#i hope i did a good job on the translating part xD

[kirby-the-gorb]

reply roundup!

had to put these on hold for a while for personal reasons </3 they're likely to still be infrequent, but in honor of kirb2k!

(my notes would only load back to mid september so I missed a couple weeks sorry :c but be warned that this is a long one! it's 3 entire months' worth!)

also, reminder that kirb2k ends tomorrow!!! preorders, commissions, and auctions will all close at noon pst on sunday december 17th! everything is linked in the pinned post or filed under the tag kirb2k!

first is one more birthday kirb from my friend @sleepy-sheep-wizard:

Realized halfway thru that I don’t know what Kirby looks like off the top of my head, so I got funky with it. Happy birthday, thank you for being a good friend

thank you again friend <3 getting funky with it is truly in the spirit of just drawing a little guy for fun, I love his little hat in particular.

on [mirror] @shapeshifterwithafez said: uuuh is Scherben bringen Glück/ Shards bring luck a universal saying? sounfs clinky as a direct translation. anyways in germany we say that shards of stuff you broke brings luck so I hope the luck finds you or smth sorry for rambling ^^

I'd never heard this saying before, but I think it's very sweet! thank you for sharing it with me :)

on [pipefight] @hauntedppgpaints said: goalies with a skate blade and their stick in hand

big hockey vibes for real yeah lol

on [pink] @gaydiation-poisoning said: ...I wanna eat that pink

honestly same, it's sooo pleasing

on [rain] @hive-heart said: Everything alright, daily kirby guy?

not really but sitting by the window in the rain is a good thing lol thanks for asking <3

(also the person who tagged that same post myhouse.wad made me laugh)

on [photo] @ceylonsilvergirl [added] a picture of their cat and said: get adored idiot!! see the hate in her eyes? I’ll make her love me yet!!

me @ my partner's cat

@violet-dragongirl said: oh! I have been meaning to ask! Have you played Kirby and The Forgotten Lands? I assume you did but just wanted to say that I did about a week ago and I loved it and thought of your art! ^.^ And if you haven't, yes, Carby is super adorable and amazing :3

I have! I got it very shortly after it came out, I had a really good time with it. I've been slowly replaying it recently with my partner, they were kind of fond of kirby just by proxy but since we started playing they adore bandee now and say he never gets enough screen time XD I'm glad you also had fun!

on [mice] @ceylonsilvergirl said: girls like swarms of things, right?

idk bro my wife wasn't so big on it when I got a gig housing 30 mice, but maybe she's weird. I liked them. (sadly one of the best paying jobs I've ever had up until the owner lost it and abandoned them with me, yes I still took care of them for the rest of their little lives) (and yes I also got my wife's okay before I took them on in the first place)

on [covid] @mordantivore said: reading posts from when the era of covid safety was declared anathema and ended is haunting. we were so desperate to find ppl willing to help us stay alive. there are fewer of us now bc “allies” are worthless & more of us have died

yeah. fuck. I'm lucky that the people in closest proximity to me are at least moderately careful, but me and my wife and partner are usually the only ones wearing masks anywhere we go except sometimes the employees and I know they don't always wear them when they're out without me.

on [swim] @northeasternwind said: Jdjdjfkg imagining Kirby being way more bouyant than your average human so them gotta exhale REAL HARD or attach nega-floaties (sinkies?) like weights to dive

lol yeah they probably gotta try So Hard to actually get under the water. (I think diving weights/ballast is a thing that humans use too? I've never gone diving, having my face underwater stresses me out -n- )

on [float] @nickiemoot said: he has to go now. his planet needs him. *slide whistle*

I can only hear this as that one similar part from one of the asdfmovies, it delights me

@vampiricarus said: if you see this just know i love your art so much

aww thank you! <3

anonymous said: just wanted to say I love Kirby and I love your art! I’m always excited to see it on my dash. thank you for bringing a little joy to my life :) I need it once in a while like I’m sure a lot of others do too! Keep up the good work :))

thank you! drawing a little guy brings me a little joy too, I'm glad it can do the same for others <3

on [drain] @ceylonsilvergirl said: I’m sorry you’re having a rough time. Existing is hard work sometimes. A lot of the time

fuck dude it sure is <3 especially when my body keeps trying to shut down lol

on [mud] @why-are-all-the-fun-urls-taken said: Hey man are u doing ok

I am not, thanks for asking <3

on [tummyache] @hobgirl said: :o kirby the gorb why would you do that!!!!! why!!!!!

I didn't want it to go to waste!!! everyone is dumb sometimes!!!

on [wizard] @eau-the-agony said: not enough appreciation in the wizarding world for garlic salt spell. its all kung pow penis tgis and ketamine ape that. not enough of the small joys which carry us through the horrors like a dinky garbage raft

you are so right. the small joys are the most powerful of all.

on [wizard] @beepbeepdespair said: somehow didnt know garlic salt was a thing until this moment. now i really want some. i think i just found a kg of it online for 12 quid??

I am so pleased that you now have the knowledge of Garlic Salt Spell, I hope you got to try it out for yourself :D

on [zelda] @chaos-squared said: Good job!! I’ve had it for longer yet still haven’t completed it ;w;

nothing wrong with that! I only finished it as quickly and thoroughly as I did because I was basically bedridden for all of october, as long as you enjoy the time you do spend with a game it doesn't really matter how much time you spend or how far you get.

on [brave] @gudetamalover said: me tomorrow afternoon when I get all four wisdom teeth out

I'd already had several other oral surgeries on account of Weird Teeth before I got my wisdom teeth out but it still knocked me on my ass for a couple days, I hope your recovery went as smooth as possible! (altho that was also like. 15 years ago. and general anesthesia has gotten a lot better since then.)

on [shiny] @angst-and-fajitas said: Like to slap his bald head reblog to slap his bald head

bald! bald! bald! bald!

on [powerwash] @chronicdilf said: decemberb 16 im goign to walk across the damn stage get my damn diploma folder im going to go home and POWERWASHER SIMULATOR JUST LIKE KIRBY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

yeah!!! you're gonna do it!!! you might be doing it right now even!!!

on [cooked] @hobgirl said: oh mood kirby..... struggling with the very last paper i need to write before i can graduate and its got me feeling this way fr

ough, I hope you made it through your paper! lots of people graduating tho that's so cool, congrats to both of you!

on [bears] @jupiterlandings said: I get so happy every time I see Cake and the name Cake being tagged :)

it's such a good name for a bear, I'm grateful you thought of it!! especially given the best I could do for the other one was "kirbear" lol

@violet-dragongirl said: omg seeing that Fav Grobs Post you recently put up makes me so happy! over a thousand (and then some!) GORBS?! :D I'm not only impressed but so proud ya made it this far and I'm so glad you got possibly more to go of Kirby!! :D!! Really great job 🥰🥰

thank you! I'm gonna hit 2000 days of drawing kirby tomorrow, that's so wild!

on [popular] @timeturner-jay said: Op your Kirby art brings so much utter joy you have no idea <3

yay I'm glad <3 I love to draw a little guy, it's good I'm not the only one having fun lol

I got a lot of "good blaze op" on the [macarena], and you're all correct, thank you for recognizing my great decision making B) (I'd been meaning to add the music and blaze it from basically the moment I drew it, I've just been really sick so it took a while.)

(also even if I don't always gather them in the roundup there are names I recognize showing up repeatedly in the tags, some of whom have been here for years, and I'm always glad to see you're still around!)

#text #title text #long post #readmore #reply roundup #asks answered #kirb2k #swearing #coronavirus #sleepy-sheep-wizard #not my art #shapeshifterwithafez #hauntedppgpaints #gaydiation-poisoning #hive-heart #ceylonsilvergirl #violet-dragongirl #mordantivore #northeasternwind #nickiemoot #vampiricarus #anonymous #why-are-all-the-fun-urls-taken #hobgirl #eau-the-agony #beepbeepdespair #chaos-squared #gudetamalover #angst-and-fajitas #chronicdilf

[alintheshitposter]

It is currently 4am in the morning, I can't sleep, so let's do this now. (Pretty sure I've done it before but this is simply going be the updated version🤪)

15 questions + 15 friends; I was tagged by @spezialgelagerte-rokokokokotte thanking youuu <3

It got quite long, so I'll put a cut here😅

1. Are you named after anyone?

No😊 (and I say this confidently because I named myself)

2. When was the last time you cried?

Two days ago, on my birthday (I was just a little emotional), but @maxwellshimbo was there to comfort me💚

3. Do you have kids?

Not of my own, no. And it's unlikely that is ever going to happen.

4. What sports do you play/have you played?

I did ballet as a kid but quickly got tired of it and started playing football, which I technically STILL play (it's been 84 14 years💀) but I am falling out of love with it. I used to do archery for like a year which I absolutely loved and hope to do again sometime! I'm in a club for lifeguarding (German peeps will probably have heard of DLRG👀) so I spent quite some time at the swimming pool as well. Though I am not as active in actual training anymore. And I did ballroom dancing for a while. Like standard and latin dances. My favourite was probably Cha Cha Cha and my least favourite was definitely Quickstep😵‍💫 it was fun tho! I danced with one of my best friends and I did the leading parts which made me feel kind of gender euphoric. I also like to go for a run every now and then but overall I'd consider myself a not so sporty person. I like to relax a lot🥴

5. Do you use sarcasm?

I cannot live without. It just comes naturally.

6. What is the first thing you notice about people?

Just the overall vibe I guess. And whether I like them or not.

7. What is your eye colour?

It says blue-grey on my ID but I've been told they're actually more green-ish and I kind of agree.

8. Scary movies or happy endings?

Happy endings. I don't like scary movies, I think they're ridiculous.

9. Any talents?

Hm. Well...my dad jokes are pretty good🤪 but apart from that...I guess I'm quite creative?🤷🏻 I speak 3 languages fluently? I can touch my tongue to my nose? Idk xD

10. Where were you born?

In some small town in northern Germany. Fellow Germans will probably know it for one (1) big tourist attraction but I'm not going to specify it here.

11. What are your hobbies?

I play theater. I play several musical instruments (bass, flute, ukulele, kalimba and some more but I'm not as good). I like taking pictures and editing them. Sometimes I write fanfic and/or poetry. And I like to relax in my bean bag🥴

12. Do you have any pets?

I have a cat but I haven't lived with her in 3 years. (Due to an allergy🤧 and me moving out of my parents' house.) I visit her from time to time tho!

13. How tall are you?

It used to be 1,68m on my ID but I recently had to renew it and now it says I'm 1,71m...I think I might actually be smaller than that though🥴

14. Favourite subject in school?

Always all the languages. Never any of the sciences. I loved music class as well. And all the school bands I played in. I miss that.

15. Dream job?

Please, that is the WORST question you could ask me right now😩 I feel a little lost. I'm currently studying to be a translator but is it what I really want? I don't know ;-; I miss working at the kindergarten lately. But I don't know if I'd wanna do that full time either. I'm so insecure and I hope I'll figure it out soon.

Phew. This took me almost an hour. Well. Let's see if I can fall asleep now. 1½ hours left until my alarm goes off. Good night😴

No pressure tags: @daughterofhecata @miaisreadytorun @bistdueinbaum

#alin answers tag games

[ravencincaide]

hi, i don’t normally comment on things like this— kind of nervous it’ll make you uncomfy but i hope you know how genuinely phenomenal your writing is. i read the anon ask that was like “where are the fics” and like i recognize it’s cause they’re excited to read what you want but some part of me is sad when people treat writers like that. idk… i don’t want to step on any boundaries, i don’t know you as a person, i have no right to decide what’s hurtful for you. i just hope you don’t feel pressured into writing anything, i would hate to witness someone’s hobby become more of a job. once again, i don't know you personally so i could be blowing things out of proportion 😭😭

Hey Anon! Goodness you're so sweet and I would just love to give you a hug and say thank you so much and just show you how appreciated your words are. Honestly you remind me of the old fanfic community and its a breath of fresh air! You did not make me uncomfortable or cross any boundaries what-so-ever (if anything I think you've read me and my self-estreem issues very well haha XD)! That being said I think, unfortunately, that's kinda the way fanfic community is at the moment; not only on tumblr but on other bigger sites (FF.net, AO3..). Fics are taken, translated, read aloud, unique writers styles, prompts and expressions shamelessly copied. There's also a demand from writers to share, produce, provide, be efficient, have a schedule, take requests etc etc while they get threatened with AI, hate, insults, trolls, demands, being reported, get buried/not have any engagement at all and I could go on. Fact of the matter is, there's very little wiggle room as a writer for what you can do 'back' so to speak. Sure you can create a DNI. Or more precisely a " All fics are unique works by ©ravencincaide 2024. Do not copy/repost/translate or spread my work(s) without my explicit permission. If you see any of my work(s) reposted/copied anywhere else without my consent, please inform me! " text to every fic- but does anyone listen? Not really. Sometimes it's still nice to see it though so I'm definitely starting with that even if it is essentiella pointless. You can spend valuable time on playing 'monitor police' on all those who take your work for granted and manually block spam-like, monitoring age/minors & bot-like blogs etc etc while repeatedly reminding about reblogs, comments and such. But ultimately it's not a fun activity; it would entail me blocking basically 90% of my followers. It would also take what little time i have to spare away from writing. And finally, I could just put this blog on hiatus and keep my writing to myself or find a site where I can hide it behind paywalls. Seeing as I write for anime/small fandoms/BSD rather than big fandoms such as Supernatural, Harry Potter etc the chances of doing that and making a name are rather.. well limited to say the least.

So fact of the matter is, independently whether I get hurt or writing becomes a job, if I want my fics out there. And if I want 'Raven Cincaide' to become a penname- a trademark that I could one day use for when I publish an original buyable book, then all the shit that comes with writing- it's just something I have to take with a smile on my face.

Thank you so much for reaching out to me and giving me a small space to vent. <3 Much love Raven

#raven cincaide #raven cincaide asks #writer asks #ask away #asks answered #ask answered #honestly being a writer is an ungrateful task #and I must really hate myself to still keep doing it XD #but hey at least a handful of people enjoy my stuff #and I get a chance to share my thoughts every now and then with an amazing ask!

[mikimeiko]

Day 3 - Ljubljana>Rijeka

Had a minor heart attack on my way to the station when I thought I forgotten at the hotel/lost my id but luckily I had just misplaced it so all is well.

The train is very pretty (I love the cyan/teal-ish blue of Slovenian railways) and it has compartments! (Is this the right word? I have no idea, but Google says it is the translation of scompartimenti so...)

I haven't traveled in a train with compartments in years, the seats are very spacious and comfy <3 also the train is not very busy and I got a 6 seats compartment all to myself :D

The weather is looking promising when I leave Ljubljana but gets greyer and greyer along the way. It's still a very pretty journey though.

(that's a picture of the sea. If you squint and look at the lightest part of the image you can kind of guess a reflection of the cloud in the water XD)

I love that many of the station we're passing through have a steam locomotive on the premise (this is actually something I also noticed in Italy this summer and I have to say I love this trend, put those locomotives on display!)

They checked my id twice on the train, once in the last station in Slovenia and once in the first in Croatia (now that I think about it this also happened when I was travelling in the other direction five years ago, the only border crossing where they checked our passports twice instead of just once - at least I think it was this one, I might be wrong).

I did not get the best start in Rijeka. My hotel never answered my question about leaving luggage early, so I decided to go grab a coffee and then maybe lunch waiting for check in time. Only the currency here is kuna and every ATM I check seems out of order? D: then it starts raining and for a bit everything seems very bleak. But then of course I did find an ATM, and a way to change the big bills the ATM gave me, and a nice coffee place where I can finally have a coffee and relax a bit (I've been in Rijeka for more than an hour. As I said, not the best start) (later I found out that the problem with the ATMs is that Croatia is actually switching to the euro on January 1st... Good job Maddalena for choosing the actual worst time for coming here XD)

Also I really wish I was one of those people that are not particularly affected by the weather, but I am! All this grey and white and fog and rain is really bumming me out. I can see that Rijeka is a pretty place, I can, but I can't feel it right now. Let's hope the sky will open up just a tiny bit, just to see some sun!

I ate lunch sitting outside because they didn't have seats inside and the temperature seemed bearable but I don't know if it got colder or if it was just sitting/digestion but by the end of the meal I was freezing XD

My new room is quite cute, it also has a small kitchen inside! But it's pretty cold D: luckily there a kettle in the hall and I can make tea! (also it's not that cold, I was just really frozen from lunch)

I take a walk along the harbour around sunset. The light is quite magical, but the sky is so cloudy you cannot really tell it's sunset XD

I also go back to the centre and especially the old town, but it keeps raining, then stopping, then raining... And every bench is wet, and it's stupidly warm, and my feet hurt because the two pair of shoes I brought with me (my two pairs of very warm shoes) are not the comfiest, and also I got my period today and I keep trying to make it work, to turn this feeling around, but maybe tonight is just not the right night.*

So I grab some yummy looking things at the supermarket, plus a tea I never tried before, and head back to my room.

**I wasn't sure about adding this part, I never am. On one hand this is like... personal and maybe not that interesting for others. On the other, I distinctly remember the relief I felt on my first solo trip when, after days of rollercoasting from sheer delight to abject bleakness, another traveller told me "these past days, before my friends got here, were really hard on me, I was crying at least once a day". That moment of "oh, this is normal, this doesn't mean that I'm not meant to be doing this, I can cry and then keep going anyway if I like it enough!". And so I'd rather share the hard parts too, just in case someone reads this before they try it or while they're doing it.

#travel #croatia #rijeka #winter break 2022 #mag travels from time to time #i just want a tag for the things i personally put out into the world

[mathmusic8]

The Dragon Prince

Thoughts part 2 (mild spoilers)

Way to attempt to corrupt your beautiful darling son, Viren. I’m 65% sure it won’t work, but you get an A for effort spreading evil.

(also the more I see, the more I feel that Viren needs punched repeatedly in the face. Or die in a hole)

Hurious is a fantastic addition to the hangry family and I love it

Claudia, you adorable creepy child <3 I hope you get less creepy someday

Oh dude, Viren, you went there, putting the egg above your own son—at least now Claudia knows how creepy you are

Awwwww my poor little heart—pretty boy stress eats XD

These poor babies, both struggling to process that their jerk dad is a jerk

Le gasp—doggies! Good doggies! Best doggies!

Did… did that big guy just pronounce the W in sword? XD

Oho! The elf’s braid came back as a plot point! That’s awesome!

Ohhh man, poor Gren, that’s like peak horror right there, having the dark mage come out super glowy and creepy after apparently killing a fellow prisoner. So creepy

Okay, the more I see them interacting together, the more I love the fact that Claudia and pretty boy are siblings. They’re fantastic XD

What the heck how is creepy mage dude getting MORE creepy??

Oh hey, he can… reverse? his creepy face? okay, sure

Callum’s book that he carries on his shoulder strap thing must be trashed by now—it’s been through water, dirt, forest, blood, sweat, tears, etc.

Oh, no you didn’t pretty boy (is his name Soren? I think it’s Soren). Intentionally lying about something super important to a friend is a significant step to the dark side, boyo

Wooo! Good job Callum! Way to stand up for your beliefs <3

Ohhhhhh watching Callum grieve is hard

Okay, Claudia, I like Claudia. She kept the letter all this time, didn’t show it to her dad, didn’t even read it herself. That was so, so kind of her to do

Unless it’s a fake letter

But I don’t think it is

Soren finally catching the sarcasm was great XD

I so, so, so appreciate that not everything the aunt lady signs is translated. Gives us a chance to really experience the movements and the language. I just think it’s neat. Plus, like, we have the internet. We can look it up later

Ohhhhh sign language is so cooooool it just saved that guard’s life :DDDD

That was seriously such a gorgeous rain animation when Callum was lying on his back, looking up at the sky

Queen Aanya is a boss. Love that kid

Are you serious? THAT’S how their mom died? Saving Virden to perform an evil spell that she’d fought against, knew was evil?

Dude, that’s messed up. I get that they were in an impossible situation given their commitments, but just… gah

Gaaaaaaaaaah so when—when Callum was trying to tell Ezran about—he was quoting—kadnvbaeo;ifbawkvainfjew;fj TEARS

Yes you GO AANYA YES CHILD YOU STAND UP TO HIM

Soooo… Ezran was moving like the dragon in his sleep… as in, like, they were moving as if they were one person… should I be concerned…?

I mean, probably, right?

#the dragon prince #mathmusic talks #still loving the show #wish I could binge the whole thing #but gotta take it in bites #still learning names

[halfusek]

DannyMay 2017

Hej polscy fani Danny’ego Phantoma! Phanniemay (jeden z fandomowych eventów) nie będzie organizowany w tym roku, więc @narwhalsarefalling i parę innych osób ze Slack chatu zajmie się organizacją zastępczego eventu!

Tak, jak to było w przypadku Phanniemay, będziecie mogli stworzyć cokolwiek, byleby tylko odnosiło się to do tematu przewodniego na dany tydzień lub dzień! Może to być fanfik, fanart, cosplay, amv, albo nawet muzyka, jeśli coś takiego tworzycie!

Będą tematy na każdy dzień I tematy na tygodnie! W ten sposób, jeśli będziecie zajęci, nie będziecie musieli aż tyle robić i wciąż wziąć w tym udział i dobrze się bawić!

Jeśli macie jakiekolwiek pytania, napiszcie do mnie wiadomość albo aska, a jak nie boicie się angielskiego, to polecam napisać do @narwhalsarefalling. Odpowiednik tego postu po angielsku (czyli ten oryginalny) możecie znaleźć TUTAJ.

TYGODNIOWE tematy to:

The Unknown (Nieznane) – pierwsza niedziela

Emotions (Emocje) – druga niedziela

L'appel du vide (tak zwany „the call of the void”, czyli głosik w głowie, który podsuwa nieprzyjemne myśli, na przykład kusi skokiem, jak jest się gdzieś wysoko) – trzecia niedziela

Mistakes/Regret (Błędy/Skrucha) – czwarta niedziela

Proszę, tagujcie swoje tygodniowe posty jako #DannyMay Weekly, #DannyMay i #Danny Phantom, żeby wszyscy mogli je zobaczyć!

A oto DZIENNE tematy, proszę, tagujcie je jako #DannyMay Daily, #DannyMay i #Danny Phantom:

1 Hope/Hatred – Nadzieja/Nienawiść

2 Ice/ Fire – Lód/Ogień

3 Animals/Fangs – Zwierzęta/Kły

4 Alterations/Space – Zmiany/Kosmos

5 Moment in time/Clocks – Moment w Czasie/Zegary

6 Ghost/Human – Duch/Człowiek

7 Language/ Weather – Język/Pogoda

8 Observants/Sightseeing – Obserwatorzy/Zwiedzanie

9 Coffee/Breakfast – Kawa/Śniadanie

10 Birth/Death – Narodziny/Śmierć

11 Gray/Colors – Gray (jako nazwisko postaci Valerie Gray lub jej ojca albo po prostu kolor szary)/Kolory

12 Cycles/Inevitability – Kółka/Nieuchronność

13 Johnny 13/Lucky – Johnny 13/Farciarz

14 Dragon/Castle – Smok/Zamek

15 Lost/Hidden – Zagubiony/Ukryty

16 Shitty DP AUs/Memes – Gówniane Alternatywne Światy/Memy

17 Background/Real life – Tło/Prawdziwe Życie

18 Green/Nature – Zieleń/Natura

19 Angst/Laughing – Angst (starch, niepokój, ból)/Śmiech

20 Blood/Red – Krew/Czerwień

21 Pain/Rest – Ból/Odpoczynek

22 Light /Darkness – Światło/Ciemność

23 Forgotten/Remembered – Zapomniany/Zapamiętany

24 OTP/Brotp – Ulubiona Para Zakochanych/Ulubiona Para Przyjaciół

25 Aliens/Cryptids – Kosmici/Kryptydy

26 Unpopular AU/Unpopular Headcanon – Niepopularny Alternatywny Świat/Niepopularna Teoria

27 Phantom Planet alternate ending/Alternate beginning ooo yes – Alternatywne Zakończenie/Alternatywny początek

28 Vortex/Nocturne – Twister (w angielskiej wersji językowej ta postać nazywa się Vortex)/Nocturne

29 Laptops/Video Games – Laptopy/Gry Video

30 Identification/Foreign – Identyfikacja/Obcy

31 Free day/freedom – Dzień Wolny/Wolność

#danny phantom #dannymay #dannymay 2017 #phandom #phandom events #i hope i did a good job on the translating part xD #good luck guys!

[interact-if]

Day 5 of the interviews! let’s give it up for Ligia! :chinhands:

Ligia, author of Love the Guard, Be the King

Latino Heritage Month Featured Author

Mathias' heart has been bleeding since his father, the former King, decided to punish you for his mistakes. As the youngest child of a lesser bourgeois, you were raised in the castle, between the King’s cruelty, the Queen’s friendship, and  Mathias’s kindness (or supposed kindness?).

Now, more than twenty Carnivals since your arrival, the King is dead and the Queen’s sickness  worsens each day. As the azure taint spreads in the kingdom and the Opalean Wars come to an end, it’s Mathias’s time to sit on the throne.

Will the docile Prince become a kind King, a violent Monarch, or a ruthless Tyrant? Will you have any say in it? And how much will your relationship change?

Love the Guard, Be the King Demo | Author’s Kofi | Read more [here]

Tags: historical, romance

(INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPT UNDER THE CUT)

Q1: So, tell us a little bit about the projects you’re working on!

With pleasure! Right now, I’m working on three main projects. My personal Visual Novel project, “Love the Guard, Be the King,” a second Visual Novel I’ve been secretly working on with a good friend for the past 10 months or so, and I also have an ongoing book series about hot, quirky supervillains—but I’ll focus only on the first two cause that’s what we’re here for, right? Hahaha.

LtGBtK is a really intimist experience, focused more on the MC’s and RO’s character arcs and how we can change depending on our experiences and how we feel about them. The entire plot happens in only four days, but it takes into account almost 30 years of history—basically Mathias’s (the only RO) entire life!

“Crystal Library” has mystery, romance, magic, 6 ROs, and a ton of memorable scenes already. I’m working on the graphics and the programming for this one, while Coco Nichole (@dreamybard), one of my favorite writers ever, is the brilliant mind behind the plot and all of CL’s characters! I can’t wait to share this one with you all. Romance is optional in both. :)

Q2: What excites you most about using interactive fiction? What are some of the biggest challenges?

What I LOVE and FEAR about all types of interactive fiction is how it invites players to, on a much deeper level, be part of the narrative. When reading books, we all work hard to translate beautiful sentences and scenes into images in your head. We interact with it, yes, but when playing IFs, we also explore the narrative in a different way; we have so much more agency over what happens! We sometimes have different paths to choose from, beautiful illustrations to unlock, or character traits that change depending on our choices… it’s amazing, and, IMO, it’s a very unique way to experience narratives.

But it’s also very complex, very demanding, and it can easily get out of hand if you give the players too many options/branches to follow, mainly when working with small teams or, in my case for LtGBtK, alone. *takes a deep breath* I just hope I’m doing a good job. .-.

Q3: What has been something in your project you’ve had to do a weird amount of research for?

Besides programming lol basically everything. For LtGBtK, I’m trying to create this weird fantasy with a modern-medieval society (?), so I’m constantly researching medieval customs, traditions, tools, and weirdly specific stuff like socks. Did people wear socks in the medieval era? What were their playing cards made of? When was ice cream invented? How did they shave? How did kids become knights? What were their perfumes made of? And soaps? What did they eat? How different was their wine? And what kind of materials or slang or fabrics can I use, and what can I change without completely breaking immersion?

 And then I shove all that into a pot and adapt it to a world where Mathias can literally put the world on fire with a wave of his hands. ♥

Q4: Which of your characters is most like you? How?

I think I’m a mix of them all, but mainly Mandra and Rafa (one of my main characters in my supervillain books). They have wildly different personalities and stories, but those two have clear views of the kind of person they want to be, they’re not afraid of their soft sides, and they are ready to work hard to become good at what they love. Rafa has a specially strong connection to her brother, like my siblings and I, and Mand is often locked in an eternal state of wanting to be alone and wanting to be surrounded by family/loved ones, so I guess we meet there too!

Q5: Does your heritage influence your characters as you create them? (How? Why or why not?)

Yes! There are the very basic ways, like habits, names, food, family dynamics, settings (mainly in my books, which are all very Brazilian), and Holidays. And then there’s a more personal way that I’m not entirely sure I can explain because I lived in Brazil for 28 years, and I’m not sure I can put that into words. The classics of our literature are different, Art, architecture, and music developed differently, my country was violently colonized and still faces the results of that violence (including but not limited to structural racism, classism, misogyny etc), I learned some Capoeira in my physical education class at school, we call non-Brazilians “gringos,” and so on. This is my normal, and this is what my characters would see as normal too, because I don’t know any different.

At the very core, all my characters are influenced by my country’s history, by our relationship with other countries, and by the values my parents taught me, passed down to them by my Indigeous-Spanish-Portuguese-German foremothers/fathers. :P

The main, more palpable way my heritage influences my characters, though, is through humor and theme. I think Brazilians have a very specific, sharp, and often very smart kind of humor that, IMO, stems from the type of history our country has, and the way we look at life, sometimes translating pain into humor. As for themes, I usually write about what makes me angry... and there’s a lot in Brazil’s history and modern society that causes me that. :)

But all I know for sure is that I want to show the world Brazilians are much more than samba and soccer.

 Q6: What is something you love to see in interactive fiction?

Other people! In the same way I add my history and worldview to my creations, I always approach stories thinking that there’s a whole, well, history behind them. And I love that! Also, I adore choices that feel impactful + good friendships and family relationships + soft romances with mutual respect. ♥

Q7: Any advice to give?

Hmm. Be proud and celebrate who you are and where you’re from. Learning and understanding the world inside us is a life-long process, so it’s always a victory to discover new pieces of ourselves. :) Also, if you can, talk to people that come from different cultures than yours to expand your worldview, don’t be afraid to be soft (the world needs more kindness), and please study personal finance. Seriously. XD

#if: events #latino heritage month #latino authors #cyoa #choose your own adventure #choose your story #interactive fiction

[i-prefer-the-term-antihero]

Additionally, your thoughts on Dracula and Adrian from the Netflix adaptation of Castlevania? I find Dracula really tragic, and the ending scene of Season 2 crushed me because I was not expecting Adrian to cry. He’s usually so stoic and calm that I didn’t think he would weep, I expected him to just shrug it off like heroes usually do, but no, when given time to process everything, the first thing he does is break down into tears. Sypha was right in calling him a brooding teen in an adult body.

Ohh man. If you just take a look at my writing blog (or anywhere I post my fanfiction) it’ll become pretty clear pretty quickly how I feel about them XD So far all my Castlevania fics have been about the Tepes Family. Adrian and Drac are my favorite characters in the series!! (Though I do love pretty much all the characters in it.)

YES YES YES!!

They did an incredible job making Drac sympathetic and tragic. I don’t know if you know anything about the games, and granted, they couldn’t put a lot of story stuff in the games, but (at least as far as I’m aware) in most of them it’s like “ya, he was an evil dude who did evil things because he was evil.” So it actually would have been pretty accurate to the source to make him just an unsympathetic, irredeemable villain, but they didn’t and I LOVE them for it. Playing Symphony of the Night (Alucards game) after watching the series l was almost longing for that Drac I know and love from the series, (though it’s fun to see evil Drac too).

As I’ve said, I adore redeemable villains, and they did an amazing job with him, to the point where pretty much everyone in the fandom adores him, which is extremely tough to accomplish—even if you write a redeemable villain well, often large parts of the fandom don’t see it and hate the character. I knew that the point was that they were going to defeat Drac but I have to say, especially since I originally knew nothing of the games, I was hoping they’d save him by the end.

I think the fact that he liked and was kind to Hector and Isaac was evidence that he wasn’t too far gone. I mean, the only two people he genuinely trusted and liked in his court were human…that’s so interesting, I wish it was at least talked about, either in the show or in the fandom. I think he actually liked humans, partially or especially because of Lisa, he just...was so angry, and needed someone to blame. He probably ultimately blamed himself for not being there to save her, and it was just easier to blame the humans he once hated/didn’t understand, even if in reality he didn’t hate them as much as he thought he did...

Doing more thinking and research into the show for my “If These Walls Could Talk” fic I recognize now that symbolically it made sense even within the show that he died when Lisa died (which I can explain more about if you want but id probably end up going off on a long tangent so I’ll save it)...but I still thought practically, in the show, he could have still been redeemed.

Omg I LOVED that. The longer I take to sit with it, the more I realize just how much I loved that they put him crying instead of shaking it off.

It’s very interesting that Drac and Alucard are more openly emotional characters. I might be totally wrong, but as far as I remember, they (...and Lisa when she dies, and probably Isaac in a flashback), are the only main characters we see openly cry. It’s a pretty bold move to make any of your characters emotional like that, but especially your villain, and your bold handsome hero. It’s sooo easy to get emotional characters and emotions wrong…or just offputting to some people...but more on that later.

I think Adrian and Drac are both rather sentimental, in an odd way. Much of Drac’s motivations in the show and even in the games (the times his motivations are explained) had to do with his wives (yes he was married before Lisa in the games...unless Lament of Innocence was retconned...) which is interesting. So many of his decisions are based on emotion. He lets Lisa in just because he likes her, he goes to war with the world because of Lisa, he sits in his study mourning her loss, he let’s Alucard kill him… I also notice very often he digs his nails into his palms until they bleed, presumably because if he didn’t he’d hurt someone else (in the scene where he hurts Alucard, he does this). His sentimentality doesn’t diminish is power as a villain, which is SO difficult to accomplish.

 I am emotional myself so I absolutely love to see emotional characters, but for most people, seeing even a normal character be emotional diminishes them in their eyes, or makes them whiny, so making your villain even a little emotional, and having that not take away from the audiences perception of their power as a villain is sooooooo hard to do, and I applaud them for making a so well-beloved, and still villainous and intimidating, but also emotional (at times) villain.

For Alucard. I don’t see any problem with him being emotional, but it makes even more sense if he’s a teen in an adult’s body—which was indeed portrayed quite well.

Yes that was interesting when he cried when drawing his parents!! I wasn’t expecting that when I saw him drawing them. I was enjoying and intrigued by his story so much, then when he started crying I was caught off guard—but in a good way. It really made me feel for him, and understand that he was still grieving his mother, and that knew the gravity of what he was currently doing.

I think it’s kind of important to show that kind of thing in a situation like this. It’s easy to think Alucard hates his dad, and they need to show the emotion of the situation to make it clear “no he doesn’t hate his dad, this actually breaks his heart, he just knows he has to do this.”

I loved when he was telling Trevor and Sypha about how much the world would lose by killing Dracula. It’s really interesting that he hides his emotion with them, and that Trevor and Sypha are so stoic. The son of Dracula isn’t the guy you expect to be the only hero who cries.

In “For Love” when Trevor’s like “Don’t get weepy about it” I was sitting there, sobbing, like “No, please get weepy about it! Let the boy cry for goodness sake!! Give me some emotion!!” But I too was not expecting him to cry like he did, and in grieving the death of his parents...

I knew the crying scene was coming because I’d seen pictures of it on here and pinterest, but I had no context for it. In the end it wasn’t just the weeping itself that made the scene so impactful, it was everything surrounding it. I didn’t know it would happen when he was completely alone (and would be for the foreseeable future), and in grieving his parents, or about the ghosts/flashbacks before it (cementing his grief), or that it was literally the last scene of the season, or that there would be no music for both the scene and the credits thereafter.

And that was what really got me.

Because, firstly, we never got to see any flashbacks to his childhood, and that was what I was begging for the entire series (and hence why its what I write about). To finally get it, and it not to just be something the audience gets to see, but something Alucard himself is seeing... a happy memory he’s seeing when he knows that is completely gone, he cannot hope to have it again, and for him to now be in his father’s place…that’s heartbreaking. Like just having your character cry—let alone those kinds of full-on sobs—is painful enough, showing a son grieving his parents is a particularly heart wrenching kind of sadness, but showing that he is haunted by memories of those parents he lost—not only lost but one of which he killed, and, if SOTN is canon for the show, the other of which he could have saved—of a happy childhood, and he is alone with these memories for the foreseeable future...that is truly heart wrenching.

Also the scene with Trevor and Sypha in the wagon earlier in the episode was super sweet, they could have easily put the Adrian crying scene earlier, and had the Trevor and Sypha scene be the last scene of the season (and Trevor’s game actually does end with them looking into the sunset, so ending with the last scene of “For Love” would be accurate as well), and left it on a positive note, and the audience would have been left with a completeness. But they made a conscious choice put his crying scene last, and it was so powerful, because it made you remember that at the end of the day, he isn’t just our bold handsome hero, he was a son who lost both his parents, and that, to him, this isn’t really a triumph, but a loss. It also kinda confirmed that Drac wasn’t an "evil guy, end of story". That there was reason to grieve him, and to show his son grieving, and to leave it there because of it. It was a personal gravity too

In the end, it was the lack of music in the scene, and even more so during the credits, so theres only his tears, and all you are left with in the end is this amplified emptiness that really did me in. I think I literally sat there, tear tracks on my face, my mouth open when I hit the credits.

Playing Symphony of the Night after watching the show is really interesting in exploring his character. I knew there was very little story, so I wasn’t expecting much from the story, but I actually found that I was beyond excited whenever there actually was some story, and the few lines they did say are stuck with me.

Maria comments early on that Alucard’s not very good at talking. At first I just chalked it up to...weird translations or whatever. But the more I played the game and the more I thought about him in the show...I think she’s right. He’s not very good at talking, yet if and when he does talk he’s quite eloquent, and precise with his words. (This actually makes him a somewhat difficult character to write). I wonder if perhaps this has some connection to his emotionalness. He’s very careful with what he says, and this may spread to what he does—such as being careful when he shows emotion. I’m curious why he’s like this. It could just be his nature, but I wonder if as a kid he was ever hated because he was a vampire—maybe people made fun of him, and he cried, and they made more fun of him because of it—and he learned both to hide his emotions, and that he had to be very deliberate and show people he didn’t mean any ill will with his words. (And he looks older than he is so people might call him immature for acting his mental age). All very speculative, of course. But it’d be fun to write about!

Also, another thing from SOTN that is related to this topic, there was a fight that really struck me (enough I actually wrote a fic about it (inverted recurrence)). SOTN takes plays 300 years after the events of The Netflix Series (aka Dracula’s Curse). Most of the bosses don’t seem to have a lot of meaning story-wise, they’re just there for you to fight. The other day I (Alucard) walked into a boss room...and there were Trevor, Sypha, and Grant (who was omitted from the Netflix series). They were fake versions of them, of course. And there’s no dialogue in the fight so maybe I’m just speculating, but what struck me was that the fact that Dracula could use them against him probably means he still cares about them, even after 300 years. It probably also means that they’re some of the only friends he’s ever had. Granted, he was asleep for a good chunk of those 300 years, still. It goes back to that sentimental-ness I was talking about earlier.

I few years ago I watched the Gravity Falls commentaries, and from them I got a lot of the writing advice I still think about and use today. Alex Hirsch said something on this subject which I really liked which is “Hold your tears.” When a character cries they’ve broken, that’s as far as they can go. So if you make a character cry when the audience themselves doesn’t feel the weight of the scene, or it doesn’t feel like the character has broken yet, it can feel like too...much/cheesy, and distance the audience. especially with cartoons where the way it’s drawn can actually affect your sympathy for the character (it can look weird or accentuated).

They did such an awesome job with this by literally holding his tears until the very end. I don’t know how other, non-emotional people felt about it, but Ive don’t know if I’ve ever seen tears used so well in a show, pack such a punch. To have it not just be a part of the scene but literally the focus, and at the end...it was powerful.

Sorry for the long response, and more importantly, I’m beyond sorry for taking so so SOOO long to respond. I hope you enjoy my response, if you see it <3

P.S. For anyone else who made it all the way to the end, I actually have a Castlevania sideblog now: @symphonyofthewrite !! I’d be beyond happy to recieve asks like this over there, if you’d like to hear more of my thoughts!!

#castlevania #castlevania meta #alucard #alucard castlevania #dracula castlevania #vlad dracula tepes #adrian tepes #adrian fahrenheit tepes #castlevania analysis #castlevania alucard #castlevania dracula #vlad tepes #emotional characters #meta #analysis #castlevania netflix #castlevania season 2 #castlevania season 2 spoilers #castlevania s2 #for love #symphony of the night #castlevania symphony of the night #castlevania sotn #sotn

[lilolilyr]

Tagged by @ongreenergrasses, thank you!

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

Way over 300! Tho it feels like it's been at 300sth so long by now, it'll be weird to look at once it hits 400 :D

Btw, funny how this tag meme asks for so much stuff that can be looked up by just... looking at my Ao3... without asking for any commentary by me? Lol

Anyhow, rest under the readmore bc this is 20 questions and Long!

Personal post - do not reblog

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

995596 - just a few more ficlets or 1 longer fic, and I've got a Million! Hey, maybe I should try to write one with... 4404? (I'd need to ask a calculator xD) words exactly... not rly a hardship with how many drabble exercises (exact wordcounts, 100 is the most used, I also do 200, 500, longest was 10000 exactly lol) I've already done... we'll see!

Over 400k for this year alone, and over half of that is my actual writing (not translations etc), I'm so proud! Last year I only barely hit 200k and that included a lot of translating work

3. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?  

Again, one could look this up in my works filtered - sorted by kudos? But all three of my incubus!jaskier witcher series are in it, part 2 of the series is highest with 1091 kudos, then a Venom halloween oneshot, and 'Belonging', a fluffy snake-crowley piece from my ineffable spouses series (yes, sth with under 1k words - 666 to be exact - is in the top 5... my poor longfics lol)

4. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

...I try to? But atm I have 202 unanswered (and I always click 'mark read' on replies so these are all comments on my own fic) even tho I told myself I'd not let it get past 200, and now I'm doing a tag meme instead of replying to anything so ummmm

Edit: 203 unread now

But I do love love love all the comments I get! And while atm it's still semi-manageable, if it ever gets to the point where I really can't manage to reply to everyone cause it's too much, i'd rly take that as a compliment lol :D I'd still try to reply to the longer and/or more thought through comments tho :)

5. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

*thinks* I have an MCD fic? But not only is that very much a case of ~posting a draft version that's barely in complete sentences insgead of taking the time to turn it into a real longfic~, I also just killed off the mlm couple I only semi care about and left the wlw couple with a happy/hopeful (rly don't remember) ending, so... hm idk whether that counts for angsty ending

Apart from that... I dunno, I just prefer my babies to be happy and fluffy? *.* i remember a mirror milippa in the mirrorverse one where in the end Michael is worried about lying to Philippa about her identity... there are some angsty TOG and Gomens ones but I think they end happy-ish (my memory is. Bad. but looking through my 'angst' tag I just saw a lot of h/c and 'angst with a happy ending')

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

They're all happy???!?

7. Do you write crossovers? If so what’s the craziest one you’ve written?

Ahahahahahhahahaahaha

Check this out

I need you to know that all the works in that collection take part in the same universe (or rather, multiverse), and are alltogether just scratching the surface of my gigantic headcanon multiverse that I've been building in my mind since I was like 10

Actual crossovers other than that I don't remember writing

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Yeh but I only remember clicking 'delete comment', as it should be

Recently I've just gotten a bunch of 'you Need to continue this' and 'omg why isn't there more' or 'this shouldn't end' type comments, not hate, probably not meant maliciously, but So Annoying (maybe espesh bc I don't want to just hit delete on these, but I also don't want to pretend it's fine, but I also don't have the energy for a fight, and trying to explain why that behaviour is entitled and annoying and that I write what I want to write and nice comments should praise what I actually have written, and hoping that they understand and don't get mad is... hard.)

9. Do you write smut? If so what kind?

Check out my rated E and rated M in my works

Mostly femslash lately, but I did also write other smut in the past

Most is a bit dominant/submissive play, but I do also like good fluffy smut with feelings! Best in combo, really :D

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not in the sense of pretending someone else wrote it (that i know of), but posted to other sites without my permission - writing 'don't repost to other sites' etc did Not help, they even copied those tags lol, so I just let it be, choosing my battles wisely etcetc, I'd prefer for my fic not to be cross-posted by others bc then I can't edit or otherwise influence the fic anymore and don't see everyone's reactions to it, but as long as it's not someone pretending they wrote it, I only semi care, not enough to fight it tbh

PSA: I Only post fics to Ao3 (and WIPs/prompt fills to tumblr&discord at times), if you see them somewhere else that's Not Me and you'd do me a favour by checking them out on ao3 and kudosing&commenting there instead :)

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yup, one to Russian a while back, a floreleine (Gunpowder Milkshake) one to Korean just today actually, and I translated a bunch to German myself

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I made a TOG fic together with @cinnamonplums, well mostly I wrote and she made the art :D

Trying to remember whether I ever actually co-wrote anything... don't think so?

13. What’s your all time favorite ship?

Don't make me choose!!!

Atm Milippa is OTP bc I'm busy writing them for @discoveryfemslashfortnight (this is not a post to reblog for the fortnight), but I'm also still rly into Floreleine, Bering&Wells and Andromaquynh and Andronilynh, and I read a lot of Mirandy lately

All-time favs I'm not rly active in atm but will always be dear to me are the ineffable spouses, clintcoulson, heistwives, gosh so many more I'll stop here tho xD

14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

A Heistwives Kinda Job immediately comes to mind

I also rly want to finish at least one cohesive original-ish storyline for the lverse that I already linked for the crossover question above, but I just have so much backstory (it's been over 10 years!!!) and it's... hard...

And everything else that's still WIP and untouched for more than a few months will probably have the same fate lol

Also have a few that haven't even seen the light of day at all, most recent a Mirandy ~what if Andy had been pregnant when Miranda hired her and how would it change the entire storyline~ bit - I wrote it in bulletpoints in one go as quickly as I could, I know I had the finished product in my mind, I don't remember anything now and don't feel like going through the bulletpoints painstakenly filling in the blanks

15. What are your writing strengths?

Writing one-shots quickly in one go

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

Forgetting everything about a fic if I leave it in a draft for a second too long

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

There are many ways to go about it, and I think they all work (depending on the fic and the length and relevance of the dialogue)

I tend to leave single sentences as is, and for longer and important sequences use cursive and 'they said in xylanguage'.

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

The Hobbit apparently? I remember thinking that fic was so long lol, it's 3k

19. What’s a fandom/ship you haven’t written for yet but want to?

Kat/Ana from Reef Break, they have Such Shippable Chemistry, and it would totally fit Kat's player personality to bang both siblings (she's canonically friends with benefits with Ana's half-brother)... but the ship has one (1!) fic on Ao3 *cries*

20. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

TOG Andromaquynh longfic In Your Stead has had the title since last year and probably for a while to come! I loved the story idea so much I really worked with several drafts and only! worked on that fic until it was finished so I wouldn't get distracted & forget about it, and the result was wonderful.

Tagging, if you want to do it, @sarah-fiers @purlturtle @cookie-sheet-toboggan @ussjellyfish @onaperduamedee @startrekgeorgiouery @rosalie-starfall @lonely-night @banashee @xvnot15 and everyone else who sees this

Questions to copy:

1. How many works do you have on AO3? 2. What’s your total AO3 word count? 3. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?  4. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? 5. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending? 6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending? 7. Do you write crossovers? If so what’s the craziest one you’ve written? 8. Have you ever received hate on a fic? 9. Do you write smut? If so what kind? 10. Have you ever had a fic stolen? 11. Have you ever had a fic translated? 12. Have you ever co-written a fic before? 13. What’s your all time favorite ship? 14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will? 15. What are your writing strengths? 16. What are your writing weaknesses? 17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic? 18. What was the first fandom you wrote for? 19. What’s a fandom/ship you haven’t written for yet but want to? 20. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

#tagging meme #tagged #mine #ongreenergrasses #ao3 tag #ao3 link #lilolilyrae #sept'21 #personal #Personal 2021 #28.09.21

[razberryyum]

So you’re done with The Untamed and want more, what now?

Reposting this since I’ve updated it with new info/links. Again, I entered the fandom via The Untamed so I’m by no means a MDZS expert, just tried my best gathering all the resources I can which I hope will help some new Untamed/MDZS fan out there. If you spot any errors, don’t yell at me, just let me know and I’ll correct it as best I can, especially for any future reposts.

READ THE NOVEL

Read the original web novel the show was based on: The Untamed (aka “CQL” or “Chen Qing Ling”) was adapted from the BL web novel, Mo Dao Zu Shi (aka ”MDZS” or Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation) by author Mo Xiang Tong Xiu (”MXTX”). Yes the novel came first, CQL is only an adaptation. In the novel, you get the uncensored romance of Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji, where they are canonically married and living happily ever after. The novel goes full into R18 territory so please tread carefully.

All four volumes of the novel can be purchased from the original publishing site, JJWXC. The site’s in chinese but here’s a tutorial on how to navigate it and purchase the books:  JJWXC Tutorial Link.

There’s also the option of purchasing the physical copies from Yesasia which might be easier but it’s also more expensive since they’re the middle man: Yesasia MDZS Link

It would be wonderful if you can support MXTX-laoshi by actually buying the books, especially since the cover art is so beautiful and the extra chapter volumes come with a lot of awesome extra goodies, but of course there’s also the option of reading the fan translations graciously provided by the Exiled Rebels Scanlations team at their site:  

They translated all the novels including the bonus chapters in their own free time and are providing the fanslations for free so please give them some love for all their hard work.  

WATCH THE ANIME (aka “Donghua” in Chinese)

Watch the anime based on the novel: The donghua was released before The Untamed. Two seasons are already available (23 eps total) with a third season in production and a special chibi version of the donghua in production as well. The Eng-subbed donghua can be seen using the WeTV app or on Youtube:  YT MDZS Donghua Playlist

Grant it, the donghua is even more censored than The Untamed, but the donghua team still managed to sneak in some easter eggs (f.e. WangXian naked bathing scene in the cold springs from the novel...in The Untamed they were fully clothed) and more importantly, the animation is just gorgeous so it’s absolutely worth a watch despite the censorship. 

READ THE MANGA (aka “Manhua” in Chinese)

Read the manhua which is ongoing and is being officially translated by WeComics, available on their app for free. Search under the name “Mo Dao Zu Shi”.

Unfortunately, the official translations are more than 20 chaps behind the raws and there have been complaints about the quality of the translations in the past, but I believe they’re starting to improve so since they’re official, it’s always better to support the official source.

The raw untranslated manhua can be found on the Kuaikanmanhua app. Other than being in Chinese, some of the chapters (f.e. the most recent ones) are behind a paywall, but here’s a tutorial on how to purchase the chapters, provided by @chiharuzushi on Twitter:  Kuaikanmanhua Tutorial

The chapters are quite cheap...I purchase 1000 KK coins for 10 rmb ($0.14) and each chapter is only 68 KK coins so even if we end up with 500 chapters it’ll still be...er...quite cheap overall (don’t make me do the actual math). The most painful part is figuring out how to set up the Kuaikanmanhua account, but otherwise, if you can read Chinese or know enough of the story by now that you don’t really need to read the words, the manhua is definitely worth reading because it’s less censored than The Untamed and the donghua. 

LISTEN TO THE AUDIO DRAMA

Listen to the audio drama, which is at this point the most faithful and LEAST censored adaptation of the novel we will probably ever get! Wei Ying’s voice actor in The Untamed is the voice actor for his audio drama counterpart. (Yes, almost everyone in The Untamed is dubbed by a voice actor, EXCEPT for Nie Huaisang. Ji Li, the actor for NHS, was the only one who used his own voice. Lan Zhan in The Untamed shares the same voice actor as his character in the donghua). 

Each episode art of the audio drama is AMAZING. Google Translate works well on the site, you’d want to see the listeners’ comments cuz they’re just adorable and hilarious.

Official links on Maoer FM:

Season 1: Maoer FM S1 Link

Season 2: Maoer FM S2 Link

Season 3: Maoer FM S3 Link

The audio drama was supervised by MXTX-laoshi, the author of the novel, so a lot of love and care went into the production, and it shows. The audio drama is behind a paywall but I remember it’s relatively inexpensive. Here’s the tutorial on how to purchase the audio drama from the Maoer FM site:  Maoer FM Tutorial Link

Ngl, it was tough at first navigating all that, Google translate helped, but once I figured it out, it was all so worth it because in addition to the MDZS, the site houses a lot of other wonderful audio dramas. There are also MDZS fan songs on the site that are near professional quality and oh so good.

Suibian Subs have kindly translated the episodes and their translations are available here:  Suibian Subs MDZS Audio Drama

Show them some love too for translating the episodes, but please if you can, purchase the episodes so you can support the audio drama team which have done an amazing job.

There’s even a Japanese audio drama which the Chinese AD team helped spearhead, available on the MIMI FM app. Here’s a tutorial on how to purchase the eps (half of the first season is out): MIMI FM Tutorial

It’s in Japanese but just follow the pictures. I’m hoping that the Japanese audio drama will end up being the MOST uncensored version of MDZS since Japanese BL dramas are not afraid (and allowed) to go all the way to R18. XD

MORE THE UNTAMED CONTENT

Lastly, if you’re just thirsting for more Untamed content, there are two spin-off movies you can watch. The first one, The Living Dead, is kind of centered on Wen Ning and Sizhui post-CQL. 

The second one, Fatal Journey, is focused on the Nie brothers, Nie Mingjue and Nie Huaisang, with a cameo by Jin Guangyao. It takes place prior to Wei Ying’s return from the dead.

Of the two movies, I definitely recommend Fatal Journey more. Both movies are available on the iQiyi app, which offers a one month free trial for first members. Each month afterwards for VIP is $6.99.

You can also go on the WeTV app for even more Untamed extras: WeTV put out a special edition cut of the show which tightened up the story AND features the original ending that was intended before censorship forced the production team to come up with the more ambiguous one we saw in its original run. It was a simple matter of rearranging certain scenes and getting rid of the separation part, but imho it really made all the difference to the ending.

There’s a ton of behind-the-scene cuteness that you can watch and also concerts with the cast in Thailand and Nanjing. VIP subscription to the WeTV app is $5.99/month and the Nanjing concert is for rent for 3 months at about the same price.  

The show also put out two official soundtracks, one for the vocals and one for the score. Both are available on Amazon and iTunes. For Amazon though, you can search under “The Untamed” but they did this weird thing where the vocals one is listed as “The Untamed (Chinoiserie Music Album)” (wtf) while the score is just listed as “The Untamed (Original Soundtrack)”.

Finally, most of the male members of the cast took part in a fan meet and greet at the start of the show, before it became hugely popular. The entire meet and greet is available on youtube subbed: The Untamed Fan Meeting

That’s it for The Untamed and MDZS. If you end up liking the novel enough to want to read more by the same author, MXTX-laoshi has also written two other BL novels, The Scum Villain Self-Saving System (aka “SVSSS” or “Scum Villain”) and Heaven’s Official Blessing (aka “TGCF” after its Chinese title). Both have been fully translated by fans (but always try to buy the original if you have the means, as a way to support the author!): 

SVSSS Translation: BC Novels Link

TGCF Translation chaps 1 - 24:  Sakhyulations Link

TGCF Translation chaps 25 - End: Suika & Rynn Link

As with reading any BL novel (aka “danmei novel” for Chinese BL books), please heed the warnings and if it’s not your cup of tea, just exit out of the page and move on with your life. No big deal, right? 

Anyway, hope all this info dump helps someone! If you’re brand spanking new to this fandom, welcome, and I’m so jealous of you! Would love to relive stepping into the world of MDZS/MXTX/danmei novels all over again since I feel like I’m already running out of stuff to read and I’m beginning to panic a little. 

Happy watching/reading/listening!  

#The Untamed #CQL #Mo Dao Zu Shi #MDZS #WangXian #MXTX

[factual-fantasy]

I got 25 asks that took me WAY too long to reply to! :}

I have two top favorite episodes, the cone snail episode and the beluga whales episode.

When it comes to my favorite part of both episodes..?

..Not happy parts...

I have absolutely no idea what you just suggested.

(Referring to this post)

Thank you! That was the intention. :} I was worried that their faces all looked weird..

You want to learn more? Man.. maybe I should post that headcannon draft..

Yeah haha, this blog has taken quite the U-turn hasn’t it? I’m just glad everyone seems okay with it so far. <:} I’m excited for season 5 also! I hope it comes out soon! :D

THANK YOU, I WILL CHERISH THIS LOVE YOU HAVE GIVEN ME FOREVER

Yes and no.

Does he think of his crew as children? Absolutely not. They are all fully grown, intelligent and capable adults, and he darn well treats them like it.

But you bet that if one of them is in danger or is frightened, he’s dropping everything he’s doing and rushing to their aid as if they’re his cub that just wondered out onto the highway.

ME TOO! I always felt like he had this fatherly vibe to him with some professionalism sprinkled on top. Like he’s always looking out for his team because he cares for them and worries about them, but its kind of disguised as him just doing his job as the Captain.

I plan to draw more Protective Barnacles because its my jam, so don’t worry! That side of you will have some more fuel soon XD. And thank you for all the compliments! :}

Daww thank you, it twaz nothin. I’m just glad that people want to see my art.

Well, taking everyone into consideration, the tallest is Captain Barnacles, and the shortest is Tomminow. (This little guy 👇)

The Vegimals aside though? Peso is the shortest. 

(And thank you! I’m glad :})

Honestly? Awful. I feel like absolute garbage, I just hope this will all finally go away soon.

Not really no, and no thanks on the cookies, I shouldn’t eat anything until I get super hungry because everything gives me stomachaches.. But a hug would sure be nice right about now.

I can give you a link to their wiki pages if that’ll help, I’m not really good with my words and you can learn everything you need to know about them there. <:}

Captain Barnacles (The polar bear guy)

Kwazii (The orange pirate cat guy)

Peso (The bby Penguin doktor)

Shellington (Tall Otter boi)

Dashi (Doge girl with skirt)

Professor Inkling (Fancy squik)

Tweak (Green bunny country gal chick)

The Vegimals (Little veggie dudes)

All the Gups (Metal fishes)

The Octopod (Momma metal squik)

Whos the youngest Octonaut? Well, if we’re not including the Vegimals, I’d say its probably Peso. And the oldest is most likely Professor Inkling.

Does anyone have claustrophobia? Yes! Captain Barnacles canonically does. He got trapped in a deep hole in some icy caves as a cub, since then he’s been afraid of tight and closed in spaces. I have extended on that fact and thought of many different scenarios relating to the aftermath of the Octonauts movie, but you know.. still not confident in all this Octonauts stuff so I haven’t posted my headcannons yet. <:/

Novelas translated into English means Soap Opera.

You think so? I feel like that’s not Kwazii’s thing, he’d probably like horror movies and action filled movies. But Peso probably would like them not gonna lie, him and Dashi would probably watch them together.

Well, in my draft post I’ve got two headcannons for her so far.

Tweak likes sleeping in the launch bay for the #1 reason that she can hear the water sloshing around in the bay. Which mimics the sound the water in the swamp used to make when she lived there with her Dad.

Tweak gets bad migraines when she’s sick, so the other Octonauts have to do a lot to accommodate her. Because the beds in the med bay aren’t that soft, she prefers to sleep in her room when she’s sick. But then the usually comforting sounds of the water in the launch bay become pain inducing. So the launch bay is emptied of all its water, the lights are shut off and, unless its an emergency, no one is allowed in the launch bay until she recovers. 

I looked it up, and its true.

KWAZII WAS A GIRL IN THE BOOKS?? THEN WHY IS HE A BOY IN THE SHOW?? WHY DID THEY CHANGE THAT?? WH??? I mean, don’t get me wrong, I like this Kwazii more than I would any other version of him, but still, WHY’D THEY CHANGE THAT?? IM GLAD THEY DID BUT WHY??

Hmm.. let me think...

Captain Barnacles most likely doesn’t ever have uninterrupted free time, and even when he does, he probably still prefers to be up in HQ where anyone can find him if they need him. But lets say for the sake of it that he has some free time and he takes it. He’d probably either want to play his accordion, or want to read a book.

I feel like there’s a lot of different things Kwazii likes to do in his spare time, but goofing around in the Gup-B is probably his favorite.

Peso probably likes to do puzzles and play his xylophone.

Dashi probably reads books while listening to music. How she does both of these things at the same time I have no idea.

Tweak probably plays video games.

Professor Inkling and Shellington both probably read books in their free time.

I’m not too sure what the Vegimals would do in their free time though..

Oh yes, indeed it does. 

Before becoming the Captain of the Octonauts, Barnacles had to ask himself,  “Am I really ready to be their leader?” Can he handle managing a team of that size? Can he react to situations fast enough and make the right choices? He thought it through and believed that yes. He was ready.

But he wasn’t. He wasn't prepared for that gut wrenching anxiety when one crew member goes missing. He wasn't prepared for the crippling heat that most everywhere else has compared to his home. He wasn't prepared to become so attached to his crew that the thought of something happening to them keeps him awake for nights in a row. He wasn’t prepared for that overwhelming nausea of missing home and his sister. 

There was a lot he didn’t know. They’d all turn to him when something went wrong and ask if everything's going to be okay. He’d say “don’t worry, its all going to be okay.” but he’s just as unsure as everyone else.

Now don't get me wrong, he’s not this completely hopeless and unexperienced Captain that bit off more than he could chew, no. There’s just somethings he didn’t think about before becoming Captain of the Octonauts.

Now usually he can really keep himself composed almost always. He’s very level headed and very good at thinking his way through things, But sometimes? He just.. needs a break. He usually cant get a break because he’s the Captain and always needs to be alert, so everyone else that sees it usually tries to help.

Some crew members, like the Vegimals and Kwazii, have a habit of following the Captain around when they see that he’s tired to keep an eye on him. Others like Shellington and Dashi tend to give him space and keep things quiet for him. Some crew members, like Peso and Tweak tend to clean up around the place to take some weight off the Captains shoulders, they all help him out in some way.

Professor Inkling will sometimes find an excuse to pull him aside to have some tea with him. They’ll sit and talk for a bit but then he’s back up on his feet and back to work. This poor bear..

..hold on.. was this a drawing suggestion?

Dashi and Tweak would probably hang out in Dashi’s room and goof around. Not sure what they’d do.. maybe read, talk, play games or.. idk pillow fights? I don’t know what girls do on a girls night.

As for everyone else? I also am not sure, I don’t know what all those characters with all their clashing personalities would do on a boys night. Maybe they would all watch a movie? All attempt bake something obnoxious together? They seem like the kind of characters that would do that.

I’ve never been to a girls night or a guys night, so I don't really have much of a base to go off of.. but both groups would probably get together and do something they’d all enjoy. Guys maybe a funny movie, and the girls just talking and reading books? <:D 

For real that’d be hilarious. Imagine if their voices were deep and gruff too but they just make them sound high pitched for fun?

Dude that’d be so funny. Like Kwazii’s up to his shenanigans again blabbering on about some sea monster or what have you, and Tunip out of nowhere just goes,

“Kwazii legit stop, we all know that you’re just talking about some ordinary sea creature that pirates interpreted as a sea monster.“

The whole crew gon be like

If this game existed in their world and they all played it.....

Captain Barnacles would make it through a pacifist run and would be satisfied. He’s some kind of weirdo who doesn’t think of characters as real people and doesn’t obsess over them and cry about them. Overall he thinks the game is pretty neat, but probably not his type of game.

Kwazii would want to test his skills by attempting a genocide, but his heart of gold would get in the way and he wouldn’t be able to complete it. He’d feel terrible for killing goat mom, reset and go hard pacifist next round. Overall he thinks the game is awesome.

Peso would want to talk to every character so they’d all be included in the story. He’d go full pacifist and cry over the story and its characters. Overall 10/10 for him.

Dashi would probably cry over the game a lot and would never attempt a genocide run because the characters are now her family.

Shellington would hate the fighting parts so would delay those bits by walking around and talking to characters over and over again.

Tweak would go through a neutral run because she sometimes accidently kills weaker monsters. Overall she loves the story and its characters, 10/10 would play again.

Professor Inkling would become invested in the story I bet. Complimenting the story arcs for the characters and its creative game play. But I feel like he’d only play it once and probably wouldn’t beat it, but would have fun with it none the less.

Thank you!!!♡♡♡ Man, I never expected such a positive response to switching to Octonauts, I cant believe everyone is so excited about it! I’m so glad you like my Octonauts art, that really makes me feel better and like what I’m drawing is worth while. ɷ◡ɷ

Aww I’m glad! And oh yeah, the animals at the end were always scary. Remember the Boo the spookfish?

Boo was a cute little googly eyed fishy boi who was just so sweet and somft until the creATURE REPORT AND I-

THAT’S MY QUE TO YEET THE COMPUTER

Dawww thank you!! I tried. <:}

#octonauts #my response #octonauts headcannons #octonauts spoilers

[bemused-writer]

VNC Chapter 47 Analysis

They're labeling this as "chapter 48" on official sites, but the last chapter was chapter 46.5, so I'm just going to call this 47 and hope for the best. XD Anyway, let's get right into it.

We start out with Jeanne at Carbunculus Castle, the place Noé and Vanitas were infamously kicked out of back in chapter 13. We see that Jeanne has an interest in books (and that Luca has given her permission to read his) and goes straight for the fairy tales.

Now, I suspect as a bourreau, she wasn't granted a whole lot of time to read, so the fact that Luca let's her read his books is probably considered a luxury. She looks awfully excited to be reaching for a book. Once again, we see how much Luca cares about her and how much has been withheld from Jeanne for so long.

Because of this, I'm guessing she's unfamiliar with a lot of the stories we take for granted, such as Sleeping Beauty. Regardless, Jeanne enjoys the story about the princess and inserts herself in it, only as the prince rather than the princess. It's interesting that, despite her history with Vanitas where he's been the one helping her (when he wasn't mocking her), she sees herself as the hero of the piece and Vanitas as the person who she can save. This fits in with the more domineering personality she's been demonstrating lately. And frankly, Vanitas is probably going to need her help at some point, so she's probably not completely wrong, even if it seems unlikely that Vanitas would ever accept such a simple romance.

Here's the thing, Jeanne's view on romance is pretty simplistic. That's not bad, but it means she and Vanitas are once again coming at things with a very different perspective. She's envisioning a relationship where she protects him, he welcomes this behavior, and then they go off to enjoy romantic bliss. But the thing is, we know Vanitas doesn't feel this way at all. He's terrified of genuine emotion because he can't believe anyone would think well of him, so unsurprisingly he hates himself, and he doubly hates it when people try to save him or protect him at their own expense (see his reaction to Noé doing just that in chapter 11). So, everything Jeanne wants out of a relationship right now is not going to work for Vanitas. Because, well, all Vanitas wanted out of a relationship was someone who would hate him while also being fun to mess with.

...His standards are pretty low. He is clearly not ready for a relationship of any kind. And, well, Jeanne isn't either, really, because her standards are too... unrealistic, especially considering who we're talking about here.

Anyway, Luca shows up and the two chat a bit before they're interrupted with the news that Dominique is missing.

Now this here is very interesting for a lot of reasons. 1) Apparently the de Sades are not considered reliable. She's been gone for three days and they're only now looking into it? This family is supposed to be politically savvy, yet somehow they get away with ridiculous behavior. Hmmm... 2) We finally know what Dominique's duty is: she's a royal guard. This is big. For one, it means she's been wearing an actual uniform this whole time and it's not just her sense of style. For another, she and Jeanne have kind of similar professions. They're both protecting the royal family. And yet, despite having this important job, Dominique's family treats her like a failure. Why? Is it her meek personality? Or do they not consider the duty of a royal guard all that important?

Honestly, the more I think about it, the more I wonder if "royal guard" translates to "de Sade spy" because I have a hard time believing this crafty of an aristocratic family would allow their daughter to simply be on guard duty all day. If so, no wonder Dominique is always so stressed.

The guard continue to tell Luca something, but we don't get to hear the whole exchange because we shift to Jeanne's perspective. Still, the guard is saying that something is happening in the humans' Paris, and I think it's safe to assume it's the "vampiric incidents" Noé referenced in chapter 45.

Considering how things are turning out, I think we can also assume the curse bearer is Dominique and these incidents were instigated by Misha. Why would he do this? To get Noé's and Vanitas's attention. His plans haven't really been subtle so far, but he likely knows what they've been up to: saving vampires.

Still, this theory doesn't totally hold up because Misha's plan rested on Dominique luring Noé to him. If we assume he corrupted her name, it's possible she went on a rampage without his instruction and this wasn't part of the plan whatsoever, though, and is therefore still possible.

Luca asks Jeanne to do him a favor, but at this point we cut back to Noé, so we don't know what it's going to be. I'm not sure what role Jeanne and Luca are going to play in this arc. They're unlikely to come in time to save Dominique; they have no idea where she is and even if Vanitas stopped to ask for help, it would be too late. What's more likely is they'll get involved after Vanitas has "rescued" Noé or intervened in some fashion.

Speaking of Noé, he really had a lousy time of it this chapter, didn't he? I'm beginning to see a shift in dynamics. In the first two arcs (Bal Masqué and Catacombs) Noé was the one who did the bulk of the protecting in his partnership with Vanitas. He saved him from Ruthven and he saved him from Moreau. With Gévaudan and now this arc, it seems Vanitas is having to step in to protect Noé.

Having said that, Noé still seems to be the target for a lot more of the malicious acts in this series than Vanitas is, and I'll talk a bit more about that momentarily.

Misha says he wants Noé to drink Vanitas's blood so he'll finally know why Vanitas killed their "Father." Noé admits he has no idea what this kid is even talking about, which surprises Misha.

That all by itself already raises some questions. Everything we've seen of Vanitas makes it pretty obvious he wouldn't talk about his past so easily, but Misha assumed Noé must know a great deal about Vanitas.

Misha: "Well, well. I was overthinking it, huh? You've been together all this time, and yet... You don't know a thing about my brother, do you Noé?"

Was Vanitas more open before he killed Vanitas of the Blue Moon? Or did Misha simply assume that for Vanitas to spend any length of time with someone suggested it must be someone he'd talk to about everything? I mean, in fairness, Vanitas has confided more in Noé than anyone else, but they haven't known each other that long, so his entire backstory would be a bit much right now. Also, how long as Misha been keeping an eye on them? He seems to have some idea of how things are going between them. Either that, or he's making a lot of assumptions.

I find this darkly amusing. Misha has some awareness of how insane his request sounds, but he figures it's simply because Noé doesn't have all the facts and not because, you know, he kidnapped his best friend and is threatening to kill her.

Anyway, Misha rightly assumes that explaining things will probably take a lot of time and Noé frankly has no reason to believe him anyway, so he reaches a conclusion: he'll just have Noé drink his own blood, give him the facts, and then toss Noé at Vanitas to finally get the answer he seeks.

This is such a fascinating mix of good and bad logic colliding here. On one hand, information is good! You definitely want people to have that if you're hoping to get them to help you. On the other hand, forcing the guy you're holding hostage to engage in an intimate act with you to learn those facts probably isn't going to endear him to you in any shape or form. 8D Misha simply assumes that once Noé sees how Vanitas killed his father, he will sympathize with him and want to help him. He's completely forgetting that he is hurting Noé and the person he cares about, Dominique, and that that isn't something he's about to forget anytime soon. He's also not taking into account that Noé has, you know, morals. Forcing himself on Vanitas isn't something he's going to readily do even if he does think killing Vanitas of the Blue Moon was messed up.

Noé doesn't want to drink Misha's blood. He is horrified by his behavior, his actions, and what is basically sexual harassment at this point. But despite all that, Noé drinks his blood anyway, and the reasoning is simple.

She means everything to him and he's worried about her. I've wondered for a while now if Noé is aware of how traumatized Dominique actually is from what happened to Louis. This section makes me think that the answer is "yes."

I can't find the panel right now, but I seem to remember at some point Vanitas made a comment about Dominique being forward or something like that and Noé said "She wasn't always like that." But he said it so simply I figured he thought Dominique underwent a transition just because. But the above panel shows that her transformation was really painful for Noé, too. He had to witness her physically change herself, emotionally change herself, all in an effort to become another person, whom they both cared about and missed. That's psychologically taxing for everyone involved and I think that both Noé and Dominique assigned themselves the duty of protecting the other. Dominique spends all her time trying to make sure Noé is safe as well as trying to become someone she thinks Noé will love, and now we see that Noé was so frightened by her attempt to become Louis he knew he had to do everything he could to protect her.

Also, for ages now I've thought that Noé was projecting Louis onto Dominique or that certain moments with Dominique made him think of Louis, but I need to retract some of that. Since Dominique spent so much time dressed as Louis, those time he "thought of Louis" were probably times he was thinking of Dominique in her "Louis phase." Which is definitely hard to keep track of, but for now I think we should just assume all the times he drank "Louis's blood," or danced with "Louis" he really did do those things with Dominique.

Which means another thing: these two have a much higher chance of being a couple than I originally thought. There's even more history and backstory together than I'd realized, and we're really seeing how much Noé cares for Dominique now. The real hindrance in this relationship is Noé's obliviousness and Dominique's self-hatred.

But let's get to Misha's backstory, which we get to see as Noé views his memories.

This panel right here explains Misha's behavior pretty well actually, which is handy because Misha's behavior is decidedly unsettling. There's no denying the sexual way Misha handled himself when he offered his blood to Noé and it seemed to me like a very learned behavior. We see here that's the case. The phrase "turn tricks" means to engage in sex, so what the guards are telling us is that Misha's mother had him perform sexual acts with her customers. So, that's unbelievably messed up, but Misha's behavior makes a lot more sense now. He was taught to do this, is used to doing this, and knows it's a method to get what he wants. Well, he wants Noé to do something for him, and, well, drinking blood is often a seduction method for vampires, so I guess by that logic he should get exactly what he wants.

Except Noé isn't a customer, he's not interested in Misha, and he's essentially having a panic attack. Not an ideal way of getting someone to do what you want. Like I said, Misha's logic is a fascinating mix of good and bad and that is really being highlighted right now.

Also, going back to Misha making assumptions about Noé and Vanitas's relationship, I think it's likely that, given his background, he was probably convinced those two were sleeping with each other, which is probably why he also figured Noé knew more about Vanitas than he does.

One thing that surprised me about this chapter was that we got to see Roland! Out of all the things I expected, I really didn't expect to learn that he and Misha met at some point. XD But this is an interesting connection, one that I feel like has to come up again at some point. We see that Roland is very good with children with a good sense of humor and a kind nature. We also see he was pretty heavily injured when Misha first met him.

I really have to wonder what happened to put Roland in such a sorry state....

Regardless, he assures Misha he will have a new home with lots of friends. But then Misha asks an odd question: Why did the chasseurs kill the vampire that killed his mother?

Roland is understandably confused and then horrified as Misha explains the vampire saved his mother.

And here we are, back to the question of "What is salvation?"

Misha says his mother became cruel to him and that she was always angry, but the vampire restored her smile and she seemed kind again. In other words, she died, but she was also restored, however briefly, to the mother Misha had missed for so long.

So, Vanitas and Misha both had their families killed by vampires. Vanitas's reaction is more what we might expect from that trauma: he distrusts vampires, maybe hates them, but he's also seen how awful humans are and has decided everyone is awful. We can assume that the death of Vanitas's family didn't restore any faith in vampires, that's for sure.

But for Misha, that wasn't the case. This vampire was clearly a cruel, horrible man, but Misha was already used to being around cruel, horrible people. That probably didn't register as all that different from the norm. But his mother's smile did, and so he views vampires fondly.

Basically, we're seeing two different reactions to somewhat similar trauma (the death of one's family) and different ways of treating vampires based off of it. Vanitas wants them to stay away from him unless he's the one with all the power and because he wants to maintain a sense of autonomy, he especially doesn't want an Archiviste drinking his blood. He threatened Noé with death if he ever attempted it. He keeps his secrets close and people far away.

Misha was raised in an environment where he was hardly keeping people away. He's used to being an open book--or at least pretending to be one--and so he embraces vampires and wants his past to be known because that's how he establishes power: by drawing people in. Misha sees an Archiviste's abilities as "useful" not "bad."

Anyway, Roland makes a comment about the vampires leading Misha's heart astray. I wonder if this is how Astolfo feels about Roland now? Hmm...

We briefly see Olivier as well, and he's just as beat up as Roland. Just what were these two doing? Also, someone says "my Lord," which I think was aimed at Olivier, and if so, that confirms my suspicions that he's of the aristocracy.

Misha is whisked away the second Roland's back is turned and he's given to Moreau who then places him in Vanitas's care. My guess is the next several chapters are going to be Misha's flashbacks before we return to the present day, which means it's going to be a bit before we hear from Vanitas and Jeanne.

My biggest question is, of course, how Vanitas will react to this scene. I can see it going a few ways. He could be appalled at what Misha has done and direct his anger at him. Or he might wonder if Noé was so eager to know his past he agreed to drink Misha's blood for that alone.

But in this case, it really has nothing to do with Vanitas; Noé is simply willing to do whatever it takes to save Dominique. Learning about Vanitas wasn't something he was remotely interested in in this scenario. Quite different from the norm!

Also, can Noé even trust the memories he sees from Misha? Are these memories "accurate" or are they distorted by Misha's own impressions? Furthermore, what will happen to Noé after being immersed in someone else's memories for so long? He can't fully remember Jean-Jacques's memories because it was all smashed together, but this is a very clear reading, possibly the deepest he's ever done. I don't know if he'll recover readily from this.

And when Vanitas gets there, how is he going to save Noé and Dominique? Will he freeze when he sees Misha? How powerful is this kid?

And then there's the mark on Misha's arm. It's on the opposite arm to Vanitas's, which makes me think the mark shows up wherever a vampire bites as opposed to having a set location. Another interesting thing about this mark is that he's missing part of his arm. In the flashback, Misha has both hands, so did he lose one because of Moreau? Or is this a result of being rewritten from using the book too much? There's a lot to consider there.

I'm very eager to see the next chapter. This is quite a clever way of giving us some backstory without having Noé betray Vanitas's trust. I'm curious to see how things continue and just how awful Moreau was. b>Edit: So, I completely forgot to make a couple of points. XD I'll just add them to the bottom.

I wanted to talk about Noé and how he's been bearing the brunt of the trauma of late and why that might be. I think at least some of it is to go against our expectations. Noé is a vampire, and generally speaking, vampires have the advantage in any story about them. They're stronger, practically immortal, and knowledgeable on account of their age. Noé is physically stronger than Vanitas, but he isn't immortal, and he's actually somewhat naive. This is already different from our expectation. But what's also different is Noé undergoing so much trauma.

Of course, I don't think Mochizuki is doing this just to mess with our expectations. I also think it's because Noé tends to be trusting and he tends to go into situations without proper warning from Vanitas. On several occasions now, Noé has criticized Vanitas for not stating things clearly (the Catacombs arc) and for not telling him vital information (the Gévaudan arc). And whenever Vanitas doesn't tell him something, Noé suffers for it. A few other examples: If Noé had known how little Vanitas trusts Ruthven, maybe he would have been more careful about going out to coffee with him. If he'd known Vanitas even had a brother and that he was dangerous, maybe he could have asked Vanitas for help first. If he'd known there was a second book he would have been radically more prepared for what faces him now.

I'm not trying to say all of this is Vanitas's fault because it isn't. Noé could be more careful in general and less trusting as well. But it definitely wouldn't have hurt for Vanitas to speak up sooner.

Another thing I wanted to touch on briefly is something I've talked about before, and that's how one of the themes of this series is consent and what that actually looks like. We have Vanitas and Jeanne where I think consent was dubious in their relationship, but then it transformed and is maybe more consensual now (their relationship is currently in flux). Then we see how Noé has had a lot of unwanted attention thrust on him from people like Ruthven, Chloé, and now Misha. I think that suggests that at some point, we're going to have to see him in a more stable, consensual relationship. Noé tends to brush things off; he let go of Chloé's treatment easily. But with this constant barrage, I feel like we're either going to see him snap or we're going to see him be more firm in his boundaries.

And then about his drinking Misha's blood: Will this finally heal his hand? I know I've been fixated on his chopped off hand for a while now, but it really drives me crazy. 8D

Okay, I think I've covered everything I meant to now. There was a lot to think about with this chapter.

#vanitas no carte #vnc spoilers #vnc meta #Bemused's post

[bleachbleachbleach]

13, 46 and 73 for the asks game (hope it's okay I did more than one!)

Ask game here!

Yes! Thanks for submitting multiple! It might take me a little longer to answer, since apparently I have to listen to each song several times before I can make a decision about it. XD

13 -- Potion by Eric Nam

This song has a kind of party vibe to it, and I think it's about drinking?

(ope I just looked up the English translation to the lyrics)

Tonight's the last time I'll think of you Let’s get wild, one shot Just pour it up, pour it up Time won’t heal, we all know that's a lie So let’s get lit tonight So pour it up, pour it up That potion

Matsomoto for sure. Or honestly, even Kira's repressed soul. D:

46 -- Miracle (Manila Killa Remix) by CHRVCHES

I know this song is remix of a real song, but I don't think I've ever heard the real thing lol. Luckily the remix still has some of the lyrics.

And I need you to know, I'm not asking for a miracle But if love is enough, could you let it show? If you feel it could you let me know?

Ask me no questions, I will tell you no lies Careful what you wish for We're looking for angels in the darkest of skies Saying that we wanted more Could you, could you, could you let it show?

Apparently I'm in a Matsumoto mood tonight, because this is making me have big feels for Matsumoto and Ichimaru. DDDD:

73 -- さよならごっこ (Sayonara gokko) by amazarashi

Ooh, this is the ED to Dororo, which is a very good series, if you haven't seen it. I mostly just associate this song with that anime, but I'm gonna do my best to think of a good way to apply it to Bleach. This song always makes me feel very melancholy.

(Oh god, I just looked up the translated lyrics and they broke my heart. Tonight is full of big feels, I guess.)

The reason we joke and laugh is that the road we travel is so dark, and I guess it's our job to turn on the lights. I'm all too familiar with pretending to say goodbye, but I still broke into tears as I waved farewell. This deep red sadness of ours gets darker, and darker, and then becomes night. Even if it's inevitable that tomorrow will come around, I didn't ever say that I wanted to live for it. Even though I'm better off quitting, I still keep on having dreams of the future. Of the future. And it's all your fault.

...

If love was there from the very beginning, we never checked to be sure. Destiny takes us along to meet the most unexpected people, and they leave a lasting impression in the depths of our hearts. If there's hardship, we can bear it. If there's pain, we can share it. But I couldn't shoulder your burdens all the way up to your fated destination. Farewells are always hard, no matter how many times I've done them, so we're only pretending to part ways. This is just a goodbye game. It's a game where I trick myself by saying "I'm sure we'll meet again." ("I'm sure we'll meet again.")

This is giving me huge angsty Renji feels. When he is separated from Rukia once she is adopted by the Kuchiki family?? And then he spends the next 40yrs trying to reunite with her again?? BIG RENJI FEELS.

#ask game #spotify ask game #bleach meme #rays-of-fire-and-ice #matsumoto rangiku #ichimaru gin #abarai renji #kuchiki rukia

[dreamcaughtme]

I MET YOO KIHYUN: the post of my LIFE.

Hello. Yes.

I received two (2) tickets to enter the raffle for an online fansign through Japanese Tower Records, since I live here and the store is about a 40-minute train ride’s journey away from me. I almost didn’t even register the raffle tickets, y’all; I thought, there is no way. There’s no way I am going to win with TWO raffle tickets after there are people who have purchased literally thousands of albums for this fansign.

Yet I decided to enter. And this, my good dudes, is what transpired.

First of all, I ACCIDENTALLY SCREWED UP THE CALL~~I was supposed to be #6 out of 30, and they disconnected the call because I couldn’t get the mic to work (I was on the phone with the staff and literally HEARD YOO KIHYUN’S VOICE IN THE BACKGROUND--IT WAS TORTURE). So I tried not to cry as I sat there in front of my phone, hoping and praying desperately that they’d give me a second chance to answer my phone and get the mic right.

And they DID!!!! They bumped me to the very end. And this, THIS is what transpired.

First photo: Yoo Kihyun greeting me and looking excited to see me

Okay, y’all. This was his face. THIS WAS HIS FACE. Do you realize how precious it is to have someone looking at you like that SAIDOUASIDUAISODU it’s an absolute miracle I kept my cool and remained composed? Like I actually remained composed. I don’t know how it happened.

SECOND PHOTO: Yoo Kihyun smiling when I said it was good to finally meet him and then APOLOGIZING for the connectivity issues even though I was the problem.

This is how it went.

“Hello, Kihyun!”

“Hi, [my name]!”

“It’s good to finally meet you!”

“Yeah, finally! So sorry about the...little problem!”

“It’s okay! It’s my fault!”

“No, no. It’s not your fault.”

THIRD PHOTO: Ya girl personally invites Yoo Kihyun to come to Tokyo LOL who am i

He asked me where I was (definitely think he was surprised to hear that I live in Tokyo). He said he wants to come to Tokyo. I personally invited him to Tokyo. Yes. I did that. Hahah. As if there’s not a whole virus ravaging the world right now, preventing him from going on tour. That’s probably the closest I got to being flustered xD He said he couldn’t come Tokyo yet but that he wants to, and I told him I understood. Oh, gosh. I’m so glad I somehow didn’t notice how precious his smile was until AFTER the video call bc lemme tell you, if I’d have focused on his smile right here, y’all, I’d have lost it.

FOURTH PHOTO: Ya girl asks Yoo Kihyun for permission to tell him something (like it’s not his actual job in this moment to be my captive audience)

Me: there’s something I want to tell you.

Me: is it okay to tell you?

Kihyun: mmmm (like, the affirmative “mmm”).

Me: thank you very much

(also, as the very supportive @uwunnie​ pointed out in her reaction video to this video call, I want to mention that he struggled to keep a smile in check as I began speaking.)

FIFTH PHOTO: this actually isn’t the fifth photo, I just really wanted you to see his face being particularly wonderful and attentive again

ACTUAL FIFTH PHOTO: Ya girl tells Yoo Kihyun what I’ve wanted to say...for years.

Here’s the serious part.

Tw for eating disorders, body image

I explained to Kihyun, in simple terms because I didn’t want to say anything that the monitors would consider “inappropriate,” that there was a time in my life two years ago when I didn’t feel beautiful or confident. I explained that I stopped eating and became very sick. During that time, Kihyun and the other members of Monsta X made me smile and helped me with their kindness. I explained then....

SIXTH PHOTO: Kihyun’s reaction to my story

I explained then that I am now SO healthy and SO happy and living my dream...to which this precious human literally clasped his hands together and did a small bow at me. I then thanked him for his kindness in Korean (y’all don’t even know...I had a friend send me the translation and then practiced the pronunciation with her for ages) and bowed to him.

Listen to me. I know it probably sounds ridiculous that I bowed to him. But there were two things I had in mind. One, he knew I lived in Tokyo. Two, I’m pretty sure he heard me speaking Japanese with the staff during the connecting portion of the call because I heard him say something to staff in the background. And because my bow looked natural--because it’s something I do multiple times DAILY while living here--I do genuinely believe it conveyed gratitude rather than just looking awkward and koreaboo-y.

SEVENTH PHOTO: Yoo Kihyun is speechless, which could perhaps be a product of the fact that I threw a bunch of English/a butchered Korean thank-you at him after a bunch of phone calls with Japanese Monbebe, but he kept saying “wow,” which was incredibly gratifying because I was not sure how he would respond to my story and hoped that it would not be personal to an uncomfortable degree

EIGHTH PHOTO: Yoo Kihyun tells me that stories like mine is the reason why he does “this job”

Amidst a lot of “wow,” Kihyun told me exactly that.

“Wow. That was...wow. That's the reason I do this job, and you are...wow. Thank you so much. You just said we changed your life, right?”

(to which I responded, yes, even though that wasn’t EXACTLY what I said--but it was the message I conveyed, and I’m so thankful he parsed that out of my thank-you monologue)

NINTH PHOTO: i’m not kidding, y’all, he really looks at his fans like we personally hung the stars in the sky and brought to life all the good things on this earth

He clasped his hands together and told me how happy it made him to hear my story. “Wow. For sure. Yeah. Wow.” Basically, he said “wow” about 20 times.

TENTH PHOTO: Yoo Kihyun promises that he will stay healthy and happy

(so you’d better do just that, sir)

ELEVENTH PHOTO: Yoo Kihyun thanks me again and tells ME to stay healthy

...which I’m going to remember whenever I feel tempted to skip a meal or push my body too far with exercise.

TWELFTH PHOTO: confirmed: Kihyun loves me

He said so as he blew a kiss to me. So, y’know. I said it back, even though I hadn’t originally wanted to because I don’t use those words when it comes to kpop stars because???? i don’t know them????? i only know the part of themselves that they present to the public??? except i do say i love wonho but that’s because he’s wonho and you just...don’t NOT say you love wonho

But not saying “I love you” felt incomplete, because isn’t that what I was saying the whole time I was explaining to him how he changed my life?

~*~*~*~*~*~

Long story short, it’s insane and amazing and insanely amazing that I had this opportunity to thank Yoo Kihyun for the tremendously positive impact he’s had in my life, especially because I know how rare it is for people who don’t have the means to buy hundreds of albums to get into fansigns like these. In a vicious industry where it would be the easiest thing in the world to decide to detach emotionally from the public,

where you can play the “standoffish” card and make it look cool,

where you’re not required to communicate with fans so often, literally counseling them + learning their language so you can send them sweet messages + being part of a group that makes sure that awards are always credited to their fans and not just the group themselves,

Yoo Kihyun chooses to be kind, and gosh, the guy definitely has edge and sharpness and won’t take crap from anyone, but the heart he chooses to share with us motivates me all over again to be open and enthusiastic and forgiving.

And y’all. He thanked me. HE thanked ME. He didn’t have to. But it’s something I’ll cherish til the day I die.

Which is probably coming sooner than later because...holy crap...I TALKED TO YOO KIHYUN ASIDOUASOIDUAISOUDOIASUDOIASUDOIAUSDU

#kihyun

[xxcureangelxx]

5, 9, 10, 13, 20, 21, 24, 25, 28, 30-35, 38-42, 44-46, 50, 52, 54, 60-62, 66, 71-74, 86-91, 96, 100! 😊

okay I literally have no clue how old this is and if I'm even taking the questions from the right post but here goes I guess? 🙈

<u>5. What is your favorite Color?</u>

PURPLE

<u>9. How tall are you?</u>

about 1,70 meters or 5'7"

<u>10. What shoe size are you?</u>

size 40-41, I think that's about 8 in US sizes?

<u>13. What talents do you have?</u>

uhhh good question... not sure if it counts but I guess I'm quite good at a lot if things but can't do anything extraordinarily well?

<u>20. Are you religious?</u>

Absolutely not. Due to family history and a lot of other things I'm actually against it a lot but people can do whatever they feel like is right for them as long as they don't harm others with it.

<u>21. Have you ever been to the hospital?</u>

Yes, quite a lot actually. practically grew up in hospitals as a baby because of kidney issues, broke both my legs with 4 years old, had to revisit for tests a lot during my childhood because of the kidney issue. it calmed down afterwards until I was back in hospital last year because of my terrible mental health and I'm currently in a rehabilitation clinic for it as well.

<u>24. Baths or showers?</u>

Shower's because we don't have a bathtub

<u>25. What color socks are you wearing?</u>

currently none, I love going barefoot, but usually I wear white, gray or black. I know... I'm a bad gay.. no rainbow socks (;ŏ﹏ŏ)

<u>28. What type of music do you like?</u>

you know.... I hate this question with a passion even though I love music so I'll just throw in my yt-playlist here and everyone who's interested can look through it to get a picture xD not sorted in any way and not a conclusive list at all, I just add songs as I find them

<u>30. How many pillows do you sleep with?</u>

mostly just one at a time but I've got two different ones. one is the normal fluffy kinda pillow, the other is made of some kinda foam material and rather thin.

<u>31. What position do you usually sleep in?</u>

I'm always lying on the side! have been doing that since I was a baby too.

<u>32. How big is your house?</u>

compared to what? 🙈 I'd say decent size for 5 people to live in, would have space for 1-2 more if rooms were used differently but definitely not enough to comfortably live with 12 or even more people like my family used to. we've got like 3 proper sleeping rooms (one of which is the attic so not very nice in terms of heat and the staircase is smack in the middle of the room), a kitchen, a dining room, a big living room, a tiny bathroom that barely fits a toilet and shower, and the basement is a mix of storage, electrics and stuff, washing room/utility room and it's got another smaller room that's been turned back into a small workshop but used to be the room of my brother and later my grandmother.

<u>33. What do you typically have for breakfast?</u>

I guess this is where it shows that I'm german but we usually just eat bread (preferably whole grain) with cheese or slices of salami or ..meat sausage? is that a proper translation? 🤨 idk... it's rather simple really. on the weekend maybe buns and boiled eggs. on the occasion that I'm too tired for it or don't have enough time I eat cereals but it's not very common when I'm at work/school

<u>34. Have you ever fired a gun?</u>

No, and I don't want to

<u>35. Have you ever tried archery?</u>

Yes!! I did last year when I was in the hospital and it was super fun! was quite good at it as well, even for my first try 😤

<u>38. What's the longest you've ever gone without sleep?</u>

I think about 3 days? if we count "barely unconscious for a few hours" as sleep that is... otherwise no clue...my memory of the bad sleepless time is quite hazy lol

<u>39. Do you have any scars?</u>

yeah, quite a few tbh. got 2 huge ones from surgeries due to my kidney issues, well they look like 2 but it's actually multiple ones since they simply cut open party of the old ones again, tiny hooman apparently have very little skin. then I got some other ones here and there from accidents, general dumbness, etc, like when I cut through my sunday morning bun and almost cut half of the tip of my finger off because my mother sharpened the knife and didn't tell me or that time as a kid I couldn't wait for my ironing pearl pictures to be done and burned myself on the hot iron, mostly stuff like that.

<u>40. Have you ever had a secret admirer?</u>

I mean.. if they're a secret... how would I know? ;) not sure if it counts that it took me months to realize I had a crush on my best friend and the feelings were reciprocated and I was too blind to see the signs?

<u>41. Are you a good liar?</u>

Nope. People actually think I'm lying more often than I lie... so.... :/

<u>42. Are you a good judge of character?</u>

I'm.. honestly not sure what this one means? like, am I able to judge what kind of character a person has after barely meeting them or smth? if so, I'm terrible at it

<u>44. Do you have a strong accent?</u>

in german? nope. in english? hmm hard to judge since I rarely hear myself speak. I think the stuff I do know how to pronounce is mostly okay but since I learned it through reading I'm simply unsure of a lot of pronunciations. 'also'.... I can not for the life of me pronouns that word no matter how many times I hear it... it's kinda become a quirk after some classmates pointed it out to me and I'm incredibly aware how terrible I say the word but.... just can't get rid of it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

<u>45. What is your favorite accent?</u>

I.. actually really love the way my best friend talks? 👉👈 they're french btw. just... typical me for struggling to understand them though, already terrible at it in german too...

<u>46. What is your personality type?</u>

honestly, I don't think I can answer that. I'm big on self loathing and everything's pretty shitty so, no thanks

<u>50. Left or right handed?</u>

Right handed. but does it even count id I'm bad at doing things with that hand too? lol

<u>52. Favorite food?</u>

hmmmm tough question... not the biggest fan of food in general a lot of the time... probably Züricher Geschnetzeltes

<u>54. Are you a clean or a messy person?</u>

Definitely messy. my allergies did not like this post trying to clean and tidy up more often though. my depression does not like this post either

<u>60. Do you talk to yourself?</u>

sometimes. quite a bit when watching movies or if I mess stuff up

<u>61. Do you sing to yourself?</u>

barely. got a lot of bad experiences with that so i keep my singing to a minimum. my shower is a great listener though

<u>62. Are you a good singer?</u>

I was in a choir for a few years when I went to 'middle school' and I had like one solo part once but other than that I can't really say because I barely ever sing in front of people

<u>66. Do you like long or shor hair?</u>

this question is currently my absolute nemesis.. I've got suuuper duper long hair and have had it ever since elementary school and I used to be super happy with it and sometimes I still am happy with it but other days, depending on where I'm at genderwise, I absolutely hate it and I just want to take the closest scissors and cut it all off... currently haven't had the guts to look for new hair styles though... but in other people? or women more specifically? I love long hair 🥺

<u>71. What makes you nervous?</u>

Or the shorter question: what doesn't make me nervous... I'd say pretty much everything has got the potential to make me nervous. I'm an overthinker, anxiety is a big thing for me and ptsd makes me scared of almost everything. so.. yeah... sucks to be me sometimes ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

<u>72. Are you scared of the dark?</u>

Yes, very

<u>73. Do you correct people when they make mistakes?</u>

I try not to but sadly I sometimes do, even if it's not my place to. I really don't like that part and hope I'll be able to learn not to sometime

<u>74. Are you ticklish?</u>

Yes and I hate it 😭

<u>86. What are you allergic to?</u>

again, easier question: what am I not allergic to... it's... a lot... like, really a lot. with the test on the skin of my arm I reacted to every single substance and the more thorough blood test lead to much of the same result. the absolute worst are birch trees (pitty, love those), then the usual pollen of pretty much every tree or flower, all animals with fur or feathers, dust and... yeah list goes on and on, you get the picture... :/

<u>87. Do you keep a journal?</u>

no.. have tried to multiple times in the past but never made it more than a week... too depressing to write and read... the therapist at the rehab clinic is currently forcing me to try a positivity diary for the millionths time, can't even get that done each day even though I'm doing it on my phone and get notifications to do it each evening...

<u>88. What do your parents do?</u>

making my life hell lol.. okay on a serious note, my father was a car electrician, he's retired by now, my mother is a housewife, she used to work different jobs before her first kid, later on she took care of my grandmother who was suffering from dementia, got some money and retirement points for that too.

<u>89. Do you like your age?</u>

I-... I don't know? it's weird because I both feel a lot younger and a lot older than I am rn....

<u>90. What makes you angry?</u>

another tough question... I actually have anger issues in that way that I'm barely capable of feeling anger... used to be worse but I already worked a lot on it in therapy so there's at least some there now... in the past I simply started to cry and felt overwhelmed by sadness whenever I was supposed to feel anger... so I can't tell very well what makes me angry because I first have to realize that I'm feeling anger or more like should be feeling it....

<u>91. Do you like your own name?</u>

Not really, no, but I guess I finally figured out some reasons why.. I've recently started going by a bit of a different name too but only my closest friends know so far and I'm not sure if I'll be using it irl at all..

<u>96. How did you get your name?</u>

I'm still trying to get my mother to admit that she named me after this song but she keeps denying it.. she's a fan of this band so it would have fit.. but she keeps saying she just liked the name, no long thought process behind it..

my chosen name is a bit of a different story. an ex friend I got to know through yt gave me that nickname almost 10 years ago after I complained that you can't make a shorter nickname out of my birthname and it's also the name of s character I like, especially his voice, and... idk it just feels more gender neutral and I simply feel comfortable with it. it just fit.

<u>100. Color of your room?</u>

same as question 5: Purple 🥰 or... well half the walls are purple, the other half is white

phew... can't believe I made it through all of these....

in case people haven't noticed yet, I'm currently kinda getting back into tumblr? I think I've already stayed a lot longer than any times I tried getting back before. it mostly started because we've got super bad wifi at the clinc I'm at rn and reddit takes up waaayy too much mobile data and... idk, I guess I just missed the vibe of tumblr

I'm not sure how long I'll be able to stick around but we'll see

#ask game #answered #I really really do not have any clue how long this has been sitting in my inbox... #the og post was somewhere around december if I saw that correctly (๑•﹏•) #oopsie... #just hope posting goes through snd my 3 hours of hard work weren't for nothing.... #edit; posting worked but tumblr messed up the formating... #I'm not gonna bother fixing that because it's late and I need sleep 😭

[lordxgrinnyxboy]

rewatching tgm, wifi being useless edition 2/?

every time i hear puppet!Dea say “when a story is raw and real” i see Mr. Gordon Ramsey memes, they just scroll across my vision and there’s nothing i can do to stop it u-u

ngl im kinda in love with Mojo Puppeteer

the foot shimmy during this scene, like right as Ursus gets up off the floor Gwyn/Mr. Maskell does this little ankle squirm. u-u

foreaaaaaaaaaarmmmmssssss

love how mr maskell doesn't emote w/his face while puppeteering but ms. brisson's just facially so into this performance and honestly so's ms. onitiri

also love all the different bits of ribbon and such puppet!Dea’s hair is made of. several different textures in there

kay but the way he makes the prince puppet kinda bounce in place as he sings “only those three words could ever free me from the curse” it just makes it look like the prince is kindof adorably excited about this

im just now realizing that one part of the puppet is supposed to be the prince’s mouth and not his chin or something.

Dea’s soft “oh” when their hands touch

foreaaaaaarmsssss

Gwynlit always looks so shook as they step back from each other after the aging up sequence like he’s full dear-in-headlights (i know it’s ‘deer’ in headlights but he is Dear to Me so)

and really so is Dea for a second there

oh god her look of alarm  changes to a smile the second Gwyn starts singing. i need a minute.

i love these two so much

the harmony will never not end my life why is it so powerful

idk what they put in this song but every single time my aroace self is like “shfjshfsj play this at my wedding” and then i have to be like “wait.”

Dea’s adorable and i hope she knows how adorable she is

im cry they’re so cute they’re so cute i love these two

Quake is on it about letting ppl know entertainment’s cancelled due to the king dying Quake is ready Quake loves her job so much

oh so  the barrels are just there for Dirry-Moir and Osric to have somewhere to sit while Ursus tells the story okay

wait how quick did dude just throw on his Clarence costume and climb in the coffin that was. super duper fast

he’s literally offscreen for 24 seconds and managed to

holy cats how does he do it

wait also mojo tho. mojo had to put on his priest costume

wait also Osric and Dirry-Moir had to put on their Lord attire

and they say movies are supposed to be magic

just continuing to absolutely love every character played by ms. obianyo

love how they just. have trombones. 10/10

i mean i guess the costume changes aren’t super complicated like throw on a robe and a wig but STILL within 24 seconds? i think it’s impressive

oh hey jojo-as-a-random-lord is also here

ohhhhh is that why Jojo’s costume is Like That then? to make it easier to switch characters real fast? but no actually???

the hats on the lords tho. we’ve got Fish Lord, Bunny Lord,,, maybe some kind of Bird or Chicken Lord...

so it’s a Pig’s Foot that killed Clarence and the name of the holy relic translates to like, “pig’s flower” ...thematic....dots.......

oop there’s Only a Clown

ngl i kinda love Archbishop Kupsak. a weird dude.

would love to know why Angelica thought she needed to ‘make a law’ regarding traitors being brought to justice. just curious about her thought-process. heck she could probably have her own musical.

WAIT MS OBIANYO PLAYS THE TROMBONE. SICK.

wait hey, hey. hey. petition for ms. obianyo to play a FATE.

oh god it’s my least favorite scene

skip? no...but? no u-u

jojo apologize to the trash clown

scene too stressful

genuinely have no thoughts, head completely empty

CART SCENE CART SCENE CART SCENE

is that a bowl and spoon on th-

separate post separate post gentlefolks of the jury i

jaw twitch

okay but Dea gets this Look when Gwyn asks Ursus “who did this to me” she looks a little Surprised

does not react however to “who carved me into this freak”

the hand flex as Gwyn walks away from Ursus after Ursus Won’t Let Him Talk

oh Osric you absolute delight

beauty and the beast ii destroys me every time gwyn’s just steadily wilting but trying to hold on but he can’t and Dea’s so supportive

would love to know what Ursus’ take on all this would’ve been if he hadn’t been involved. like would he still be hell-bent on not letting Gwyn remember or would he have been more chill about letting Gwyn make that decision for himself

like on the one hand i can see why Ursus would think that maybe Gwyn would be better off not remembering, but also making him forget clearly didn’t actually help him suffer any less, it just gave him a different kind of suffering. He’s wrung-out tormented and Ursus can’t/won’t help him because of the potential repercussions of Gwyn learning the truth. which do include some Worst Timeline options for how that could go but. also include a few Gwyn’s Able To Move On And Live Well, With Or Without Ursus options so.

idk i just feel like after a certain point of seeing how Gwyn’s basically falling apart over all this Ursus really should’ve considered having that difficult Discussion bc that boy was Not getting better on Ursus’ Plan A

also the whole dismissively invalidating ur kid’s struggle is not a good look Ursus

i love him and absolutely believe he is definitely Trying His Best but he’s #Problematic_Dad for sure

that bit where Ursus notices Josiana as if for the first time and does that little bow to her oh my goodness XD

also him just trying so hard to keep it together in the lead-up to Born Broken. debating whether Ursus sticking his head through the curtain is the funniest part of this show. probably not but it’s real close

Dea’s so pretty and i love her outfit u-u

and her blue makeup

and her lovely lovely eyes like wow she’s Perfect

this girl is in her element and im fully convinced that in the version of events where Gwyn and Dea stay on as Lord and Lady Dea does some addressing of parliament or whatever, has speaking engagements, she’s all kinds of involved.

there’s tears in Ursus’ eyes during this bit and i don’t agree w/him but i do feel bad for him. he does want to do right by these kids but he’s just...it’s not working out for him because he can’t have it both ways.

i mean genuinely tho Ursus is so desperate to forget/bury/escape/move on from the past but in adopting Gwyn and trying to be a family and a fresh start for him...that shut down any chance of that actually happening.

no but fr Ursus’ face when Dea says “it doesn’t keep us safe, Father, it turns us against you” which is like. probably the exact thing he’s afraid of happening if they ever learn the truth.

*strums lyre* it’s a sad tale, it’s a tragedy!

Musical Ursus is fully a good dude who did one Stupid Thing and spent the rest of his life trying to control the damage only to make it Worse and then he died and i’m so! 😭

at the end of the second 30minutes but im keep going

Dea and Gwyn are holding hands so intently im feeling feelings about

harmonyyyyyyyy

ngl though i wonder if given Ursus’ “dear god, you pick your moments” and “who did what to you” if maybe this is something that’s just been festering and hasn’t been verbally brought up until the show’s events

“What do you want?! BLOOD?!” i mean u did script him as saying he wants to kill a man

“I can’t tell you anything you don’t already know” i mean technically that’s true bc technically Gwyn does know, he just doesn’t remember, which is pretty much the same as not knowing but ayyyyyyyyyy

would love to know what Ursus thought was coming when Gwyn said “I can only tell them what I know I am” like

wait no but “I can’t tell you anything you don’t already know” being followed by “I can only tell them what I know I am” idk how to say but oh heck oh heck oh heck heck oh no.

but yeah Ursus’ little glances at Gwyn and then the Turn as Gwyn starts to sing. i just wonder what Ursus is thinking just then

ohhhhhhhhh wait a minute now. stars stripped from the sky. the play on the lyrics from within Ursus’ show. the conversation they just had. is Freak Show (partially?) a vaguepost at Ursus 👀

no but the Wiggle before that next to last “watch me smile” tho

needs the backbend 🍹

hello Puppet Helmet Thing. i’ve developed a fondness for you, you unexplained and kind of weird yet near-infinitely interpretable element of the show.

and cutting here for length uwu