#i live in the south so its basically summer

[whenthegoldrays]

ELLY'S TOP TEN K-DRAMAS (with songs to match!)

10. Would You Like A Cup of Coffee? (2021)

Centers around Kang Go-bi and the regulars of 2Dae Coffee. Coziest show ever.

Song for this drama: Slow Down

9. Our Beloved Summer (2022)

Former high school/college sweethearts Ung and Yeon-su are brought back together by work five years after breaking up. My favorite OST!

Song for this drama: skinny dipping

8. The Matchmakers (2023)

A royal decree to marry off old maidens forces uptight prince Gyeongwoonjae and professional matchmaker Soon Deok to join forces. Prettiest show you've ever seen.

Song for this drama: Caught In A Blue

7. Extraordinary Attorney Woo (2022)

Woo Young-Woo navigates her career, life changes, and love as a rookie at Hanbada Law Firm and a woman on the autism spectrum. Young-Woo is a darling, and her boy is the greenest flag ever.

Song for this drama: pov

6. Familiar Wife (2018)

A married couple who have fallen out of love get to see each other in a new light after the husband, Ju-hyeok, goes back in time and changes their history. You've never rooted this hard for such an infuriating man.

Song for this drama: No One Knows

5. Castaway Diva (2023)

After 15 years stranded on a desert island, Seo Mok-ha pursues her dream of becoming a singer while searching for the boy who helped her escape her abusive father. Despite the horrors, this show will make you believe there is good in the world.

Song for this drama: Sweet Chamomile

4. Hometown Cha Cha Cha (2021)

Yoon Hye-jin moves to a seaside town to open a dental clinic and finds the home she always wanted amidst its colorful residents. So funny and the male lead is basically the perfect man.

Song for this drama: Apple Pie

3. Crash Landing On You (2019-2020)

After a freak accident lands her in North Korea, Yoon Se-ri must rely on the soldier who saved her life in order to survive, stay hidden, and get back to South Korea. Rips you apart in the best possible way.

Song for this drama: If I Never Knew You

2. Live Up To Your Name (2017)

Renowned acupuncturist Heo Im falls 400 years through time, where his life and fate intertwine with cardiac surgeon Choi Yeon Kyung. Beautiful, unmatched chemistry.

Song for this drama: epiphany

1. Twinkling Watermelon (2023)

Ha Eun Gyeol is mysteriously sent back in time, where he meets his parents as teenagers and discovers he didn't know as much about them as he thought he did. Peak family feels, peak soft couple, and peak enemies to lovers.

Song for this drama: Long Live

#i finally did this!! #and congratulate me i did a 10-drama list and only used two ts songs #i was going to do a maisie peters song for watermelon but long live was just way too perfect to not put it #and if i never knew you for cloy!! literally meant for both couples on the show #so yes this projects combines my two favorite things to scream about: kdramas and songs that match my characters/ships #this probably won't get many notes but it was a passion project so it's okay #and now for all the tags shgdhs #would you like a cup of coffee #our beloved summer #the matchmakers #extraordinary attorney woo #familiar wife #castaway diva #hometown cha cha cha #crash landing on you #live up to your name #twinkling watermelon #long post #elly's posts #kdrama #show recs

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

Sorry I was reading through the replies on that Deaf post and I saw you'd written this: "it's a university known for its pastoral care. Fully abled students are actually in a minority here." I... how? Where is this university?? As someone who had to drop out of university because my needs were unmet, that just sounds unreal. How has that even happened??

Okay this answer could get very boring very quickly so I will do my very best to keep it brief and succinct, like my patience

TL;DR: we sit in the middle of an odd Venn diagram of factors that just mean we are more attractive to disabled students (certainly more attainable in a lot of cases), and the university is increasingly trying to lean into that.

Longer answer under the cut:

I suppose it's a perfect storm of a few factors. Necessary bureaucratic background: Higher Education in Wales went through a phase about 10-15 years ago where the various Education Ministers of the day, in a fit of mid-life crisis, decided there were too many universities and they needed to be streamlined by merging with each other (WHY, CARWYN), which had... uh, mixed results. Some good, some bad. But! It didn't affect every Welsh university. The bigger more prestigious ones, older and fancier of name, avoided the mergers, and in many cases struck out on their own away from umbrella institutions (Aberystwyth, Bangor, Cardiff and Swansea all notably left the University of Wales banner and went independent, for example. That meant there were a mere four universities still in Cardiff lol okay actually maybe Carwyn had a point)

But that left the smaller and more local unis to merge and band together to become single universities with campuses in different towns. The two big examples are University of South Wales (in Cardiff, Newport and Pontypridd), and University of Wales Trinity St David (in Swansea, Carmarthen and Lampeter; and yes, it is a deeply stupid name, isn't it?)

So factor number one: this is not one of the major prestigious universities with a Big Damn name.

Factor number two: this is also not a university with an obvious town/city attached.

Already, these two factors make it a bit more niche, and less likely to attract the academic cream of the crop; the little dweeby swats who live in their lockers. 18-year-olds applying to uni for the first time will not think of this one, because they haven't heard of it and don't know where it is. At 18, you're either going to look up a specific town, or a specific course, or a specific university; and if the latter, you're going to go for one with a big prestigious recognisable name. You're not going to go for University of Vaguely South Wales Somewhere, and you're really not going to go for Trinity St David in Fuck Knows Where.

...but you are if you get rejected by your first choice unis, and need to pick up a spot through Clearing, which is basically a week in the summer where rejected students cry to UCAS and beg for a spot on a similar course in a different uni that hasn't yet been filled. And our courses are rarely filled by the time Clearing happens because we get fewer applicants, so we welcome these poor rejected weeping souls with open arms.

Factor number three: you are more likely to be rejected by your first choice university if you are in some way disabled. Particularly if you have a learning difficulty. Not even intentionally, necessarily, but we all know how disability complicates academic performance.

So students applying through Clearing are much more likely to be disabled, many lacking a diagnosis (and possibly unaware themselves, in the case of neurodivergence). A huge chunk of our school leavers come aboard via Clearing.

Factor number four: while our courses are extremely academically rigorous (I say this as someone who just finished a PG Cert with Oxford University, and honestly, there was very little difference in academic quality), they tend to have more of a focus on practical applications and vocational elements. They're more hands-on, in other words. This tends to suit neurodiverse people with limited desire or ability to sit in a lecture hall and listen.

Factor number five: 80% of our intake comes from within a 50 mile radius of the campus (probably thanks to the merger, actually - no one knows where we are).

Factor number six: This campus had a fairly meteoric rise - from Institute of Higher Education, to Metropolitan university, to Major Institution in the span of about 25 years. As an IHE they were dealing with 16-18 year olds looking for vocational alternatives to A Levels. When dealing with that age group, pastoral care and support is generally much higher, because those are children. The move up the ranks to university happened too quickly for that culture of support to go away, and so it's stayed. Particularly because:

Factor number seven: a huge proportion of our students, thanks to all of the above, are people who never thought they could "do" university. Often, they were actively told by teachers, parents etc that they couldn't. Often, this is because of disability of some form, especially neurodivergence. Many are mature students, looking to go back and get the degree they always wanted. But with us, the pastoral care and support means they do make it over the finish line. Which means:

Our reputation is that our degrees are more "achievable". High pastoral support, small class sizes, personable lecturers, good disability services - it all adds up. Our students aren't just a face in a crowd. If they start to fall by the wayside, we notice. We are much more accessible than our neighbours, who will cram in 60 students to a 40 person room and make the overspill watch the lectures on TV screens next door, and will charge students £300 for an ADHD assessment that doesn't even result in a formal diagnosis.

So the result is that we're weirdly disability-friendly, and we do lean into it. We're gearing up for the next academic year right now, and the Vice Chancellor literally mentioned in his briefing this year that disability is almost a feature of our student population and that's something we need to accommodate. More than 50% have a disability of some sort.

ALL OF WHICH IS NOT TO SAY THAT WE ARE PERFECT, my god, as an institution I have definitely seen the ball get dropped from time to time. It would also vary between department, I expect. But yeah, on balance, we end up with a lot of disabled students, and the culture is one of support and accommodation for that.

As I final note, I'm so sorry that wasn't your experience, and you had to drop out. That's so incredibly unfair, and it shouldn't have happened. (And if you want to try again in an environmental course in Wales DM me lol I can hit you up)

#university #disabilities

[zenzeroruletheworld]

ya know what? fuck It

Teague family modern headcanon

-teague like the rock n' pop music of the 60s/70s/80s (/90s).

-he loves the Beatles and always has them as background music at home. that's why Jack knows all the songs word for word

-Jack was home-schooled as a child

-Teague likes to travel, he meet Jack's mother during a journey in south america.

-He has never been married, and has no intention of doing so

-valerie is a sport fanatic

-the key dog is, in fact, called Dog

-all the family live in a building of 5 apartments , even if they don't technically live together each enters the other's house without warning. (it's not strange to find one of your cousins in the living room when you come back from school lol)

-on Sundays and holidays they all eat in grandmama's apartment

-(I honestly think this is obvious to everyone in the fandom but) Jack has ADHD

-Jack is actually quite good at school but his attitude doesn't make him have a good reputation with teachers'

-he can pass exams without difficulty and often without the need to study

-when he started public school he immediately found it boring, for many subjects they had to put him in higher grades since as a homeschooler he was far ahead of kids his age

-that's how he meet Fitz

-Jack have black nail polish

-He always wears the bracelets he collects while traveling with his father around the world

-he have ear piercings (mostly done by himself or with a friend)

-McFlemling is an artist and has a studio that is always messy, when Valerie and Jack were little they loved to go there

-Also she is a tattoo artist

-she's one of those cool moms (of the little cousins) with tattoos and piercings who are super lively

-Brannigan makes craft beer

-Jack is THE popular Kid in school.

-for the summer break he works at the mall: in a music store

-and valerie as a bar tender

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

*teague's apartment*

live there: Teague, Jack and Dog

Apartment: fifth (higher)

-teague's apartment smells like 'tobacco & whiskey

-its actually very coozy: it's basically all mahogany wood and some decoration of unworked rock, the kitchen face the living room and it's basically a mini bar.

-there Is no table, they eat in the Isle of the "mini bar"

-you'd think it was the home of a former hippie or rock star (and you wouldn't be wrong)

-the walls are decorated with both guitars collected over the years, and some shelves with books and bottles of alcohol (and some a bong here and there)

-arround the appartament you can also find musical instruments from rural places.

-there Is a spot only for show off the vinils

Jack's room

-they live on the top floor. so Jack's room is in the attic

-he have a French bed, at the foot of which there Is the dog's bed (even though he always ends up sleeping in bed with Jack)

-he also have a hammock swing attached to the ceiling

-and two desks according to him the large one is used for "studying" and the small one is used as a make-up station.

-he have a drawer under his bed covered by the blanket in which he keeps some light drugs and cigarettes

-plus he have a few mini bottles of alcohol in his room, he doesn't remember where he put them

-surprise surprise he actually have many shelves full of books

Teague's room(s)

-Teague's room is a little more sober. he has a double bed, around the room there are several "object holders", in particular he has one in which he keeps all the drawings that Jack made for him when he was still little, he keeps them under the bed (no one I know about it)

-he have one photo of Jack's mother. it's a bit ruined, but he don't really care.

-he has a "study" next to his room, in the study there is a brown leather armchair with his guitar in its container in the corner and a display case of alcohol. one wall of the room is so full of books that you can't see the bricks and among the books there is a photo album in which he keeps photos of the most important people in his life

.....

Photo ideas (those are just examples, you need to use your imagination✨)

This Is more mountainlish like compared to how I imagine it, but it gives you the idea

#should i do this with the other 4 apartments? #jack sparrow #potc #young jack sparrow #captain jack sparrow #young captain jack #rob kidd #captain teague #edward teague #valerie #mcfleming #ace brannigan #aunt hazel #grandmama #headcanon #jack sparrow books

[outofangband]

Basic Tol Sirion World Building

world building post for the Isle of Wolves!

World Building Masterlist

This was requested by an anon awhile ago, I’m so sorry for the delay

Please feel free to ask more!! General posts are hard because I didn’t have specific categories to cover so feel free to send categories or more questions!

Tol Sirion stood from the middle of the first century of the first age, for almost 400 years until 456 FA. Finrod first oversaw its building but Orodreth was left in charge and it was under his rule that the fortress lasted until Sauron

-Minas Tirith, unlike Nargothrond, is primarily a military operation rather than a creation of a realm where people can live and work and prosper. Minas Tirith means watch tower.

-Minas Tirith is constructed primarily from white limestone, mostly from deposits of the river Sirion, south of Tol Sirion. Slate, wood and clay were also used

-It is not a city, but rather watch tower with a collection of outer buildings, including an infirmary, a library of sorts, where information about the lands and its creatures and people were collected for sometime, an armory and forge and small houses. The watch tower itself has a number of personal rooms.

-There are also gardens and a small greenhouse, partly modeled after the one built at Barad Eithel which was warmed through hot springs. The greenhouse at Tol Sirion is mostly warmed through the sun and with steaming and misting practices originating from Alqualondë

-The library was a project of Finrod’s and at the time of its creation held very little text, because there was not room to bring many tomes, and written, works over. However, by the time it was invaded there was a modest collection of research. Not all of it would turn out to be completely accurate, but always done with sincerity, and with the help of truly preserving information. All of it was destroyed when the island was invaded.

-Food was primarily sourced from the river itself and from trade with Dorthonion, Hithlum, and Nargothrond. The island of Tol Sirion was probably both too small and its soil in ideal for large scale agricultural production though materials like leaves, roots, some fruit and meat were obtained locally. There were also some smaller gardens, mostly for medicinal herbs but some vegetables too.

-Fresh fish and vegetables, both grown and foraged, are common. During the Watchful peace, small scale agriculture projects are headed by some of the host. These were primarily west, in the shadow of the Ered Wethrin. Trout and river lampreys are delicacies

-Wild mushrooms are also eaten. Elves who have more contact with dwarven and human groups are more likely to eat mushrooms

-Materials for clothing, weapons and other supplies were also mostly acquired through trade however during the Watchful peace, mineral and ore deposits in the nearby mountains were quarried to gather metals and other resources

-The environment is far colder than Tirion, Alqualondë and the rest of Valinor and Orodreth and his host would suffer homesickness at times. The summers and spring are warm however and the island is draped in wild flowers and wild herbs, the scene mixing with the cool water

-The island is large enough that there are several small underground streams that cut through it. It’s from one of these that a well is sourced which provides Minas Tirith with water. It is from two of these wells that form the caverns that will become the pits of the Isle of Wolves. With the streams corrupted by Sauron’s force and repairs of the wells and foundations are no longer done so frequently, the water that drips down the walls where Finrod’s company are chained is poisoned and foul

Please feel free to ask more!

#the silmarillion #tol sirion #Finrod #orodreth #beleriand #musing and meta #tol in gaurhoth

[disco-elysium-via-polls]

MAGNESIUM-BASED LIFEFORM

Temporary bonus: -1 Shivers: No shakes

It is generally understood that human beings are carbon-based organisms, fusing little carbon tubes together to form complex, mushy structures capable of thought, love, and locomotion. It is also known that these structures sometimes like to “take the edge off” by consuming ethanol, amphetamine, etc. In such cases, it is important to supplement your body with magnesium. Tired? Mag it! Down? Mag time! Liver damage? MAXIMUM MAG! Some people say magnesium doesn’t really do anything and you just need to quit. What do we tell them?

DETECTIVE COSTEAU

Temporary bonus: -2 Conceptualization: An idiotic idea

Detective Raphaël Ambrosius Costeau – when you say it, it feels like you’re taking a bite of lemon meringue while sitting on the terrace of a seaside cafe. On a cool summer day. In Sur-La-Clef. It’s everything you’re *not*. You haven’t created many things during your stay in Martinaise, but you’ve created this. A fancy, sophisticated name that makes you sound intelligent. And that no one seems to *acknowledge*. Don’t you feel like you deserve a reward for coming up with something so special? And what would that reward *be*?

BRINGING OF THE LAW (LAW-JAW)

Temporary bonus: -1 Rhetoric: Weird jaw

Hey, so a little observation. It’s all cool, man. Don’t freak out, but every time you say “I am the law“ – and you say it *a lot*, it’s basically *hello* for you – your jaw does this *weird thing*. It sort of shifts sideways, hanging off your face at a jaunty angle, while the word *law* sounds oddly guttural and low. It’s… strange. You wouldn’t notice it, but after saying you’re the law eighty thousand times, the question *does* come up: why *do* you have Law Jaw?

DATE OF BIRTH GENERATOR

Temporary bonus: None

Your face looks like it’s 58 and your body feels like it’s 60. Your mind feels like it’s lived for one day or a hundred. Both longer than they ought to be, the day and the century…. But for how long, then, has this thing attached to your sentience walked the planet’s crust? Time to start racking those brains of yours, Elder One. When and where were you born?

MOTORWAY SOUTH

Temporary bonus: -1 Visual Calculus: Bizarre angles

At the edge of the map the landmass begins to disintegrate – into pure trigonometry. The ocean melts, becoming a tangle of sines and cosines, the mountain range turns into a sharp-angled azimuth. Its green rain shadow dithers, like music turning into a waveform. And then vanishes. This is the end, a half-remembered textbook from your childhood – the porch collapsing on the edge of the isola. A transition from reality to pale. A single vector shoots out, like a rocket. It’s the Motorway South, splintering off from the known pale! *To where*? Where does it go?

#disco elysium

[sluttysnails334]

My South Park high school appearances and style headcanons Pt. 1!

Stan

• has blue eyes

• hair is wavy and he’ll dye it darker or blond depending on his mood, but he doesn’t do anything else to it so it just appears unmanaged

• shorter like his dad, maybe around 5”9/10

• he gets light freckles on his face in the summer, but then breaks out in the fall. I think since he lives in Colorado he’s really pale, but I think if he lived in a warmer place he be tan.

• naturally in shape even though he doesn’t work out consistently

• ears are pierced ( by Kenny )

• dresses between basic & edgy, wears flannels with band tees and ripped jeans & Chuck Taylors lot. In the winter he’ll wear doc martens

Kyle

• greenish brown, hazel eyes

• tall as fuck, like 6”2 6”3ish

• lanky, like some muscle but not much, its giving noodle

• hair is very curly, but he doesn’t know what to do with it, so it’s frizzy all the time

• has naturally straight teeth

• hooked nose

• bad acne

• needs glasses, but only wears them around ppl he’s comfortable with, hardcore contact person

• very preppy bc his mom would freak if dressed any other way, so standard denim jeans, collared shirts, sweaters vest, loafers, kinda dresses like a vineyard vines boy back from 2014

Cartman

• he never really loses weight

• blue eyes

• also bad acne

• has peach fuzz

• short very short 5”6

• thin brown hair

• he wears clothes that he doesn’t wash, with shirts that are so worn out you can’t even read what was written on them, with shoes that are off brand, but he wants you to believe they are branded so he prints out fake labels

Kenny

• has really good blond hair, the best of the group

• has a gap in his teeth

• has piercings, he gave himself! mainly on his face & ears

• freckles

• brown eyes, & lazy eye

• has a small nose

• tall & skinny around 6”1, but wears oversized clothes so you’d never know, actually really fashionable, king of layering and doesn’t fuck with gender specific clothing. He’ll wear a dress or a skirt and won’t give two shits about it. Gets all his clothes from thrift stores, but has been wearing the same pair of shoes for years

Craig

• dark brown hair that he actually takes care of

• clear skin

• also 6”3 maybe even 6”4 but in excellent shape, due to being a huge gym rat

• occasionally has his nails painted but only black or dark blue ( tweek does it )

• had braces for FOUR years, it was bad y’all

• very vainy arms

• green eyes

• has his right ear cartilage pierced, and silly stick & pokes all over his arms, he eventually will get tattoos and possibly more ear piercings but never on his face bc Tweek told him not too

• classic middle american teenage boy clothes like skinny jeans or joggers, vans, graphic tees, hoodies, beanies, big Nike guy, sometimes he’ll “dress up” which will consisted on a blazer and some nice slacks, he wants dress more rugged but doesn’t put effort into shopping

Tweek

• blue eyes very blue

• actually has curly hair but is unaware so he just brushes his curls out and the humidity causes it to be fly away and frizzy

• freckles freckles freckles freckles

• average height, 6”0 even

• in shape due to gym dates with crog but wears like clothes that would make you think he isn’t

• long eyelashes

• he wears light make up sometimes like blush or concealer, Bebe said it would bring out his features

• nails are painted, paints Craigs so they match

• I feel like on a day to day he will dress dark academica, sweaters, button downs, collard shirts, khakis, big khaki guy, but when he dresses up, it’s like Kurt from Glee, lol hippo broach moment if you will

anyways I did this bc I can’t draw lol but it was fun

#south park #sp headcanons #headcanon

[old-lorarri]

hey love id like to request ─ lost cause . . . ❨ send me a description of yourself + a fandom and gender preference, and i’ll ship you with a character. ❩ for your 4k celebration. (for formula one) congrats on how quickly you've been growing! its amazing! <3 <3

hopefully i wont ramble on too much (:

i am an american girl in university/college. i go to a large college in the south, but i plan on moving to los angeles when i graduate, which is where i'm from. i am currently studying journalism and screenwriting. i do an internship in LA during the summer for the latter. i love sports, and writing. in the future i hope to write many movies and attend many sports events. my dream events to attend (in general not just sport) are the oscars (who doesnt) the met gala, and for sporting: el clasico in spain, as i am a major soccer fan, and the singapore grand prix. i like to convince myself im very fashionable, but as a student i dont have the budget for that yet. i still dress well, usually cool sneakers baggy pants and tight tops because im semi basic.

for appearence, i consider myself decently attractive because confidence is very important, and if you think you're ugly, you will be. i have high cheekbones, an unmentionable nose, plump lips, blue eyes, with pretty light eyebrows. i am also a proud member of the lewis hamilton forehead squad, and i do like it, most of the time. my hair is medium brown, which either makes me look very pale, or slightly tan (white girl problems ik).

my personality (the most important thing i believe) is pretty good! i try my hardest to be kind, and nice. im well read, working on being well spoken, and i think im a pretty good person. i like reading, and like learning, but not stem. i actually hate stem. im funny in an honest way (aka i dont know when im funny but when people laugh i try to keep it up), but im not a fan of changing the way i act around people. around authority figures i tend to tone it down a bit and be more respectful, but most of the time im just respectful in general. i try to help people, and im working on not being a people pleaser, which i think is a problem a lot of people deal with.

a few fun facts because for some reason i enjoy talking about myself a lot. i speak french and english. i want to live by the sea in the future. im learning spanish and portuguese. i have a fraternal twin sister. i love pets so much. i enjoy architecture, and im afraid of the deep sea but like beaches.

hopefully this isnt annoying, and i realize i sound totally self centered here, and have come to the realization that tone doesn't show over type :(

CARLOS SAINZ

the two of you have a house in la

carlos is def your muse for a lot of your movies

and takes your to a lot of sports events

all of his races you have VIP passes

and you and him are regualrs at real Madrid games

is your date to the met and the oscar

you two got wild after singapore is you know what I mean

you two are def on the paddock best dressed list

loves that you are lerning spanish

def teahces it to you

gets along with your twin

and always makes sure not to take his boat to far out cuz he knows about your fear of deep water

#⊹₊ ⋆ 4k celly ꜜ

[vampirepunks]

After reading your tags on the culture shock poll, I'm shook. I always thought southern states were basically 90% conservative and everyone else there should just leave. Feeling kinda stupid now after I looked some stuff up. I didn't realize Texas has one of the highest populations of trans people in the nation. I feel so bad for them :(

Ah, that was more or less a personal ramble but I'm always glad to hear my words had a positive effect on someone. Good on you for being willing to learn and use that information to evolve your views. Don't feel stupid, that required a lot of humility and I'm glad you cared enough to say something about it.

I hear a lot of people expressing sentiments that imply or outright say Southern red states are a lost cause. After coming of age as a queer person in Texas, I don't accept that. The South has a very complicated, often ugly history and a lot of the current culture is still influenced by the far-reaching effects of the Civil War, among other things. Texas in particular is a special case, due to its very messy origin story.

But ultimately, it's important to remember that the population of any red state is made up of real, diverse human beings. These places aren't monoliths of gun-toting, Trump-loving, alt-right Republicans. Hell, a surprising amount of Southern folks are liberal, and even more are "moderate" enough to be reasoned with and are capable of changing their views, when given the right opportunity. Just look at Texas' recent elections--Beto O'Rourke, a Democrat, won 43.8% of the latest vote for governor. Almost half the voting population voted for a pro-gun control, pro-choice, pro-LGBT+ candidate. Let that sink in.

These states are largely controlled by Republicans and their political maps are drawn by Republicans, which means the right can almost always manipulate things in their favor. Texas has an almost total abortion ban now and they're a huge participant of the current wave of anti-trans legislation. That doesn't mean the majority population wants that and a number of people are experiencing real pain, suffering, and even death as a consequence. When I talk about these things, I'm often asked why I didn't stay and fight. My answer usually comes back to a simple "I didn't like the weather." I moved for my health to a climate my body is better suited to handle. That just happened to come with the benefit of living in a state that protects my civil rights as a trans-spectrum individual capable of pregnancy. Meanwhile, my new state has taken multiple steps to become a refuge for reproductive freedom and gender-affirming care. We've not only protected those rights, we've also recently passed a bill that bars state officials from cooperating with other states' investigations when their residents come here to access those services. I couldn't be happier about it. Yet, I still miss so much of the culture I grew up with. I miss the food, the music, the wildflower meadows in the spring, the fireflies and dewberry vines in the summer, the autumn bonfire parties where we'd tack up the horses and watch the kiddos' faces light up when we put them in the saddle, the winter afternoons eating hot chili and listening to everyone complain about the forty-degree cold as if it were the end of days--without a speck of snow to be seen. "Y'ain't" is a common word in my vocabulary and I still wear cowboy boots built for riding. I grew up rural Southern and I loved a lot about it, it'll always be part of who I am.

Now, if I were still in Texas and my health wasn't a concern, would I move for political reasons now that things have gotten so bad? Absolutely. I don't need to justify that. Texas doesn't just have one of the highest populations of trans people in the USA, it also has one of the highest trans homicide and suicide rates. The things I love about my home state don't outweigh the danger of losing my life for expressing my genderfluidity or the risk of being forced to have a child I don't want. In fact, we're seeing the start of outreach efforts to railroad at-risk trans people and people needing abortions out of red states, to states where they can safely access the care they need and escape dangerous environments. That illustrates the crux of the issue: not everyone can "just" leave. My cross-country move cost almost $5k up front. Leaving requires money, finding suitable work and housing, traveling a long distance, and it often means leaving family and friends behind, sometimes pets too. Relationships will weaken or be lost under the strain of long-distance communication. Moving means uprooting your entire life to establish a new one somewhere else, and a positive result isn't guaranteed. Then there's the fact that not everyone wants to leave. Saying the only solution is "just leave," is not only inconsiderate and a cruel demand that people leave their entire support system behind so they stop complaining, it's also inherently classist. Poverty is a driving factor for the politics of Southern states. The minimum wage is $7.25, workers' rights are practically non-existent, food deserts are all over, the education system is underfunded, and the infrastructure is barely holding itself together. I grew up impoverished and I've even been homeless. I only got out of poverty because I married into the middle class. Remember: Republicans in power want to keep their constituents poor and under-educated so they're easy to control. That's how fascism operates.

Southern states need members of the left-wing to stay and work to change things. However, at-risk populations shouldn't bear that responsibility alone, and they shouldn't feel pressured to do so at the risk of their own lives. We've had enough martyrs for a lifetime. Don't slip into the mindset of blaming victims for the fascism they've suffered, as not one of them asked for this. Next time you hear about a horrible bill out of a red state, please respond with support and sympathy for the people who'd do anything to change it, but can't.

Anyway, this turned into a huge post. That tends to happen as a result of me being a sociology student who's very invested in politics. Additions to this post are quite welcome, if anyone else would like to contribute to the conversation.

#anon #logan answers #us politics #texas #red states #american south #antifascist #on politics #vampirepunks lore

[xophryz]

Saltburn

Hi, I am King, and this is PestoButGay. 

Talking of gay, have you seen Saltburn Yet? The homoerotic period piece that lead to a bajillion TikTok’s of men walking around their houses with imitating ART as Sophie Ellis Baxter plays in the background? 

Saltburn, transports viewers to the idyllic Saltburn House, where the lives of its residents are set against the backdrop of a picturesque summer sandwiched between uni years at Oxford. 

Quite similarly I was asked to my friends summer house in a seaside town of Lyme, equally gay, but a bit less of the whole drinking cummy bath water. 

The film follows the eclectic cast, as we follow Oliver, played by Barry Keoghan in awe over Felix, Jacob Elordi, as we are pulled through a scarily British cast ranging from Rosamund Pike to Richard E.Grant and their pets that reside at Saltburn house, from the enigmatic Venetia, to the eccentric Farleigh, or the wine aunt we all have, Pamela. The film, written by Rosamund Pike, as the characters navigate love, loss, and even the passage of time in the quintessentially British setting and class divides we have all become so used to. 

What I really love, is the way the house and class is a sort of character in itself in the film. “Saltburn” was this character referred to as if it was heaven, it serves as more than a backdrop for the unfolding drama, it breathes and represents so much more than looks. It feels like its a fully realised character, with its own quirks, history and personality, I even picked on references to minotaurs or paintings like The Garden of Earthly Delights. 

"Saltburn" explores the theme of class as another character in the story with the divide between the residents of the estate and the working-class inhabitants of the town to the subtle power dynamics at play within each social dynamic. The film's exploration of class consciousness and the inherent tensions between privilege and poverty adds depth and complexity to its characters and their interactions, shedding light on the broader social landscape of post-war Britain. And I love it even more because 2006 is the perfect setting for this that encapsulates all of those themes, and I think it is so interesting that what for many of us was our childhood can be considered a period piece.

I think I would give it about a 3 and a half stars to be annoying. The half star is purely because we got to see Barry Keoghan naked. 

***.

In all honesty, what was that? Man! What a brilliant but also terrible but also stunning and grotesque and stupid and amazing film, yet the film loses me the most at the end. Basically up until he kills Venetia i’m with it! But then it unravels and i understand the thought behind it but at the same time its all dumb!!!!!!!!

I loooved the acting, Rosamund Pike especially but strong performances across the board. Visually stunning, all the things you want in a film, like constantly i found myself grinning at how well shots were put together or the way colours bounced off one another.

The shock value all kinda works for me, where as others looked like they had seen a ghost, I was sat there like it was any other day of the week, It worked for me, the like sexual shock value like the bathtub and the vampire and the grave was all a lotta fun. It just sticks the landing so much to the point it drags down the whole film. 

I think the ending would be fine (still bad, but fine) if it didn’t re-contextualise other parts of the film from earlier and give them worse meaning!! he doesn’t need to be this mastermind what the hell is the point in that, let him be a weird little Liverpudlian freak who’s psychosexually obsessed with a 6'6 man and his big ass house like I thought this film was going to be about! Him being from Liverpool had so much potential for further analysis and points to be made to critique North/South class divides and dynamics in place in British society, that were just sort of lost and that was such a shame 

i can see my opinion changing, either for the good or the worse tbh, depending on how it sits with me and whether i find myself thinking about the good or the bad more. 

#saltburn #film #film review

[tidal123]

"Demons", Gods, and In-betweens in the Series: Love and Redemption (Part 1)

There are many non-human Chinese mythical creaturesthat appeared in the tv series Love and Redemption(LnD), especially 妖怪(translated as “demons”). I find this subject extremely interesting so I'm going to try summarize them and record their first historical appearance if possible. Many of them come from an ancient book called The Classic of Mountains and Seas 山海经(the Classic). It was written sometime around 4th to 5th century BC. So it's probably one of the oldest books that survived. And it is a source of inspiration for the entire history of China for those who write the monster and strange occurrence tales. In this post I will try to include descriptions about the relevant mentions of the "demons" from the Classic and other sources, although I'm sure better translation already exist.

* The reason I said “translated as demons” and not just use “demons” directly is because they are really not the same concept. There is little to no religious meaning to 妖怪. If you have to squint, 妖怪 likely popularized because ancient Chinese believe that everything have spirit and potential to gain wisdom and transform into higher beings. So in later time like Tang to Qing dynasties there are many 妖怪 that developed from nonhuman animals or plants in such stories, sometimes even objects. But there are also naturally occurring creatures that sometimes are monsters, sometimes gods or semigods in charge of certain functions like wind, thunder, natural disasters etc. like many of those described in the ancient Classic of Mountains and Seas.

烛龙Torch Dragon 

First appearance: the Classic [山海經], 2 entries, around 4th century BC

In the Classics of Montains and Seas it is said to be a torch-bearing dragon that shines light in the night-folds darkness. It creates day and night, summer and winter by opening and closing its eyes and breathing in and out. Obviously an ancient god.

In our show, a spirit/ghost of the torch dragon was summoned to guard the Colored-Glass Lamp in heroine’s sect Shaoyang. It is a much less powerful version of the Torch Dragon but still created a lot of trouble for our protagonists. It seems that the spirit/ghost of Torch Dragon cannot truly be killed because it can be resummoned.

鲛人 Fish-person or merman

First appearance: the Classic [山海經‧海內南經], around 4th century BC

A non-human tribe living in the South Sea. It is basically translated to merman because they have an upper human body and a fish tail, although it has nothing to do with the western version the phrase usually refers to. Unlike their western counterparts, they are said to be tame and mild, good at producing a specific type of beautiful clothes that won’t get wet in the water, and when they cries their tears turn into pearls. In later stories they are often depicted as victims of humans’ greed and lust.

In LnD we see one important side character that is Tingnu, who is a doctor and used to serve in the court of heaven’s realm, although in the show merpeople are categorized as demons. He was the first demon that our protagonists encountered that made them questioned their concept of right and wrong that was taught to them.

蛊雕 Gu Eagle

First appearance: the Classic [山海經‧南山经], around 4th century BC

This is an eagle-like, water-dwelling monster with horn on its head that eat people. It is said to live on a mountain rich with minerals with no flora.

In LnD Gu Eagle is the first major dangerous demon our protagonists encountered. It needs to be noted that unlike the merman who is a “naturally-occurring humanoid being”—born with a humanoid shape. The Gu Eagle in LnD was said to have cultivated for 500 years and was on the verge of gaining a human shape. It was quite powerful that even the elders of the Righteous Sects don’t dare face it alone and instead grouped together and prepared themselves fully. Our protagonists had no chance against it at that stage, or so they thought. 

瞿如鸟 Qu Ru Bird

First appearance: the Classic [山海经·南山经], around 4th century BC

It is said to be a bird of white head, three legs, and a human-like face. It lives on a mountain rich with gold and jade, and populated by animals such as rhinos and elephants.

The shows’ Qu Ru Birds are very different from those described there. In the show, Quru birds appeared as a swarm of dark greenish colored birds that was able to attack humans, but don’t seem like much different than regular animals. They were controlled by a Ao Yin to drive away humans and collect certain herbs. Eventually Sifeng let them escape after Ao Yin was killed.

傲因 Ao Yin

First appearance: It is said to first appear in [山海經] but the description differs greatly from later stories. We will take later descriptions during the Jin Dynasty because they are closer to what appeared in the show: 

Au Yin is said to be a humanoid creature with very long tongue, wears shaggy clothing with many knots and has a taste for human brains. It lives in the west-wasteland and attacks lone travelers to eat their brain.

攫(玃)猿 

First appearance: (probably) Accounts of Strange Things [述異記]  by Zu Chongzhi 200–265 AD

This is a giant monkey-like creature that was said to abduct human females to impregnate them and then send them back home to rear the child. If they refuse it kills the woman. Obviously it is a monster. Funnily enough it seemed to have traveled to Japan in the Edo era（1603～1867）and was called kakuen locally. It was written in the Japanese encyclopedia Wakan Sansai Zue of the same time to be a type of "yamako" (玃), which is the same character as the Chinese version. 

In our show this monster appeared as a serial killer who target newly-weds due to his hatred of a female cultivator who seriously wronged him. Our protagonists chased him to his “burial site” and killed him because, well, he is a serial killer who targeted innocent people.

TBC

#Yao Guai #妖怪 #Yokai #Chinese culture #ancient culture #the Classic of Mountains and Seas #Love and Redemption

[quaranmine]

Utah Resident here- I’ve lived p much my whole life in Utah, and nearly every summer here has had one bad fire or another. I have vivid memories of watching smoke billow over the tops of the mountains I lived next to, or driving past massive columns of the stuff while on the way to a trip in southern Utah (we lived in the north, but have a cabin in the south and visited frequently). The Brian Head fire was just over the mountain from our little cabin, and I remember having to leave a trip there a few days early for fear of our whole campground being overtaken by the fire. There were a lot of evacs that year, and a lot of the trees on the north side of the Brian Head Ski Resort are still charred black from where the fire hit the worst.

There was another time a few years later, back in Utah valley this time, where we had to evacuate for a night bc the mountain that was just behind our house caught fire. It was much smaller, and the evac wasn’t official, but it still scared me. The fire had gotten under control before it really took hold thankfully, but it really scared me at the time.

There were another two massive fires that happened at the south end of Utah Valley, near Nephi and on the west side of the lake. They happened on separate years but I have vivid memories of both- even a picture floating around somewhere of my little brother and I watching the west lake one burn from a healthy distance.

Not to mention all the days I’ve seen where the sky was completely clouded over with smoke from massive fires in California. It was terrifying to wake up to the smell of smoke and a gray fog that persisted for days, covering up the sun enough you could look directly at it without hurting your eyes.

I’ve seen…. So much fire, and I’m not even that old (early 20’s). I’m thankful most of these fires were put out within a couple of days/weeks, but I think these kinds of fires always gonna be part of living here tbh.

OUGH i'm so sorry you had these experience but also so many of these experiences. you need a break! that sounds so scary!

anyway i looked up the Brian Head Fire and HELLO??? I DID NOT KNOW THIS WAS A THING????

Unbeknownst to Lyman, the fire he started wasn’t just burning the pile of branches above the surface of the ground, it was also spreading underground, creeping through what’s known as duff, a thin layer of composting organic material just above the mineral soil. Lyman said he noticed the “weird looking” burn, which he described as “kind of a drippy burn, like oil or kerosene.”

(source) i've unlocked a new fear lol. no but seriously, despite doing sort of research on the subject for a few months now, I didn't know until I looked up the fire in your ask that fires could burn underground. Even when I googled it, I got a lot of articles about coal seams burning, which I did know about. But I found this article out of Canada that explains the phenomenon well. Basically: "When this happens, it's because there are just enough tiny spaces in the soil and between pieces of wood material to hold oxygen and keep the combustion going. These fires can smoulder metres below the surface."

Fascinating. Some fires can survive the winter like this and pop back up the next season and keep burning.

Anyway, I'm sorry you've had to experience so many fires. I think you are right, though, that fires are always going to be part of living there. Utah is geologically, geographically, and ecologically part of the region that experiences wildfire as a regular part of its natural life. There's a lot of dry montane forests, basin brushland/plains, etc. Now, humans certainly exacerbate this in more ways than one. Humans can cause out of control wildfires through negligence or arson, and humans can more indirectly impact wildfire prevalence through climate change. As the seasons get hotter and dryer, the more severe and common fires might be. But yeah, fires in general cannot (and should not) be eliminated completely. So fire management is a complex task in order to balance natural ecology with (unnatural/extensive) human impact.

in other news, big fan of your state's geography and nature by the way. utah is devastatingly beautiful and i haven't seen enough of it! i also headcanon utah to be basically the same environment as the badlands biome in minecraft, and therefore base my headcanons about Tumble Town in ESMP2 off of it.

#quara asks #hc_firewatch_au #tagged for research etc etc

[mbrainspaz]

I can't tell if I'm misunderstanding local culture or if my coworkers are just the rudest people on earth: A sort of tumblr AITA.

Any other south Texans out there, care to add your two cents?

I've lived in several cultures with wildly different gift giving practices so I'm pretty adaptable but since starting my current job in south Texas I'm at a loss for the first time. Having been a person who's struggled to afford food in recent years the best way I know to show gratitude and camaraderie is by gifting and sharing necessities like food, clothing, and shelter. I've always loved cooking for other people. Granted I do cook some weird stuff like curry and gluten free snacks so I don't expect people to want everything I make. I have a pretty stellar track record though. At my old office my deserts were legendary. Still, I'm not offended when someone turns down gifts of any kind. I wouldn't want anyone to feel obligated to give me anything in return.

Well... I wouldn't have been offended a few rejected gifts, but these people have accepted literally NOTHING I've tried to give them all year—usually just by tossing it aside on a dusty shelf or leaving it sitting out so that I find it later, spoiled. The muffins I made? Left on the counter for 3 days until I finally threw them out. The pumpkin pie with cool whip on thanksgiving? Left sitting on a workbench overnight. The nice warm waterproof coat I made available for the kid who only has a hoodie? Shoved in a dusty sink full of spiders. The spare room in my company house: always open, but they've told me they slept in their cars instead. I've even offered them full access to my kitchen (on the worksite) in case they ever need a snack or a sandwich and NOT ONCE—not even during severe storms—have they ever asked for so much as a breath mint.

I can't wrap my head around it! If someone had offered me any of these things while I was struggling or even just as a kind gesture I would've done everything in my power to show them how grateful I was even if I didn't want whatever they were sharing. The one coworker has literally come up to me at work and talked about how they couldn't afford anything but canned beans for a week—BESTIE, you could've helped yourself to a whole steak I had in the fridge! Or a vegan burger! Have I not told you so a dozen times?! I know what you're thinking: "They clearly hate you!" Not particularly. At least, I try not to let the paranoia get to me. We get along well enough on most other fronts. But wait—there's more!

They also rudely reject all gifts from our boss and clients. A client gave us special cooling scarves in the heat of the summer and I made sure to thank her and be seen wearing mine (it was super nice), and what did my coworkers do with theirs? They're still in the box in the back of a dusty bin. A coffee maker? Also left in its box for 9 months. A mug of hot chocolate? Left to mold. Leftovers of fried chicken and pizza from work meetings goes bad in the break room fridge every time (if I don't eat it). The candy and snacks our boss brings 'round on holidays ends up sitting in the feed room unopened for months (until I finally take it). Sometimes clients bring leftover desserts or donuts, and if I don't take those and put them away they will also sit out until they calcify.

It's no wonder I'm the only one who gets gifts from clients most of the time—I know how to at least ACT grateful. Even if you don't want the thing it's about basic manners.

My two coworkers come from different cultural backgrounds in the sense that one has a rich family and the other has always lived in poverty. Both still own land, horses, and big trucks (because Texas). Both are from south Texas and haven't spent a lot of time in other cultures. My best guess is that this is some kind of sick hyper-individualist mentality bullshit in action. I just don't get it.

No matter what culture you're from I'm pretty sure it's always downright rude to reject gifts the way they do. I'm to the point where I've decided to stop trying to give them anything and I just hope that doesn't make me the bad guy. I'm tired of being insulted for no reason and I hate to see food go to waste. Really at a loss here.

#aita #ungrateful #coworkers #life of a texan peasant #poverty #gift giving #american culture #texan culture #ramble #long text post

[daisywords]

❤️ Happy WorldBuilding Wednesday! ❤️

What are your cities or towns like? Feel free to talk about the layouts or the people or the architecture, etc. and to talk about more than one if you'd like!

ok so a significant portion of DaDBaB takes place in the city of Andalor* which is the capital city of the world-encompassing empire.

It's got a canal system that kind of separates the city into different neighborhoods (imagine boat traffic on main throughways but you can't get everywhere by canal). It's not directly coastal, but sits on a large estuary/bay (so like Seattle or Washington D.C. or Buenos Aires).

Kind of a temperate rainforest climate, so lots of rain and doesn't have very cold winters or hot summers. Lots of ferns and small ornamental trees in the nicer areas. Imagine lots of white limestone buildings in the downtown/center. An assortment of different architectural styles/materials as the city kind of sprawls out away from the older center/away from the water (This is by far not the biggest or oldest city in the world, but it is big and it is old).

It's also very diverse. Being the capital and fairly central geographically and also very accessible by ship or road or train. The current imperial family is Firanese, and Andalor is technically on the very south end of Firaney, so we get a lot of that influence aesthetically and culturally (think southwestern europe ISH) but population wise more of the people are actually Taqa (which tracks bc Jura Taq is the most populous country and the birthplace of our empire's lingua franca). But anyway the city kind of has it's own distinct culture/identity separate from the region like most people from there just think of themselves as Andalor natives rather than being Firanese or anything.

Andalor was a religious center before it was a political one, so its centerpiece is a very large temple (that I have yet to give a proper name oops) that is basically a bunch of concentric rings. When the empire moved back a few generations ago, they vacated everything on the hill opposite the temple to build the new seat of the highking/the central government etc. The issue is that it's seen as impious to build anything that takes up more space/land area-wise than the temple, so in order to build something large and grand enough, they had to get creative. Which is why we have a grand feat of architecture and engineering that is slightly smaller than the temple in terms of square-footage (on the ground floor) and is. very tall. (don't think skyscraper bc remember this thing is plenty wide also)

Anyway and that's where Lya lives as a permanent guest of the highking. (On the ninth floor but do not worry—elevators were literally invented for this building)

*all names in this draft are the product of me winging it completely and are subject to change

#second chance wip #worldbuilding wednesday #not me just throwing out place names left and right like everyone's been studying my map #also thanks for sending me asks even when I don't answer them <3 you are the backbone of this community seriously

[disco-elysium-via-polls]

UNLOCKABLE CHECKS

ENCYLOPEDIA - [Formidable] Find the source of the Expression.

RHETORIC - [Legendary] Convince Gaston to give us his sandwich.

CONCEPTUALIZATION - [Impossible] What’s up with the backyard wall?

SUGGESTION - [Medium] Why is Annette familiar?

ELECTROCHEMISTRY - [Impossible] Stop making the Expression.

COMPOSURE - [Legendary] What makes Rene stand so proud?

REACTION SPEED - [Medium] Find a Dick Mullen book.

INTERFACING - [Challenging] Fix the broken faucet in our hotel room, [Medium] Find a figurine in Roy’s store.

HAND/EYE COORDINATION - [Legendary] What kind of gun fired the bullet? MAXED

EQUIPPABLE THOUGHTS

MAGNESIUM-BASED LIFEFORM

Temporary bonus: -1 Shivers: No shakes

It is generally understood that human beings are carbon-based organisms, fusing little carbon tubes together to form complex, mushy structures capable of thought, love, and locomotion. It is also known that these structures sometimes like to “take the edge off” by consuming ethanol, amphetamine, etc. In such cases, it is important to supplement your body with magnesium. Tired? Mag it! Down? Mag time! Liver damage? MAXIMUM MAG! Some people say magnesium doesn’t really do anything and you just need to quit. What do we tell them?

DETECTIVE COSTEAU

Temporary bonus: -2 Conceptualization: An idiotic idea

Detective Raphaël Ambrosius Costeau – when you say it, it feels like you’re taking a bite of lemon meringue while sitting on the terrace of a seaside cafe. On a cool summer day. In Sur-La-Clef. It’s everything you’re *not*. You haven’t created many things during your stay in Martinaise, but you’ve created this. A fancy, sophisticated name that makes you sound intelligent. And that no one seems to *acknowledge*. Don’t you feel like you deserve a reward for coming up with something so special? And what would that reward *be*?

BRINGING OF THE LAW (LAW-JAW)

Temporary bonus: -1 Rhetoric: Weird jaw

Hey, so a little observation. It’s all cool, man. Don’t freak out, but every time you say “I am the law“ – and you say it *a lot*, it’s basically *hello* for you – your jaw does this *weird thing*. It sort of shifts sideways, hanging off your face at a jaunty angle, while the word *law* sounds oddly guttural and low. It’s… strange. You wouldn’t notice it, but after saying you’re the law eighty thousand times, the question *does* come up: why *do* you have Law Jaw?

DATE OF BIRTH GENERATOR

Temporary bonus: None

Your face looks like it’s 58 and your body feels like it’s 60. Your mind feels like it’s lived for one day or a hundred. Both longer than they ought to be, the day and the century…. But for how long, then, has this thing attached to your sentience walked the planet’s crust? Time to start racking those brains of yours, Elder One. When and where were you born?

MOTORWAY SOUTH

Temporary bonus: -1 Visual Calculus: Bizarre angles

At the edge of the map the landmass begins to disintegrate – into pure trigonometry. The ocean melts, becoming a tangle of sines and cosines, the mountain range turns into a sharp-angled azimuth. Its green rain shadow dithers, like music turning into a waveform. And then vanishes. This is the end, a half-remembered textbook from your childhood – the porch collapsing on the edge of the isola. A transition from reality to pale. A single vector shoots out, like a rocket. It’s the Motorway South, splintering off from the known pale! *To where*? Where does it go?

WOMPTY-DOMPTY-DOM CENTRE

Temporary bonus: -1 Suggestion: Outsider

It’s Wednesday evening and something heinously exciting is under way. People have gathered beneath the billowing roof of an oddly shaped trophy building, sipping wine and exchanging opinions. 29-year-old wunder-twins Guy and Keith Joost are the stars of the show, with their bomber jackets and white sneakers – head curators of this art exhibition. It’s the wompty-dom-di-dommiest event of the year and all the cool kids have RSVP’d. Where are you, if you are not there?

#disco elysium

[tnc-n3cl]

Rito Settlements in "The Realm Walker"

So in my LoZ fanfic, I propose that after the Great Calamity, most of the Rito (who had settlements spread out all over Tabantha, Hebra, and the Ridgelands BTW) fled Hyrule proper. This event came to be known as the Great Migration and had two main reasons. The first reason was because the Rito were fleeing the increase in monsters and threat of Guardians. The second reason was that many Rito were angered over the death of Champion Revali and/or felt that the Hylian Royal Family had failed their sacred duty and wanted nothing to do with non-Rito ever again.

This also led to a schism among the Rito people themselves and the newly established settlements outside of Hyrule limited their ties with the Rito in Hyrule. As a result every settlement basically just does whatever they want/each Elder runs things how they see fit, and there's no central leadership. Before the Great Calamity, "Rito Village" (Torikirika (Toe-re-key-re-ka) as it's properly known) was their capital and home of their Chieftain.

Most of these settlements were built into the cliffisides of the Great Scar Canyon (the bottomless pit at the west and north ends of the map in BotW). Now for visual aids!

The top image shows about where Tikri (Tick-re) Village is. Like most of the cliffside settlements its a mix of roosts carved into the cliff walls and wooden structures like you'd see in Torikirika (though more securely fixed to the cliff walls). The bottom image shows where this is on the map. The arrow indicating Link is right above another settlement, Kariki (Ka-re-key) Village. Kariki Village will be featured in upcoming chapters of "The Ballad of Kass."

The Rito settlements are built in pairs like this so they can keep in touch via couriers. The winds that blow you back towards Hyrule in-game are seasonal in "The Realm Walker." Spring/Summer they blow towards Hyrule and Fall/Winter they reverse, which makes traveling between the different sides of the canyon difficult. Skilled couriers know paths through the canyon that can allow them to avoid the worst of the winds but it's still dangerous to fly through the canyon out of season.

These two images show the location of Gorika (Go-re-ka) Village, the closest settlement to Torikirika. It's more or less south of Dragon Bone Mire.

This is where the largest Rito settlement is, Takandi (Ta-kan-de) Village. This is where Kass and his sister Kalia are from. Kass left his home town to apprentice under Kaneli's sister (Galini), who was the Loresinger at the time. Unfortunately, Kass had little skill with stringed instruments, but as luck would have it, he met his teacher Sheikar on one of his trips and was allowed to study the accordion (and learn from the in general Sheikah) under Sheikar for some time.

Takandi Village was built on top of an abandoned settlement, rumored to have been established more than 10,000 years ago by both the Rito and Gorons to mine resources to build the Divine Beasts and Guardians (and a bunch of other Ancient Sheikah Tech). The vast majority of the settlement is built into the cliff walls with fewer wooden structures than other Rito settlements. "Village" is a bit of a misnomer as the population of Takandi Village would easily classify it as a town or perhaps even a city. But the Rito have a habit of just sticking "Village" at the end of their settlement names...

The Rito living here are generally more private than in other settlements, especial with... *ahem* ...adult matters. Other Rito often regard them as being as uptight as Hylians. The Village also has a not entirely undeserved reputation for being socially backwards (to put it politely) [As mentioned in Chapters 4 & 7 of "The Ballad of Kass".]

BTW: None of these settlements reach all the way to the top of the cliffside for defensive reasons.

This here is the location of Koraki (Ko-ra-key) Village, which just so happens to be Amali and Saki's hometown. They migrated to Torikirika to apprentice for Loresinger and Healer respectively. And yes, this is how Kass and Amali met... Unfortunately, it's almost always snowing/overcast in game so it's nearly impossible to get good screenshots of the cliffsides where the two nearby villages are.

Warning: Huge image...

A political map of Hyrule and the surrounding lands I made. I've marked all the Rito Villages here if you'd care to see them all. The four point stars are camps the Rito have set up as restpoints and waystations. They're not permanently inhabited and the ones inside the Great Scar Canyon are lumber camps as there's a forest down there.

In summation:

Hyrule Side

Torikirika (Toe-re-key-re-ka) [Rito Village]

Suskri Village (Gone) {was where Kass' hut on Washa's Bluff is}

Gorika (Go-re-ka) Village

Kariki (Ka-re-key) Village

Koraki (Ko-ra-key) Village

Western Villages

Takandi (Ta-kan-de) Village

Tokali (Toe-ka-lee) Village

Kiriski (Key-re- ski) Village

Tikri (Tick-re) Village

Miski (Me-ski) Village

Far Western Villages

Gotiri (Go-tea-re) Village

Suskiri (Sus-key-re) Village

And for funzies, one last thing...

Some screenshots of the northeast edge of the map in BotW (from the top of the labyrinth island). I used this to determine the landscape of Holoryna and where the Great Scar Canyon ends. You can just barely make out that the pillars at the edge of the canyon kind of loop back to the mountains to close it off. There's also a couple of islands and it looks like the shoreline dips behind those mountains so that's where I put the inlet I was planing on having.

#rito botw #botw rito #rito village #therealmwalker #botw au #tloz #tloz au #long post #orni

[supportingfire]

              so here’s a fucking vent idk where else to put but as a floridian STILL riding out this shit, i’ve been seeing a lot of gross shit on social media regarding SW florida and the people still there. 

“why didn’t you evacuate?”

“you should have listened. this will be a lesson for you.”

“you had plenty of time.”

             FIRST AND FUCKING FOREMOST these people who say shit like this , i can guarantee, more than 90% of them have never lived in a major hurricane state, much less florida, because they wouldn’t say shit like this. there is so much that goes into the decision to up and leave, and this is coming from someone who evacuated way back when we were slammed by four hurricanes within a month in ‘04. we stayed for charley, and my mom didn’t think our house would last another one right after, so we left. she cried in the car as we crossed over into georgia, while i held my two cats with my brother in the backseat. we were LUCKY ENOUGH to have a vehicle to get us out, and money to make arrangements elsewhere. but we almost didn’t. 

            you have to have a lot of resources available to be able to just up and leave. you never know how long you’re gonna have to stay away, first of all, not to mention you don’t have guaranteed availability ANYWHERE (hotels book up quicker than graduation weekend at your local college) and even if you do find accommodations, a lot of them don’t cater to pets or disabled guests. my grandmother is at an ALF nearby and thankfully we felt safe enough for her to stay there, consider the elderly and disabled who don’t have that luxury. are they expected to just up and leave, too? and if they didn’t do they deserve the ten feet of water destroying their lives, or worse, fucking actual death? you need a means of transportation, money, and somewhere to go. having access to all three of these is a privlidge. 

“you had a week. you knew it was coming.”

            when you live somewhere where hurricanes happen so often it’s literally a season, like fucking winter and summer, you treat these kinds of things a little differently. yes, we knew ian was brewing, yes we knew it had potential, but there was no actual guarantee where and when it would hit. imagine going to your boss and saying “i need two weeks off because of a potential.” right now, as i type this at 11:30 on thursday DAY OF, we got hit with the eyewall TWO HOURS AGO, and i am still expected to clock in and work remotely “if i am avaialble to do so.” and i have the luxury of being able to do remote work. a lot of middle class people do not. they stayed to work. they stayed to keep the lights on, and they stayed to see what was going to happen. the trajectory of this hurricane changed within hours, and fort myers had no chance. naples had no chance. to assume you know better than the people who actually live and work and die here, shame on you. not to mention, when you issue “mandatory evacuation” and offer NO HELP to facilitate it, that’s basically the state going “well, we’re not going to take responsibility, we told you to leave.” its desantis and florida absolving themselves of responsibility for the outcome of it’s people. “just go to a shelter” ALSO A FUCKING ABLEIST THING TO SAY. 

            when evac orders started to roll in, it was almost too late. twelve hours might seem like a long time to you but when you’re on a peninsula, it feels like there’s one way out, and there kind of is. it’s north. some people took a gamble and went south to miami, and even miami got some severe rain and wind. people evac’d tampa TO FORT MYERS thinking they’d be a little bit better off, only for ian to take a fucking right turn and go south and slam fort myers FIRST. this happened within six hours. 

            and finally, yES there are assholes and idiots who go by the mentality that “floridians are built different” and “we’ll be fine, lets have a party!” and they stayed, and they got far more than they were expecting. they got a very, very harsh lesson about taking weather warnings seriously. i have a great uncle who was one of them, and there’s a good chance he didn’t make it through this, no one’s heard from him. does that mean they deserve having their entire lives destroyed? do they deserve to die for being cocky and stupid? the utter lack of compassion from other people blows my fucking mind. SW florida is going to be feeling this one for a long fucking time. death tolls haven’t come out yet because WE’RE STILL DEALING WITH IT. 

            i’m so fucking livid, being on tiktok trying to find updates. there’s a woman on a literal pool float in HER OWN LIVING ROOM as water rises, only for the comments to be “should have left” or “dumb for staying.” how fucking dare you. 

           fuck this man. if you can help, please help, whether it be monetarily or just spreading some sort of compassion. below is a twit thread i found of some reputable organizations providing help on the ground. we’re doing alright in orlando, downtown flooded a lot and i imagine roads will be closed a few days, but southwest florida is literally underwater. please be kind and please be compassionate. 

https://twitter.com/ChelseaClinton/status/1575232946860331008

https://www.newsnationnow.com/weather/hurricane-ian-latest/hurricane-ian-florida-heres-how-you-can-help/ <-- a news article advising how to help

#long post #vent / / #( ( ooc #( ( tbd #i'm emotionally overwhelmed #please keep sw florida in your hearts and minds today #this storm absolutely devestated them #ask to tag #death ment tw