a year. In addition, I know some extra words from other sources like my readings/shows/words I never even track with flashcards because they seem so obvious I don’t bookmark them for study. (Words like 神女，怪物，奇怪，为何，进口，大街，回头，一眼，离婚, 小心，报道，找到，票，不用，不错，美人，等等). 2000+ words is decent enough for a year of progress. And I imagine the characters I know is probably somewhere around 1000-1500 (however many I need to know, in order to know all these words). So I can start aiming for HSK 5 words and characters next. Then HSK 6.

2. Probably after this 2000 most common words deck is finished, I would like to JUST do the Heisig Hanzi deck for a while and do READING. I’d like to pick up words just from reading and watching chinese shows for a while at that point. I want my focused study to just be on characters so that I have scaffolding to help remember new words as I come across them, by relying on the character knowledge. I want to pick up new words from reading and watching for a while because: first it will give me a lot of real context practice recognizing the 2000 words I studied and really learning them well, and it will give me exposure to new words that I personally regularly run into. These words will help me more with watching and reading what I LIKE compared to HSK 5+ word lists. In addition, I literally have that novel recommendations list based on if someone knows HSK 4, so I think I can just follow it! I should just follow it! I know me and I’ll put it off a YEAR longer than necessary just because I’m being a perfectionist who wants to be more prepared first. Even though... I learn better by just diving in and TRYING to do the hard stuff! I know this about myself! Like... I was supposed to already be following the reading recommendation list... but I’m so used to procrastinating that instead I wanted to “finish” my 2000 word deck first. Even though strictly speaking it was never recommended that I had to. HSK 4 was the recommended level. So like... I’m just doing this over preparing to make myself feel “ready.” Even though I know myself and I will NEVER feel ready. I also learn better from challenges anyway, so like I might as well dive into reading those recs WHILE THEYRE STILL A CHALLENGE. An example? I bought some of the Defrancis reader books - and guess what! The Beginner Reader Part 2 book is too easy for me. Yes there’s a couple small things for me to learn a chapter, but it’s like 20 minutes of reading for me to just learn 1-2 new things. Things I sort of understood already anyway. It’s good extensive reading practice maybe, it’s good for speeding up my reading speed. It’s also marginally good for me slowly recognizing traditional characters (but I know I could just look at the table at the back of the book to do it much faster). But like... this book is not significantly increasing my skill level in any way. It’s mostly just me doing easy stuff that makes me feel “comfortable.” Realistically I should just move to the intermediate or advanced Reader I have - but I’m an over-preparer so I’d Rather Not skip ahead to where i might not know absolutely everything (even though that IS EXACTLY WHAT I NEED TO LEARN MORE AND IMPROVE). So... expectedly I’ve been avoiding the book since I know I’m just using it to time waste and study stuff under my level. It’s not a challenge, and I need challenges or I don’t focus, I don’t improve, and I stay reviewing things I really don’t need to spend This much time reviewing. I KNOW I learn more when I watch any show in chinese (where I constantly get bigger exposure to more words I need to review, it speeds up my reading by force so I can’t time waste, it helps my listening, it gives me new words in context constantly!). I know I also learn more just reading that novel 他们的故事 - when I reread old chapters I get practice reading faster, reading without my dictionary, recognizing characters without audio, and review words I can’t seem to remember well when I look them up. When I read new chapters I constantly get exposed to new words while as I said, really drilling in words I already recognize. It’s because of that novel that I’m MUCH better at name/place recognition, why I know the words: 以后，居然，突然，虽然，然后，一眼，转身，低头，从来，竟然，毕竟，恶心，主角，几乎. This author just uses some words so much, they really drill in. This novel really really helped me get better at a lot of 然 words and a lot of writing type words like suddenly, although, unexpectedly, after all, almost, lowered head, gave a look, took a breath, after, before etc.

I know my textbook type books like Defrancis readers aren’t really challenging me kind of stuff (at least not Beginner Reader part 2 so far). I know as big a challenge as this novel was to start, it’s gotten much easier over time! So it’s causing progress! It’s still very challenging too, so it’s still useful for study!

I know myself and I really... tend to get into a slide of trying to study stuff that isn’t challenging to me, to try and over prepare a foundation for myself. But usually that just is a time waste for me that I fall into and really shouldn’t have. Like... I can read with a dictionary right now! Why am I procrastinating that, when doing it more would make me better! Why am I procrastinating with stuff that’s less of a challenge for me? Why do I always do this to myself. I was watching shows pretty regularly, then I tried watching Ancient Detective - where I could follow 70% instead of 90% of what was going on (just enough for the gist of the plot, compared to Granting You a Dreamlike Life or Anti Fraud League where I can catch everything except a few specific details in some lines). I was like “oh man this challenge is hard” and bailed and stopped watching all chinese shows! But like - Granting You a Dreamlike life was SUPER hard for me the first few episodes! I only got more comfortable and other “slice of life” shows only got easier, because I pushed through the uncomfortable difficulty until it “got” easier.