#univer rant

[hellspawntale-rebooted]

Remember back when UT-AUs were JUST Sans? Like, dreamtale tried to act like they weren’t Sans’s as an excuse to exclude Papyrus.

[harapeveco]

My favorite interaction with an Eve stan has to be with this one guy I met back when I was in tdt who always said that the only canon MVs were the ones that had Hitotsume in them and if he wasn’t there then it didn’t count as canon which annoyed me so I told them that if we followed that logic then Hakugin is canon bc Hitotsume appears in it and that made them so mad they never spoke to me again

[eunchancorner]

so Eyes can sense emotions in this AU too? awesome

Yesssss

I feel like it's only right for an omnipotent being who seeks to spread happiness to be able to sense that

[hirokari]

senior year is TERRIFYINGGG im only like 4 weeks in and im already sooo burnt out what is going on

[yellowprettycure]

Nothing prepares you to deal with true idiots then working in a pharmacy. I had this old ass man tell me that, "Polio vaccines are a hoax. And Polio went away because we started doing sterile work in the US." And that was AFTER he said, "I dont need a shingles shot, i had chicken pox as a kid."

WHICH IS JUST GROSS MISINFORMATION. IF YOU HAD CHICKEN POX YOU ARE MORE AT RISK FOR SHINGLES!!!

[pigaletta]

Man FUCK THIS.

[the-acer-scientist]

is it morally correct to refute the absolute propaganda that the college recruiters are telling the prospective students? follow-up question, do i care?

because listen. yes, tell them about the amazing amenities we have (because we really do) and tell them about the incredible resources the school has (because certain departments really do), but also be honest. tell them that for their first two years, unless they talk to a prof outside of class, they won't see those resources and even after that it's a little iffy. tell them that our univ has made tons of incredibly important chemical and biological discoveries, but also tell them that there's one undergrad lab in the whole school where all the equipment works consistently. out of two building's worth. yes, tell them that univ will push you to your limits so that you can succeed, but also tell them that the mental health services are as good as they are out of necessity. there's a reason all the upper floor windows don't open. i get it, advertise, make your employers money. and to a point, i accept my univ's faults. i couldnt have picked a better school for what i want to do, but that's because my department gets 60% of the funding for the whole school. the point where it grinds my gears is actively lying to high schoolers and telling them that our chemistry department is razor's edge when my ochem lab hasn't had all of the reactants to do the experiment for the last three experiments. don't tell them that we have a 15 to 1 ratio of students-prof and then neglect to mention that that's only for your first year and that your second year will be 35-40 people. which still is incredibly small for a university this big but don't lie and say that applies to every class. don't promise them housing for all four years when you know every senior except for 45 of them ended up off campus. i guarantee had i known what i know now, i'd still have ended up here but i wouldn't have been blindsided when the academic advisor i was promised who would only have 20 students to take care of and thus would almost always be available ended up being responsible for the entire marine biology department (1000-odd students) and be on intermittent leave for two straight years.

tell them all of the good things you have to offer, but don't lie. not when you've been through it.

[wonbriiize]

i was thinking abt riize picking u up from school/univ !!!

riize picking you up from school/uni

⊹₊⋆ shotaro

the type to have your favorite drink ready in the car. he knows you were craving it the whole day so he came prepared. would ask you right away how your day went and instead of driving you home, he’d drive you to your favorite food spot because he also knows that you haven’t eaten yet (´｡• ◡ •｡`) ♡

⊹₊⋆ eunseok

everytime he notices that you’ve had a bad day at school/uni, he straight up asks who’s responsible for ruining your mood. ‘i‘m just going to have a little talk with them’ he’d say when you’d try to make him sit back down in the car because he’s ready to go throw some hands. he would let it go once you reassure him that your mood is lifted because he came to pick you up <3

⊹₊⋆ sungchan

definitely the type to start playing ‘baby’ or ‘what makes you beautiful’ loud as hell in the car with all the windows down when he picks you up. he just loves teasing you in that way. whenever he sees you embarrassingly running to the car, he can’t help but to smile proudly. even though you may be annoyed, you still secretly love it ˃̵ᴗ˂̵

⊹₊⋆ wonbin

you’re truly his passenger princess. he would let you choose the music and decide where you guys should drive to next. would ask you how your day went and let you rant about every small thing that happened. also let’s you know that your favorite snack is in the glove compartment. occasionally takes your hand to give you a kiss on the back of it ໒꒰ྀིᵔ ᵕ ᵔ ꒱ྀི১

⊹₊⋆ seunghan

once he sees you walking towards the car, he’d get out to open the door for you like the gentleman he is. gives you a soft kiss on the forehead before you get in. holds your hand the whole time while driving because he can’t get enough of you. would constantly stare at you and you’d have to remind him to focus on the road instead ฅ^•ﻌ•^ฅ

⊹₊⋆ sohee

as soon as you get in the car, he’d turn on y’all’s fav song to which you guys would start screaming your souls out. once it’s done, the next song starts playing; so the two of you are busy singing the whole time. for sohee, this is his way of letting you get everything out that you’ve been holding inside throughout the whole school/uni day. he wants you to get rid of this heavy feeling on your chest because he can’t bare to see you like that ( ˘͈ ᵕ ˘͈♡)

⊹₊⋆ anton

wouldn’t pick you up with the car; he prefers to walk you home instead. would definitely carry your bag for you. always takes his wired earphones with him whenever he comes to pick you up because he loves to share them with you so you guys can listen to music together. he would also hold your hand and maybe even wrap his arm around your waist when he feels extra affectionate ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ

[j-lea-fy]

Restless Night

“Don’t you find it terrifying?” your barely audible voice echoed throughout your once quiet bedroom as the sheets rustled beside you. Your question wasn’t particularly directed at anyone, but it seemed like Kento also wasn’t asleep. How could he? You’d been leaving behind little tidbits of your thoughts in the form of quiet whispers continuously for the past hour. They were barely coherent, and it was obvious that the lack of sleep was beginning to cloud your judgment.

Kento didn’t mind though. Your voice was a lullaby he could never get sick of hearing and he loved clinging onto every word you left behind. Tired as he was, Nanami couldn’t leave you behind on this plane of reality without first trying to soothe your worries.

“What is it, my love?” Kento mumbled sleepily in return. You went quiet once again, your body teetering on the edge of sleep before being forced back into your own thoughts. 

“Y’know… the future. Doesn’t it ever scare you? The thought that by this time next year, you might not be by my side. Or maybe, you end up falling out of love with the person I come to be-” Even just the thought of Kento falling for someone new was ridiculous. But he could never interrupt your surprise rant, not yet at least. 

You wondered if he was really listening or if his voice was just another thing that you conjured up in that restless, insomniac mind of yours.

“....That’s silly.” Kento finally broke the silence with that warm, honey voice of his. He pulled you closer to his body - taking a slow, deep inhale of your scent and committing it to memory as if a small part of him was truly worried that your anxious little rambles would someday come true. 

“Silly, and entirely untrue. No matter where we end up in the future, I will make sure that you are always by my side. I will fall in love over and over again with you no matter how much you change.” He sealed his sweet words with a forehead kiss after making sure that you had understood him completely.

You let out a relieved sigh, possibly the first proper breath you took tonight, content with his answer and being in his arms.

“Well, so then, do you think that in another univers-” “Alright, sweetheart, that's enough.” Nanami cut you off with a gentle whisper and a jokingly exasperated sigh as he held you closer in the hopes that you would finally end up falling asleep.

[mooncrack]

Gaz was a trouble maker. Him, Ghost, Price. And Soap were the troublemakers of the school. You wouldn't want to get in there way. It wouldn't be pretty. People call the 141. Nobody known how they got that nickname. They just did.

Price, or his acsual name John is the leader, being the oldest of them all. He's the ring leader and his older sister laswell (real name kate), always helps them get out of trouble.

Ghost, or Simon, is the most violent of all of them. He doesn't usualy 'caus trouble unless you piss him of enough. With usualy ends with the poor person having a couple broken bones. And he always wears a facemask in school with a skull on it, weirdly enough.

Soap, or Johnny is the youngest and most caotic of them all. He is the one who comes up with the 'pranks' and the poor person who's going to get 'prankt'. He's also just barely the shortist of them all (Gaz being two inches taller then him). He's also in the same year as Gaz.

And lastly, the Gaz himself. Or his real name Kyle. He is the jock pretty boy of the group. All the girls are swooning over him. He is the captain of the basketball team, and a fine ass locking man. That doesn't mean he's smart- he is falling most classes (Soap is too, but thats more obvius) sinds he doesn't care to studie. Even with all these girls swooning over him, he has rarely dated somebody. He's not really a player.

And then there is you. Your the new foreign exchange student. With cripaling social anxiety. And you just transferred for there school. Your luckly enough to fall into the background until your first lesson. Maths. Not the best first start, but it could of been worse. And then the teacher makes you introduse yourself infornt of the class. Amazing. You reluctenly and quickly Introduce yourself. You were placed next to a guy name Kyle (sinds the teacher must hate you) and the lesson starts.

But the thing you didn't know is that Gaz fell inlove with you at first sight. Your accent. Your hair. Your eyes. Everything. He was smittend. And know he was sitting right next to you. All focus is out of the window for him. He is even trying to focus of whatever that boring teacher is saying. Just. you.

Eventualy we get asignments handed out that he (the teacher) wants us ti finnish THIS lesson. What a mennis. So you focus all your attention of finnishing this asignments sinds ofc your not going to get in trouble on your first day. Minutes after the asignment is handed out you feel a tap on your shoulder. It's your desk partner, Kyle

"Could you help me with this?"

he asks you pointing to a question. You already had this subject at your previos school so this is light work. You start to exsplain the subject with leads into a convo.

When you agree to exsplain the subject and the question to Gaz he is astatic, listening to your every word. As you dumb down the subject exsplaining it with ease. With somehow makes him acsualy understand it. But he uses this as a opertunity to start a acsual convo with you to learn more about you. Like what country you come from, what your natie language is (he'd 100% try and learn or understand it if it isn't english) and what you like

As he hears you rant about things you like and your home country, he can't help but think that you would be perfect victim of one of Soap's 'pranks'. But he wouldn't allow that. But he couldn't let them know that he is head over heels for the new weird foreign kid. But the fact that you help and exsplaind maths to him. He could use the exscuse that you are tutoring him. But no matter what. Your not gonna get bullied by his boys. He won't allow that.

-------------------------------------------------------

Hallo, everybody. I just wanna say sorry for the spelling mistakes, I'm dyslexic and english is not my first language- I also hope yall like the story and I could posibly continue it by doing a part two? Or stick to the univers and do a Ghost, Soap, or Price fic. I'm always open to critisism, but please be kind and don't correct my spelling- (it's anoying and nobody cares). But I hope you have a great rest of your day! Doei!

[hellspawntale-rebooted]

No seriously I’ve gotten like 2 people already who said univee shouldn’t be in color like HELLO???

[otterluz]

Why is trying to find ppl who like toh or steven univer who are around my age and similar tomezones so hard to find and so hard to keep a friendship with i kust want to rant abt the silly gay shows to someone

[xerith-42]

Minecraft Diaries Musicians

I have so many things to say about this!! In the show there's like a lot of characters who are musically inclined, but the series never does anything with it! We know bards exist in Ru'aun, but we literally never see one what the fuck!!

I want Vylad only ever lowering their scarf to play the ocarina when there's a quiet moment. Give me Brendan trying to romance women with his basic guitar skills and it finally works on Issa because she finds him adorkably charming. When Aaron is looking after the kids, he can get them to settle down by playing guitar.

Those are the canon characters who can play instruments, but I want MORE

-Zoey playing the harp and knowing strange and mystical tunes on it that she uses to draw people to her business (remember when Zoey was a merchant?)

-Travis knows how to play the lute and has his own style of music he learned in Gal'ruk, and he loves exploring the differences between the regions music and wonders if places like Tu'la also have a distinctive sound to them.

-Fiddle player Nana when? Playing songs for her dolls to dance along to to entertain guests? Dancing around with her husband while she plays them a little ditty??

-Aaron comes to understand others not by talking to them, but because he's sitting around the campfire and suddenly Travis starts asking him if they know any songs in common, and Vylad joins the two of them when he hears them playing together.

-I want Laurance playing the lyre during downtime and trying to romance Aph and Garroth with it even if he's just a little terrible at it sometimes!! He's trying his best!

-Cadenza really loves dancing, she likes making skirts that flow around while she's dancing, and she loves dancing to Laurance's playing when he's learning.

-Aph doesn't really have the spare time to learn an instrument, but when Garroth hears her singing to herself, he tells her that she should sing more. She's really hesitant at first, but others often sing along with her and she comes to love the sound of singing with others. I also like to think she sings lullabies to Levin and any of her other kids.

-Malachi teaching himself how to read and write music so he can transcribe Levin's music box into a melody others can play, and maybe even write lyrics to go along with it. Because he wants to hear his mother sing along to it.

-Literally forgot about it until now, Logan can play guitar! What if he was a grouchy old man but when his kids need to be put to bed he played them a very gentle lullaby. And you saw the wrinkles on his cheeks turn into smile lines when he can see them all start to doze off. And he was just happy. What if.

-And let characters play songs together!! Vylad's trying to calm Laurance down after he nearly loses control, so they whip out the ocarina and the lyre and the two of them just play together on the beach for a while.

-Aaron struggles to connect to people, but when Travis very earnestly asks Aaron if they can teach each other songs from their separate regions and he doesn't know how to say no to that. The two of them end up bonding over a shared love for this form of self expression. Aaron rather suddenly admits to Travis one day when he's playing a melody that he used to play songs for his wife and his son, that his wife played the violin with him sometimes, that his son was learning to play guitar. Aaron actually of his own volition tells someone about the past he has been running from for about twenty years.

-If I keep going with this I will just start ranting about how I would rewrite Aaron which is not the point of this post

-What I'm trying to say is that music is one of the oldest and most universal forms of expression. We MCD fans already have breakdowns over Flowers on the Battlefield, but imagine if that was a song someone played in universe!!! Imagine if it was a song composed by someone in universe, or a melody that just came to be associated with this group! What if it was literally their in universe theme, that would be amazing!!!

-There is literally no bad ideas that can come from exploring this possibility, like I keep trying to end this post but then I come up with a new idea--

-Like the idea of Zoey and Aph singing to their kids together!! When Levin has bad dreams one of the best things that can comfort him is his music box, but he honestly feels safer hearing the sound of his mothers voice and a gentle harp, even if he doesn't fully remember why.

-Okay this post needs to be over I am actually going insane

[unseisokel]

Beginners Guide to Unnämed AKA U-san

Plus a little history on how they are friends with Shoto

Writing this incase any new Guildies come across my fics or fanart without Knowing.

I'll try to source things when possible, but some things are just left to quotes and summaries from U-san's twitter spaces other people made because they themselves don't keep the space up after each one ends.

Some Basic Background Information:

Unnämed, or more commonly called U-san, is a independent, nonbinary Japanese musician and vocalist, you can find their Twitter here

At the time of writing they have released one original song and 3 covers, find them on whatever music service you use through their Tunecore

They hold YouTube streams after the release of every song, typically giving life updates, singing karaoke, and thanking people who support them through super chats or streamlab donations

They sporadically hold random twitter spaces for shorter life updates or just to rant about something, as of writing they never once keep the recordings for these spaces

They had their first stream on December 17, 2022. It was an unarchived acoustic karaoke stream, roughly an hour long, mostly One OK Rock songs, their favorite band.

A Little History:

They would host several twitter spaces in the time leading up their full "return." Artist @/ooukination on twitter has a neat little comic summarizing that time period.

February 5th 2023, they drop their first original song, simply named Summer Song, marking an end to their elusive and silent era, now being more active on Twitter, and not deleting tweets a few minutes after making them.

The Fans and the Fan Culture

We used the nickname U-san to refer to them in the time before they acknowledged it, because they still hadn't decided on a name for themselves, only having "unnamednow" as a twitter handle, so it was a bit of a place holder, but on a twitter space U-san expressed that they found the name cute, and so U-san has endured.

In absence of any word of a return or any real way to reach them, the #dear_u_san was created by fans on twitter wanting to send their words of encouragement and fanart.

Pre-Summer Song depictions of U-san only had their YouTube and Twitter icon to go off of, they overlapped to give us this:

Half of a face and a hand reaching hold out a blue flame. Fanartists of the time would either obscure their top half their face with long bangs, exaggerated shadows covering their eyes, or a cloth/paper over the face (to symbolize their "death" as it were)

U-san has two main variations of how they depict themselves in their MV's, a blue eyed, black haired individual we see in Summer song, and a version with white hair with yellow eyes featured in Shinunoga E-wa, later taking up the entirety of the Tot Musica screentime, and now both of them sharing the spotlight in the most recent release, Kickback.

Before the release of Summer song all we had was U-sans twitter icon which started off with no color but was updated to include some colors, their hair staying white.

The pre Summer Song fanart had almost always had white hair as a result.

But afterwards when we got the "true" U-san appearance with Summer Song, fans were left questioning the significance of this white haired icon that U-san notably kept even when they updated their twitter header to the new Kanishiima illustration. It wouldn't be until Shinunoga E-wa that they changed their icon- using the one shot out of four with their white hair. This pattern of having a white haired icon and the black haired banner keeping true even now.

To draw a distinction between the two, Ooukie proposed the nicknames U-Shiro and U-Kuro, sometimes shortened to just Shiro and Kuro by other u-rei's.

The blue flame was on their original icon(s) was adopted by fans as a sort of mascot, Ooukie to my knowledge being the first to do so here

With nothing but an empty space and a crumb of a self portrait, U-reis started brainstorming (more like trying to make a universe to subsequently justify in universe) why they were absent and illusive, ex. Here, again from Oouki

We kind of didn't have any kind of consensus on a fan name until Ooukie again, supplied us with U-rei, which quickly spread, eventually making its way to U-san acknowledging it on stream, giving their approval on stream

Outside of the usual U-rei depiction of a small blue flame guy, others began to make 'sonas/ oc's to play around with the loose idea of U-san as a character and a type of world they would reside in, which lead to the twitter hashtag #u_rei_sona

U-rei-sona's typically are spirits, mythical beings, ghosts, and any manner of being that can be connected to the idea of death and rebirth, which is what U-san went through sort of in a meta narrative kind of way

He was among the many viewers of U-sans first livestream, the unarchieved karaoke, vague tweeting his thoughts on his main and alt accounts

Shoto and U-san's History

Later during his subathon happening a few days after U-san's stream, he dedicated a song a friend he didn't explicitly name but was certainly alluding to U-san by the way he described this friend and how this song and band was one of their favorites. See full clip here

That was it for a while until Summer Song released, and we (the public) saw them both interacting, sharing their similar struggles with broken eye glasses, their choice in earrings and plenty of private interactions I'm sure, that we aren't privy to

Shoto would invite U-san to accompany him on his Dead Space Remake streams which as of writing of this post, there are two that U-san features in (here and here)

During a bathroom break on the first stream, U-san tells us that he's thankful for Shoto, because they didn't have a lot of people to interact with, watch the full clip

Then finally, recently they met irl during Shoto's vacation to Japan, where they lost an hour of their time to Tokyo station confusion, U-san talks about the experience in their KickBack after party stream and I'm sure Shoto will tell his half of the story when he goes to stream to talk about his vacation

We knew they had met before U-san told the tale on stream because both made voice tweets only a few hours before U-san's Kickback cover was due to release.

.....and that's about it yeah! This is just a starter guide, I didn't even get into the theories surrounding U-san's music vids the possible lore implications if they're all connected, how U-san dodges questions about their hair color changing and the imagery of drowning they used-

There's a lot to be had here, and U-san's career is just getting started! They have told us time and time again that our donations and support are going directly to fund future projects, so there are surely more great things in store for us.

If you have read this far uhhh thank you? If you found this helpful be sure to share it to spread the U-san agenda.

[lietpolski]

hi friends :) today's rant is on feliks and ivan's late pre-soviet relationship and how i think it affects their perception of each other! because i think it's a massively unexplored dynamic!!

(disclaimer: i'm not a historian, these are the facts to the best of my recollection and understanding!! all excerpts are from adam zamoyski's poland, a history)

the decline of the commonwealth had been centuries in the making (because of its political system, but i won't bore you with the details haha). it all came down to the first partition of poland, quickly followed by the second and third. the last one entirely dissolved the commonwealth (and poland) as a sovereign state. but the beginning of the end was a while before that! the polish had been at the mercy of the russians under catherine the great, russian soldiers had been stationed to polish sejm (government) meetings and elections, and poland had practically become a puppet state with no independent actions of its own, even before it ceased to exist

i mentioned this in an ask, but i think of this as one of the hardest times in feliks' life. quoting myself, "unlike other difficult times in his life, he wasn't able to do anything about what was happening to him. he just had to watch as russians gained more and more control in his government until it was forced to dissolve, and i think that would've been harder on a restless person like feliks, because it's not something he could (try to) solve with a revolution. he pretty much spaced out through that entire time period."

and he had ivan always breathing down his shoulder, and his own government desperately trying to make peace with ivan's to no avail. one thing about Feliks: he's never been afraid of russia. not in the times before the partitions, and not in modern day, we've seen this in canon. i don't think he would've been afraid, but i think he would have been irritable. ivan was an itch under his skin that just wouldn't go away

the final partition wasn't so horrible at first. tsar alexander was somewhat sympathetic to the idea of polish reunification, and even reinstation:

Alexander's paramount position in 1814 permitted him to entertain hopes that he would be able to reunite most of the territory of the former Commonwealth in a kingdom under his own scepter […] but the Tsar's wishes were thwarted by Austria, Britain and France, which could not countenance Prussia being given swathes of Germany in compensation for those she would relinquish in Poland, nor indeed the huge westward expansion of Russian-dominated Poland. The re-establishment of a fully independent Poland was mooted by Britain and France but never seriously considered, and for all his good intentions Alexander would never have been able to sell the idea at home, where opinion reacted to his Polish plans with indignation.

despite russia's political control over the happenings in poland, i think ivan would have felt inferior to feliks or even afraid of him. keep in mind that we know ivan can be a very self-conscious character, especially about himself as a nation (less so about himself as a person). i think there are a few reasons that he would feel uncomfortable around feliks

1) the commonwealth had been extremely prosperous culturally and especially academically - much more than russia

There existed the fear that Poland would act as a springboard for the liberalisation of Russia or that Russia would gradually swallow up and digest its small satellite. At first, the former seemed the most likely. Large sections of Russian society had come under foreign influence as a result of the Napoleonic wars and appeared open to change. As a consequence of absorbing so much Polish territory, by 1815 no less than 64 per cent of nobility of the Romanov realm was of Polish descent, and since there were more literate Poles than Russians, more people within it could read and write Polish than Russian. The third largest city, Wilno, was entirely Polish in character and its university was the best in the Empire.

2) before but especially after tsar alexander's death, the polish made it their life's cause to fight russia (or really, anyone)

Countless other exploits earned [the Polish] the respect of enemies, from the Peninsula, […] to the depths of Russia, where General Colbert of the Guard Cavalry ordered all French units to borrow the capes and caps of Polish lancers before going on picket duty, to keep Cossacks at a respectful distance.

Wherever there were Russians, Prussians, Austrians or their allies to be fought, there were Poles in the ranks.

feliks could FINALLY do something about his predicament. and he made sure he was a thorn in ivan's side. he even managed some small wins that i never see people talk about, like a partial reinstation of poland:

In the end, a Kingdom of Poland consisting of 127,000 square kilometres with a population of 3.3 million was carved out of all three partitions. In addition, Kraków and a tiny area around the city was turned into a republic. The Tsar of Russia was the King of Poland, and all three partitioning powers were the protectors of the Republic of Kraków.

he took any chance to help others fight against him, but he also tried revolution after revolution!

On January 25 1831 Poland burnt its bridges by voting the dethronement of Nicholas as King of Poland. The Kingdom of Poland had seceded from Russia.

In February a force of 115,000 Russian troops marched into Poland. The Polish army, consisting of 30,000 men, blocked his advance successfully at Grochów on 25 February. […] The Poles were well set to win the campaign. They called up reserves of 80,000, and with the Lithuanian and other contingents, they could count up to 200,000 in total. The Russian forces in Poland numbered some 250,000, but the Polish soldier was more motivated.

even after this revolution failed, he didn't give up; he was always on the move, planning on ways to get his country back. the centralizacja was a revolutionary movement based at versailles with connections to similar movements in other countries, like italy, and france. after the centralizacja was discovered and destroyed, despite the mass deportations, execution orders, and other punishments instilled by the russians in an attempt to stop the polish, they were back at it. under ivan's nose, the central national committee of poland had an:

…intelligence department had men in every branch of the Russian army and civil service. The fighters trained and operated clandestinely in Warsaw under the noses of the Russian army encamped not only in the Citadel but in the squares and streets. The Russian General Berg, who had been instructed by the Grand Duke Constantine to investigate the conspiracy, reported back after some weeks that he had discovered 'only one thing, namely that I don't belong to it'. As an afterthought, he added: 'And neither does Your Imperial Highness.'

I think feliks, especially with his position, would've been a very active member in any intelligence activity! i'm sure he suffered terrible consequences for it, just like how i'm sure he just got back up and tried again. i think the description of him as a "phoenix" is more than accurate, not just for returning to statehood after the partitions, but because of all the times he fought to get it, was completely defeated, and returned to the cause immediately with a smile on his face. and Ivan couldn't stand it. i won't go into detail about the empire's harsh punishment of ex-commonwealth territories, but ivan, as a person, needs to be in control. needs to be listened to, obeyed, feared. feliks, in all of his quirk and impossibilities, refused to do that

ivan at the time (or really, for a lot of his history) badly wanted to be a part of the european sphere. feliks' very existence was a dent in those plans, because in every revolution, all nations were by his side, further ruining russia's image in europe

World opinion was strongly pro-Polish, and while newspapers ranted against Russian injustice, young men flocked to Poland, from Ireland, England, France, Germany, and, most of all, Italy.

to his dismay and anger, this included some of the other ex-commonwealth countries. i love the wording here, so i'll let the paragraph speak for itself:

[During the revolution] it had been said that the boundaries of the putative future Poland would draw themselves with the blood of insurgents. Predictably, they did not stretch very far into Ukraine, where only groups of Polish szlachta came out. In Belorussia, they included much of the old Commonwealth, with not only the peasants, but also the Jews of towns such as Pińsk joining the cause. In Lithuania and even southern Livonia, they corresponded to the borders of 1772, with mass participation by all classes. It was a slap in the face to the Russian policy carried on in these areas since the first partition.

despite the ex-commonwealth existing under multiple powers, russia was solidified as the polish people's arch-enemy. national and political consciousness within poland all surrounded the idea of the reinstation of the polish state and the fight against the suppressor - most notably, russia.

One of the most influential poets of the era, Zygmunt Krasiński, explained the Russian system in a letter to Pope Pius IX as 'a huge merciless machine, working by night and by day, crushing thousands of hearts and minds every minute… the irreconcilable enemy of all spiritual independence.'

within a hundred years, before any idea of sovietness, ivan had managed to establish himself as feliks' greatest enemy, in what felt like a relentless game of cat and mouse, and feliks had established himself as someone to watch out for. it reminds me of one of the few interactions they have in canon:

i love this panel to BITS because it's, i think, the angriest we ever see feliks. i don't think it's said exactly when this takes place, but fairly soon after lithuania's independence. feliks himself had been under soviet influence until about the same time, but despite the harshness of the decades, you can see his lack of fear to go against russia. because despite all that was done to him, it never existed (or maybe, feliks had the bravery to push through it, then for his people, and now for his best friend). and that's how feliks and his relationship with ivan stands out from his relationship with other nations, and why i think it's so fun to explore!

[jenoutof10]

Hi.... If you don't mind me asking, can I ask, what are your top 10 (or top 7) favorite media (can be books/ manga/ anime/movies/tv series)? Why do you love them? Sorry if you've answered this question before.....

hi! i definitely dont mind, this is such a fun ask so i'm SO SORRY ive only answered now 😭 also im horrible at explaining my thoughts so please bear with me...

1. jujutsu kaisen

i can go on and on about jjk but I'm trying to keep this short so I don't go on an endless rant. OKAY. i love the power system of jujutsu, it's simple but also pretty flexible and creative, i love the historical and traditional aspect of it + how it ties into clan culture, i love how it branches into barrier techniques, reverse cursed technique, binding vows, etc. for characters like gojo in particular i love how he's pictured as the strongest and how akutami shows the gap between him vs all other sorcerers, like he was in a whole different league and how his birth changed/tipped the balance of the world of jujutsu. i love the whole "saving others" thing like how yuuji wants to save everyone, megumi wants to save good people, nobara wants to save the people who mean alot to her, gojo thinking abt how he can only save people who want to be saved, geto wanting to save sorcerers from non sorcerers, etc. i like how the series has aspects of history (like how sugawara no michizane was a sorcerer and how his descendants include the gojo clan is ⅓ of the three main clans of the series, and basically the entirety of tengen (lol)). i love the anime adaptation and how crazy the animation is (when s1 came out i was alr baffled but after watching s2 and looking back at s1 im even more impressed at their development), the manga's artstyle i was a big fan of but now not so much (the scratchyness and alternating thick and thin rough lines around the time of shibuya arc were PEAK). besides that as a buddhist myself, the multiple buddhism references in the series really cemented my love for it as it felt familiar and it feels like ur getting a shout out esp since most shows feature themes of catholicism and christianity.

2. blue lock

i'm honestly unathletic af idk why im here. i think what hooked me was the whole individualistic + egoist concept and the elimination setting (like squid game) 🙏 for me blue lock's prime is [2nd selection, 4v4] until the end of [u20 arc], i really liked the art style during that period! sadly, i feel blue lock has fallen off ever since the current NEL arc, it feels as if theyve deviated from the original ego concept (fuck this whole "protagonism" thing man wtf) and the artstyle has undergone changes im not particular to. also the anime wack af.

3. bungou stray dogs

im going to be honest. i did NOT like bsd. s1-s3 was too all over the place for me and i really did not get the series at all, i actually thought it ended but then they released s4 & s5 in 2023. almost a year since s4 came out, i came around to watching it and i got HOOKED, i think a big factor was that there was less fillers and a lot more action scenes, plus the detective vs mastermind thing truly popped off in s4 + s5. besides that, i enjoyed the introduction of new cast and the return of previous ones (now as allies). sure, there's plot holes and the anime cuts off a handful of scenes but it WAS an incredibly enjoyable watch. plus i'd say bsd has mountains of content (atleast in comparison with other serieses) because besides your usual manga, anime, and occasionally stage play adaptation. you have the alt univ. BEAST, light novels like stormbringer or 55 minutes, wan!, and even bsd gaiden (which has nothing to do w the main series)

4. haikyuu

THE classic. it was the first anime i got into when i started quarantine and it brought back my animanga phase. i love how the characters all have interesting stories to tell, their own motivations and personalities. lots of teamwork, teambuilding, found family(?) aspects, plus all the themes have their own specific themes which i dig a lot (ex. inarizaki and their foxes + shrines). plus i love how this series captures the thrill of watching sports, it MIGHT be overexaggerated to some but i get lightheaded when theyre at match-point and on the verge of losing so it does provide some kind of high. OH and i like that they show realistic wins and losses.

5. hunter x hunter

i have not read the manga but this show was serious to me. i'm a sucker for meta and power systems, and nen is like... actually insane. i love the characters SO MUCH, the variety of designs and appearances, how the series shows the way they grow throughout their adventures and experiences, the way they show a character's relationship with the rest of the cast, etc. it also gives a somewhat nostalgic vibe? i love the opening, endings, OSTs + narrator. it truly does feel like ur tagging along on their adventures, it was a real tearjerker for me tbh.

6. avatar: the last airbender + the legend of korra

i think atla is an amazing show bcs 1. cool setting and world building 2. the cultural references 3. cool dynamics 4. character personalities and development 5. cool power system and fighting styles 6. found family etc etc... ITS A COMPLETE PACKAGE. im p sure not much are fond of tlok but i love it. i think some reasons include the fact that korra isnt like aang, but i think thats what makes tlok interesting, korra is 17 when the show starts and the show continues to follow how she grows and develops into a fully realized avatar both physically and spiritually. i also think its bcs of how they modernized bending and how lots of the cultural aspect is lost but i think its an incredible and interesting way to showcase real life modernization.

7. jojo's bizarre adventure

jjba CHANGED ME 😭 this series is actually insane like if it was a person please get it to a mental ward. i think as an artist, it holds a very dear place in my heart. the show itself is absurd and unbelievable so it keeps you on your toes (dont mind the plot holes and inconsistencies, at some point you're just gonna have to live with it). but the selling point for me is the characters, everyone has amazing, colorful and distinct designs that match well with their personalities and overall air. not to mention the artstyle and references in everything to everything? lol. the show's different parts also feature different main casts, dynamics and storylines, sometimes they do a callback to a previous part.

okay! it was very hard choosing between the 7 of them but i think they actually were the ones that truly left an impact on me. thank you so much for the ask i finally got the chance to ramble about the stuff i consume 😭😭😭 there's a lot of media I'd love to talk about and mention so maybe one day ill make a post on hopefully all the media ive consumed.

honorable mentions:

genshin impact

i started genshin in 2021 when 1.3 came out, i was dead serious about this game during quarantine. i love liyue so much its what truly got me hooked (everything from the music, the sights, etc. for me liyue/pre inazuma was prime genshin), i enjoyed building characters and doing showcases too. started losing interest when sumeru came out and slowly stopped logging in/playing daily. the reason i wont put this in the actual list is bcs im pretty clueless about the new characters and story, nor do i have much interest in them. (i came back to do the lantern rite event, love the new liyue regions!)

detective comics

i love action and fights, especially when they feature powers, so liking superheroes makes sense 🤷 DC gets shit on alot bcs of the DCEU but the films aside i like DC better than marvel. im particular to gotham and the batfam, it's just more dark and gritty, plus there's lotsa drama going on LOL. the gotham knights cast also branches alot like to young justice (I LOVE YOUNG JUSTICE 😭), teen titans, titans, birds of prey, and ofc justice league.

chainsaw man, mob psycho 100, code geass, assassination classroom, neon genesis evangelion, trigun, fairy tail