#it's meant to be in russian so it reads like “Sol”

[mewling-central]

Introduction to Collective Seraphic

Now that Seraphic's at a stable place, I think I'm gonna take some time to delve into the basics of how it operates. For this post I'll only be going into the language itself and not the writing system, as that's going to need a post of its own to elaborate on. I'll try to keep this as concise as possible, but I may make separate posts expanding on topics discussed in this one. So, without further ado, onto the infodump!

Background

Collective Seraphic (which I'll be referring to as "Seraphic") is an artlang that I've created for a comic that as of this post I have not began yet, but am still developing. The majority of the comic will take place on the Seraph Homeworld, an alien planet some 3,000 lightyears from Earth populated by the seraph species (pictured below):

Within the story, Seraphic acts as the lingua franca of the Seraph Homeworld and the many colonized planets under Seraph control. It's used in the government, and among speakers of differing languages. As such, this language was the first one that I knew I would need to make as it will play a vital role in both the storytelling and narrative structure.

Syntax

Seraphic is largely a fusional language, employing affixes to modify the semantic role and meaning of morphemes. Seraphic does not, in the traditional sense, have verbs, so the sentence structure is strictly subject-object (will expand upon later). Nouns decline for number and tense, and are grouped into seven noun classes. Adjectives agree with nouns in number, except if derived from nouns themselves, in which case they'll also agree in class. Seraphic is very head-initial; with demonstratives, numerals, possesives, adjectives, genitives, and relative clauses following the noun the modify; and prepositions preceeding the nouns they modify. Auxiliaries preceed procedurals (again, will expand upon later).

Phonology

Here is the phonological chart for Seraphic:

It has a syllable structure of (CC)V(CC). Plosives cannot exist word finally, clusters of consonants of the same manner are illegal, and vowel clusters are also not permitted. Syllabic consonants are grouped with vowels and behave much like them, carrying tone and stress, so they together are grouped and referred to as vocalics. Seraphic is a tonal language, employing the use of four tones: rising (á), falling (à), high (ā), and low (a). Low tones remained unmarked in both the Seraphic script and in romanization. Stress is syllable-independant. It will take either the ultimate, penultimate, or rarely the antepenultimate. Stress always falls on the syllable with a voiceless initial obstruent nearest to the end of the word. If none are available, it will fall on the syllable with an initial sonorant within the same parameters. Stress will never fall on a voiced obstruent. For clarity, I'll provide a key describing the pronunciation of the romanization.

Sounds that are similarly pronounced as they're read in American English:

m, n, p, b, t, d, k, g, f, v, s, z, y, w, l

Sounds that have special pronunciations:

ŋ, like the ng in English "sing"

p', like the ጴ in Amharic "ጴጥሮስ"

t', like the t' in Navajo "yá'át'ééh"

k', like the კ in Georgian "კაბა"

', like the the space within English "uh-oh"

c, like the sh in English "sharp"

j, like the s in English "measure"

x, like the gh in English "ugh"

ğ, like the γ in Greek "γάλα"

pf, like the pf in German "Pfirsiche"

ts, like the z in Italian "grazia"

tc, like the ch in English "chain"

kx, like the kh in Lakota "lakhóta"

r, like the rr in Spanish "perro", although occasionally like the r in Spanish "amarillo"

i, like the ee in English "meet"

į, like the ы in Russian "ты"

u, like the oo in English "boot"

e, like the é in French "beauté"

œ, like the a in English "Tina"

o, like the o in Classical Latin "sol"

a, like the a in English "bra" although this can change to be more forward or more backward.

Another letter that might trip people up is ł, which is meant to represent the high tone syllabic 'l'. Otherwise, syllabics are written the same as their pulmonic counterparts, with tone markers written when applicable.

Nouns

Nouns make up the bulk of the Seraphic lexicon. Every noun is grouped into one of seven classes:

Solar class: nouns related to seraphim or seraph-like beings, and seraph body parts. Prefix appears as zā-, zō-, zē-, s-, or ts-.

sēr = "person"

Astral class: nouns related to non-seraph animate lifeforms (their equivalent to "animals"). Prefix appears as ğr-, x, or kx-.

xuc = "cherub"

Vital class: nouns related to inanimate lifeforms (their equivalent to "plants"). Prefix appears as wā-, wō, w-, ū-, wē-, or wī-.

wējlux = "tree"

Terranean class: nouns related to landscapes, locations, and natural phenomena. Prefix appears as va-, vo-, vu-, f-, and pf-.

voxāl = "sun"

Metallic class: nouns related to inanimate objects, both natural and artificial. Prefix appears as ja-, jo-, c-, or tc-.

jağrú = "rock"

Lunar class: nouns related to abstract concepts, and terms related to time. Prefix appears as la-, lo-, le-, li-, y-, or l/ł-.

levren = "job"

Oceanic class: nouns related to general words, tangible concepts, numbers, all adjectives, and non-incorporated loanwords. Prefix appears as a/ā-, o/ō-, or aw-.

awuf = "group"

Adjectives do not agree in class, due to the fact that nouns originally are derived from adjectives, and noun classes acted as a way to differentiate between nouns and adjectives.

fa = "warm, hot"

jafa = "fire" (lit. "a hot thing")

When adjectives are used as predicatives, they decline into the oceanic class in order to take the procedurals (once more, will expand upon later).

Nouns also decline for four numbers: singular (one thing, usually unmarked), dual (two things, both things; suffixes as -ac, -oc, -œc, or -c), plural (things, many thing; suffixes as -n, -an, or -in), and collective (every thing, all things; suffixes as -āf/ōf, -áf/-óf, or -'ōf).

Seraphic doesn't use pronouns. Everything and everyone is referred to by name, including yourself. From our perspective, the Seraphic language constantly speaks in the third person. However, it can be repetitive to use the same name over and over again in a sentence, and sometimes you don't know the name of things, so they'll apply what I've called pro-forms. They consist of the demonstrative adjectives fl "this", sl "that", and xl "yon" declined into the Solar class and taking the place of the first, second, and third person respectively. For ease of reference, I'll provide the forms and their declensions below.

zāfl (I/me), zāflc (both of us), zāvlin (we/us), zāfláf (all of us)

zāsl (you), zāslc (both of you), zāzlin (you guys), zāsláf (all of you)

zōxl (they), zōxlc (both of them), zōğlin (many of them), zōxláf (all of them)

Seraphic makes no distinction in the gender of the speaker, in this regard. Although these resemble pronouns, they're not meant to be used as often as regular pronouns, and whenever possible it's much preferred that you refer to someone or something by name.

Adjectives and Prepositions

Adjectives are fairly straightforward. Adjectives follow the noun they modify (e.g. sēr tan "big person"), and agree with them in number (e.g. sēr tan "big person" vs sērn t'aŋon "big people"). Adjectives agree in the singular form with singular and collective nouns, and they agree in the plural form with dual and plural nouns.

There are three main types of adjectives: native adjectives (e.g. cna "good"), borrowed adjectives (e.g. anzn "nice"), and noun-derived adjectives (e.g. arfi/ofi "new"). Native and borrowed adjectives don't agree with noun classes, but noun-derived adjectives do. It originated from the animacy-based adjective agreement system in Proto-Seraphic, which has been lost in all other adjective instances. When you want to make a noun into an adjective you'll affix one of two prefixes to it: ar- (if agreeing with Solar, Astral, and Vital nouns) and o- (if agreeing with Terranean, Metallic, Lunar, and Oceanic nouns). There are specific rules on the forms each prefix takes based on the noun they're attached to:

"ār-" when preceeding high or falling vocalic syllables (e.g. sēr ārzājna "popular person")

"ar-" when preceeding low or rising vocalic syllables (e.g. wēn arfe "local fruit")

"ó-" when preceeding high or falling vocalic syllables (e.g. lalel ówē "grassy flavor")

"o-" when preceeding low or falling vocalic syllables (e.g. lesar olvulvren "economic problem")

"ōw-" when preceeding words that start with a vocalic (e.g. lnin ōwāsāvbas "momentary event")

Prepositions occur before the nouns they modify, and don't change form in any circumstance. There are currently 19 prepositions in the modern language, and they are usually connected to nouns via a hyphen (e.g. e-fe "at (the) place"):

cu = of; indicates possession

pr̄ = indicates the indirect object, equivalent to "to" in the phrase "The man sends the letter to me."

in/īn = as or like; indicates similarity or resemblance. Will either be low or high tone depending on the tone of the following syllable.

e/ē = at or on; indicates location.

tsa = near or for; indicates relative distance from a location or an action performed for the sake of the referent.

cni = without; indicates a lack of possession or company.

wa = in or inside of; indicates interior position.

tn = on top of, above, or before; indicates superior position or a prior instance in time.

pux = under, beneath, or after; indicates inferior position or a following instance in time.

pi = with, together with; indicates being in company of or making use of the referent.

fān = from or away from; indicates the motion of leaving the referent.

ku = out of; indicates motion from within the referent towards the exterior.

tun = into or through; indicates motion from outside the referent towards the interior.

xel = to or towards; indicates the motion of approaching the referent.

kxun = across; indicates motion from one location to another

pn̄ = around; indicates location surrounding the referrent.

cāza = between; indicates location in the middle of the referrent.

tē = after, behind; indicates posterior position.

fr = during; indicates a moment in time

Prepositions aren't combined in Collective Seraphic, but may be in certain instances in colloquial speech.

Procedurals

Okay, this is probably the most complicated part of Seraphic, so I'm going to need to get into things individually. First, I'll start with defining a procedural itself. Procedurals are the term I use for the prefixes used to describe the relationship or process of and between the agent noun and the patient noun. These are what act as the equivalent to "verbs" in earth languages. There are three in use:

Existential: used to denote a state of being or equivalence between agent and patient, or to the patient and itself. Equivalent to English "to be" (e.g. A is B, there is B). Usually prefixes as some variant of n-, m-, or ŋ-.

Actional: used to denote an action or process between the agent and patient, or with the patient and itself. Equivalent to English "to do" or "to act upon" (e.g. A acts upon B). Carries a connotation of agency and intent. Usually prefixes as some variant of re-, ra-, or r-.

Resultative: used to denote an occurence or change in state between agent and patient, or patient and itself. Equivalent to English "to become", "to happen", or "to change into" (e.g. A becomes B, B happens to A). Carries a connotation of passiveness or motion. Usually prefixes as some varient of ed- or ez-.

The procedural will change its form slightly depending on the class and declension pattern of the noun it modifies. It always affixes to the patient noun, demonstrating a relationship of an action and what is being acted upon. In this way, the patient can be clearly identified. In transitive or causative clauses, the word order is always S(P)O, with the agent acting as the subject and the patient as the object. In intransitive and passive clauses, the word order is always (P)S, with the patient acting as the subject and the agent demoted to the indirect object or omitted entirely.

Although seemingly limiting, using these three procedural, as well as prepositions, nouns, and adjectives, altogether can be used to make all sorts of verb equivalents that are called "procedural phrases". I'll demonstrate how to build a sentence now. First thing we need to know is the subject and object:

Sāx ... jafa (The child ... the fire)

Next, I'll add the actional procedural in the present tense to this.

Sāx rejafa (The child acts upon the fire)

By itself this is technically grammatically correct, but it doesn't really mean anything. It's too broad. So we add a prepositional phrase to specify exactly what action the child is taking towards the fire.

Sāx pi-sīman rejafa (The childs acts upon the fire with (their) eyes)

Now we know that the child is performing an action involving the use of their eyes. Now of course this could mean many different things in English, but in Seraphic the first thing that comes to mind would be fairly obvious: to see! Thus, "Sāx pi-sīman rejafa" would be the same as saying "The child sees the fire" in English! There are a lot of set phrases that equate to verbs, and remain consistent in their arrangement. Often differing phrases are a useful way to ascertain where someone is from or what their first language is.

Tense and Aspect

Seraphic has six main tenses: two pasts, two presents, and two futures. The two pasts consist of the recent past (happening recently) and the remote past (happening a long time ago), and they prefix and/or combine with the procedural.

Sāx pi-sīman ğrejafa (The child just saw the fire)

Sāx pi-sīman eğrejafa (The child saw the fire a while ago)

Similarly, the future tenses consist of the near future (will happen soon) and the distant future (will happen eventually).

Sāx pi-sīman drejafa (The child will soon see the fire)

Sāx pi-sīman izrejafa (The child will eventually see the fire)

The present tenses consist of a general present tense (happens) and the infinitive (to happen) which is used with auxiliaries and copulae and carries no presence in time.

Sāx pi-sīman rejafa (The child sees the fire)

Pi-sīman ezrejafa (To see a fire)

Whether someone considers an event to be nearer or farther in time from them is completely up to their discretion. There's no set timeframe for when to use the recent vs. remote past, it's all fairly subjective. However, whether you decide to use the recent or remote can really indicate whether you believe something to be in the distant past or future, or just a few moments ago or soon.

Seraphic also makes use of two copulae, the perfective -r and the imperfective -l, helping clitics that expand on the aspect of the procedural, i.e. how the procedural happens over time instead of when in time. The copulae are separate from the procedural, being placed directly before it and conjugating on their own similarly to the lexical procedural. When the copulae are in use, they are conjugated instead of the lexical procedural, while the lexical will be put into the infinitive. The exception to this is if the point in time is considered necessary to be stated for the sake of clarity or emphasis, in which case the lexical verb will also conjugate (though this isn't considered to be the default). The two copulae each conjugate to six tenses, and give 12 individual aspects in total. They are as follows, starting with the perfective:

āgxōnr - Pluperfect: indicates that the action happened at a point before some time in the past either specified or implied (e.g. āgxōnr nidsl "that has happened")

xōnr - Preterite: indicates that the action happened in the past with no reference to if it was completed recently or remotely. A general past (e.g. xōnr nidsl "that happened")

nar - Relative: indicates relative clauses, i.e. clauses that act to modify a noun similarly to an adjective. Equivalent to "that", "who", or "which" (e.g. lsl nar nidsl "the thing that happens")

ednr - Gnomic: indicates general truths, common knowledge, and aphorisms (e.g. ednr nezłsl "things happen")

t'enr - Future Simple: indicates the action will happen in the future with no regard to how near or far it is from the present (e.g. t'enr nidsl "that will happen")

āt'ēnr - Future Perfect: indicates that the action will happen before a time or event in the future (e.g. āt'ēnr nidsl "that will have happened")

And the imperfective:

ŋ̄xōzl - Discontinuous: indicates that an action was happening in the past, but is no longer happening in the present (e.g. ŋ̄xōzl nidsl "that used to happen")

xōzl - Habitual: indicates that an action is done often or out of habit (e.g. xōzl nidsl "that always happens")

īzl - Progressive: indicates that an action is happening at the very moment of conversation (e.g. īzl nidsl "that is happening")

nizl - Prospective: indicates that an action will be starting to, or is in the process of happening (e.g. nizl nidsl "that is about to happen")

t'ezl - Iterative: indicates that an action happens again, repeatedly, or more than one time based on context (e.g. t'ezl nidsl "that happens again" or "that happens again and again")

nt'ezl - Continuative: indicates that an action happens continuously and without end (e.g. nt'ezl nidsl "that still happens")

With both tense and aspects, this largely expands the capability of Seraphic in referring to time.

Moods

Seraphic makes use of seven modal particles to denote seven moods. They are always placed at the beginning of clauses, and no two modal particles can exist in the same clause. They are grouped into four categories: the declaritive (indicative and negative), the inferential (evidential and interrogative), the deontic (volitive and imperative), and the epistemic (subjunctive and conditional). They add extra clarity in the speakers mood or opinion concerning the clause they modify, and are as follows:

Indicative: base form of a clause. Indicates that the speaker is stating a fact or what exists, and is unmarked (e.g. idsl "that happens")

tu - Negative: indicates that the speaker is stating a fact that is untrue or what doesn't exist. Usually only appears in formal, official texts, as the first syllable of the procedural will chage tone to contrast as well and leaves the particle unneccesary in colloquial speech (e.g. tu īdsl "that doesn't happen")

cuc - Evidential: indicates that the speaker is stating a fact that they believe or understand to be true, regardless of having experienced it or not. (e.g. cuc idsl "apparently that happens") Direct evidentiality is denoted using a different method.

an/ān - Interrogative: indicates that the speaker is confirming whether a statement is or isn't true. Forms questions (e.g. an idsl? "does that happen?")

tcān - Volitive: indicates that the speaker desires for the statement to be true (e.g. tcān idsl "that wants to happen" or "that needs to happen" or "that should happen")

má - Imperative: indicates that the speaker is giving a command or suggestion, to themselves and/or to other referents. Functions additionally as a cohortative and a jussive (e.g. má idsl! "let that happen!")

tir - Subjunctive: indicates that the speaker believes the statement to be possible or likely (e.g. tir idsl "that could/would/might happen")

nun - Conditional: indicates that speaker believes the statement to be possible under specific circumstances or conditions (nun idsl "if/when that happens..."

Miscellaneous

That's about the basics of the Seraphic language outline. I'd like to eventually get into things like comparison, evidentiality, declension forms and the like, but those are all topics that definitely need their own individual posts. Real quick, I want to provide one more additional fact about Seraphic.

Seraphic uses base-16, meaning it groups numbers in sets of 16 instead of sets of 10 like we do. 1-16 would be written 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E, F, 10. 10 would be read as 16, and equally 20 would be 32. They're still counting the same amount of things, they're just dividing it up differently!

Anyways that's about it, I hope to share more about Seraphic soon, and when the comic gets released I hope you'll all be able to read it and pick out the many many lines of Seraphic I've poured into it!

ŋKowīci cu-stux 'ōf tsa-levp'ā cu-zāsláf pi-lizt'n ğōdjasa! (Thank you all so much for reading!)

#conlang #constructed language #artlang #grammar #phonology #syntax #linguistics #seraphic #collective seraphic #info post #hope i didn't make a fool of myself in front of the whole community #accidentally showed the world i dont know shit abt linguistics gotdamn #im sure itll be fine #writing system tutorial forthcoming

[curator-on-ao3]

20 questions for fic writers

Thank you so much for tagging me, @divinemissem13! ❤️

1. How many works do you have on Ao3? 127

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count? 660,997

3. What fandoms do you write for? Star Treks, mostly Strange New Worlds, Lower Decks, Picard, and Voyager.

4. What are your top five fics by kudos?

Tuvok’s Secret (G): Tuvok has a secret — and he trusts only one person onboard to keep it. (Kathryn Janeway & Tuvok)

Feet on the Ground (G): Something solid slams into Kathryn’s back. She stumbles forward, bumping Mark, who in turn careens into someone else. Kathryn turns to glare at the probably inebriated party-goer who didn’t watch where they were going. But, instead, she looks up to achingly familiar dark eyes and the curves and lines of a tattoo that Kathryn spent the last eighteen months telling herself she didn’t miss. (Chakotay/Kathryn Janeway)

The Halo Effect (M): Tom Paris and Kathryn Janeway didn’t intend to fall in love. (Kathryn Janeway/Tom Paris)

Fly Me to the Moon (E): Kathryn Janeway and Tom Paris never met each other years before Voyager. Never served on a covert mission together. Never fell in love. Never planned a future together. Nope, never happened. Because a secret like that could lead to some … complex dichotomies. (Kathryn Janeway/Tom Paris)

Bad Ensign (T): Harry Kim finds out he missed out on an important part of the Starfleet Academy experience. Hilarity and dirty jokes ensue. (ensemble, friendship fic)

5. Do you respond to comments? Yes. If someone was kind enough to leave a comment, I’m going to thank them.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? I used to not know how to answer this question, but I recently got a kudos on Honey, I’m Home and while that story definitely isn’t “sit down crying” angst, I feel like maybe it qualifies? (Though In the Doorway might also fit under that criteria? Both stories are Kathryn Janeway/Tom Paris, but they only get together in one of them.)

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? Either Feet on the Ground or Youthful Exuberance (Some Kind of Love). Feet on the Ground has Janeway and Chakotay finding their way together after their Delta Quadrant trauma (note: Chakotay is afraid to leave the Sol system for fear of getting pulled into the Delta Quadrant again — Prodigy!Chakotay didn’t exist yet when I wrote that but, from what I’ve heard, he could possibly relate). Youthful Exuberance lets our heroes, Christopher Pike and Una Chin-Riley, have all manner of ups and downs, but the tags promise a 100 percent happy ending and I was determined to deliver.

8. Do you get hate on fics? Not that I’m aware of, usually.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind? Yes. Vanilla because I find that interesting to write. (I’ll read all sorts of stuff.)

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? I write crossovers within the Trekverse. The two craziest allowed Tuvok and Geordi LaForge to have tea together (Asunder [T] Kathryn Janeway/Tom Paris) and Shannon O’Donnell Janeway to tell Benny Russell how much his writing has meant to her (Meeting of the Minds [G] Shannon O’Donnell Janeway & Benny Russell, Kathryn Janeway & Benjamin Sisko).

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen? Other than by ChatGPT, not to my knowledge.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated? Yes, In the Doorway was translated into Russian.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before? Yes, and am doing so again.

14. What’s your all time favorite ship? NCC 1701

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will? There’s one I technically finished about Tom Paris and Owen Paris in the aftermath of Owen’s beta canon torture by the Cardassians. But it’s really dark and I don’t know if I’ll ever edit or post it.

16. What are your writing strengths? Adaptability (to prompts), brevity, details.

17. What are your writing weaknesses? I’m having trouble lately with voice and lack of vocabulary variety.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic? If necessary, a beta fluent in the language can be very helpful.

19. First fandom you wrote for? I consider that to be Voyager, but recently reflected on an even earlier fandom for me.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written? My most recent fic always holds a place in my heart, so Disarmed (Mirror Una Chin-Riley/Mirror Christopher Pike) is special to me, and also was an interesting mental stretch because I’d never before written sex that the characters think is good but I think isn’t good. But my all-time favorite? Youthful Exuberance (Some Kind of Love). It’s my novel length love letter to Chris and Una, and it means a lot to me.

Tagging: Tumblr has been doing this fun thing lately where I don’t see posts from people I follow. So, if you actually see this, please consider yourself tagged with no pressure. Also, in addition to the wonderful people tagged by @divinemissem13, I’m tagging @grissomesque @fiadorable @emilie786 @genius2mania @lorcaswhisky @enterprise-come-in @marymoss1971 @sun-lit-roses @kejsarinna @iamstartraveller776 @isagrimorie @emonydeborah and the fantastic folks I’m not thinking of right now because I have tag anxiety.

#tag game #20 questions for fic writers #thank you again for tagging me #divinemissem13

[volumehypeplay]

What I'm HYPED for

Already, it's somehow February 1st. The older I get the more I believe time is a construct with how quickly months, weeks and days go by. 2023 is full of things I'm looking forward too (and many things I'm not yet aware of) so I thought, why not give you guys a little look at the games, movies and tv shows I can't wait for in 2023.

↓

Diablo IV

Probably my favorite series in gaming, is back once again and with being in the midst of reading 'The Sin War' seeing both Lilith and Inarius being the titular villains in this sequel has me extremely hyped. I have high hopes for the story, but seeing the return to the dark and macabre style, some fantastic visuals, the additions of verticality and a refined skill system lines up Diablo IV as potentially the best in the series.

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Stalker 2

I still remember making a PC just to be able to run Stalker, back in like 2004; being in awe of the atmosphere the game could muster. Now with Stalker 2 finally on the horizon I really hope the team manage to capture that dread and fear of walking through the ZONE and throw some awesome creature design at us.

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Starfield

Sometime 2 years ago I stumbled upon No Man Sky using gamepass and actually found it so much more fun than I expected. Seeing Bethesda basically put their own RPG-heavy spin on that idea has me excited. Although I was never a fan of Skyrim its now 10+ years since that game and if they can blend a great story with some fantastic survival / world building mechanics they've got me.

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Nightingale

Any game that gives me an excuse to be able to play with my best friend is a great game in my eyes and Nightingale looks like a fantastic spin on survival games. The crutch of this one is being able to realm walk between worlds, which hopefully gives us a ton of diversity; from building your base to the weapons and monsters that are their to ruin our day.

I think it's meant to be out in the first-half of 2023, in Early Access anyway so this is one i'll be keeping my fingers crossed for.

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The Invincible

I don't know much about this one, but The Invincible looks to be in the same vain as the fantastic Firewatch. It's an alternative-scifi with you playing a Russian astrobiologist thats stuck on a planet and has to get out. Story heavy games never had me very interested as a teen, but these last few years I've found some fantastic tales spun by the likes of Prey, Dishonored, God of War etc. and I have a feeling The Invincible is going to be another one of those games.

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Nine Sols

This is actually the only game I have ever backed and I don't regret a penny. Imagine Sekiro, but 2D, hand drawn and a rogue like - that's exactly what Nine Sols is. You play Yi, who has to take down the Nine Sols in a asian influences cyberpunk world.

Having played the demo (and some beta) Nine Sols is shaping up incredibly; the combat is looking to be outstanding for a game of this type and I hope the guys deliver on everything I've seen so far.

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The Ranchers

This is one of those unicorn games that apparently and hopefully will be able to do it all. Much like Raft, Grounded or Len's Island this is sort of a farming-simulator / survival game... but multiplayer. From what we've seen from the dev's in early trailers this could potentially be fantastic, with so much detail being on show. I would normally be hesitant with a game that trying to do so much, but having found a love in these more relaxed games of late I really am rooting for The Ranchers.

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The Finals

The only straight up FPS on my list is The Finals by the dev's behind the Battlefield series. This looks nuts. A modern, highly-destructive team FPS where you can literally mash up everything, with some incredible physics defying fights. I've missed a great shooter in the vain of something like a Quake / COD mash up and I think this might be it.

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Banishers: Ghost of New Eden

Ghosts. Ghost hunters. Co-op. That's all you need to know. Or just read my other write up on this here.

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The Killer

The undisputed KING of macabre, serial killers stories David Finicher is back and this time he's bringing Michael Fassbender for the ride. Based on an obscure French comic book, we see Fassbender play the titular Killer, whose conscience comes into play the longer he is away from his last kill. Yup, that's enough for me. I'm in.

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The Flash

This movie is finally coming... who'd believe it after it initially meaning to be realesed in 2018. With Miller spending a good part of 2022 doing his best portrayal of Eobard Thawne; the rumours surrounding Flash are that it's the best DC movie since The Dark Knight. I'm not one for that kind of hype, but the ground work is there. Miller (although a mad man) is clearly a fantastic actor, Keaton is back as Batman and we have Supergirl entering the fray. This could be the best CBM of the year if it lands right, and I think it will.

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Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning

It's another MI film... whats not to look forward too? Cruise has been trying to kill himself for entertainment for a good 20 years and I don't think Dead Reckoning is going to buck the trend. Fully expect this to be awesome.

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Ferrari

After Bale and Damon put on such a masterclass with Ford v Ferrari, there's a lot to live up to for any car-related movie. Yet Ferrari directed by the great Michael Mann, led by Adam Driver has every chance of shaping up deliciously. I love Driver's ability to channel this suave-rage with his characters, something I think will tie nicely into his portrayal of Enzo.

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Killers of the Flower Moon

It's been a while since a film starring DiCaprio had me excited - so a movie about the Osage Murders led by the afromentioned DiCaprio directed by Martin Scorcese could not have come at a better time. Im a sucker for anything with the words serial-killr so I'll be there day one hoping for another masterclass by this duo.

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Air Jordan

Affleck is finally back. It's been years since this man has directed a movie but now he's back with his buddy Matt Damon, telling the story of a Nike salesman trying to capture Michael Jordan for the sports juggernaut.

Say less.

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Argylle

Directed by Mathew Vaughn (of X-Men First Class and Kingsman fame) is a spy movie, sporting Henry Cavill with quite literally the most millitant hair cut known to man. Steve Zahn would be proud.

P.S. theres nothing else out about this movie but thats more than enough for me to be excited.

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True Detective: Night Country

This show is a bit of an oddball. The first season is seen as a classic, the second a huge step back and the third a slow return to form; so can this new season starring Jodie Foster finally rekindle the magic that was season one? It has just about everything going for it, especially the setting; Alaska, during the Winter - a perfect brew for death and mystery. This is one I'll be crossing my fingers for.

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Shogun

A series set in 17th Century Japan, based on the legendary book, led by Hiroyuki Sanada? Oooh you crazy bastard I'M IN. I'm a sucker for stories like this and knowing the ever awesome KANEDA is leading this story of samurai, deception and survival it feels like it was handmade for me - and you can bet I'll be there day one.

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Three Body Problem

The Three Body Problem, might just be the sleeper hit of 2023 if the men behind GoT get this story right. Having read (2 of 3 books) in the series, this is quite possibly the most wild sci-fi story I have ever red. Set in China, during the 1970s (and onwards) the way this story takes such a simply concept about alien contact and flips it on a dime is incredible. Really hope this does well.

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···

GIF by loveyazy

Secret Invasion

I can't believe I'm actually excited for something Marvel, but this espionage thriller led by Samuel L Jackson is it. I have loved the more serious takes Marvel have attempted (The Winter Soldier) and this looks like a straight continuation in vibe and style. Adding Ben Mendehlson, Olvia Colman and more to the cast (with it being a mini-series as well) I fully believe this will be the best thing Marvel does the whole of 2023.

#movies #gaming #tv shows #argylle #air jordan #marvel #secret invasion #diablo 4

[trashcankitty12]

Stella Headcanons:

You know her. You love her. 

She’s bubbly, she’s fun. (And she’s pretty funny.)

She’s Princess Stella Sol of Solaria. 

(These headcanons are all in relation to my ‘main verse’, which is the New Company of Light/Balance Verse. And it can also translate into my Left verse.)

Under the cut because it’s long.

About Stella:

-Her fear of heights comes from a major fall she took as a child off of her grandfather’s pet dragon. (He was teaching her how to ride and… She wasn’t holding onto it well enough and down she went.)

-Stella is fluent in nearly 56 of the Magical Dimensions languages. (She was to stick to the languages spoken by the realms who interacted most with Solaria.)

-After meeting Bloom and spending a little time on Earth, Stella is also trying to learn a few of the Earth’s languages. (She’s mastered English and Spanish, but she’s still working on French and Russian.)

-She loves sweets. (And food in general. But considering she’s Solarian, that’s to be expected. They tend to eat more than most people in the Magical Dimension.)

-Stella may or may not glow in the dark. (It’s something she can control and she has to be focused to do it. She inherited that gift from her mother.)

-Stella’s mother was religious and has a close relationship to the Moons, while her father, despite being so close in relationship to the Suns of Solaria, isn’t religious. Stella personally has mixed feelings on religion. She likes the idea of spirituality and having a higher power to rely on, but organized religion makes her heart hurt. (They tend to talk down about those who don’t follow a ‘certain’ way of life, which to Stella isn’t a cool thing to do, unless, of course, the other people are actually hurting someone else.)

-She was almost a big sister. Her mother had been pregnant when she was seven. (They don’t ever talk about it. And, as an adult, Stella can see where this was a turning point for her parents and their relationship. Her mother just wasn’t quite the same after losing Diana.)

-Stella is a dog person and was so happy when she finally got a puppy for her birthday one year. (The dog was her best friend and her main confidant.) Unfortunately, Stella’s dog only made it to four years old. (It had an illness that not even magic could fix.)

-Stella hasn’t been able to stomach the thought of another dog since. (However, Brandon may or may not offer for them to get a dog later on. You know, as their “first child”.)

-Stella can spot patterns without trying. It’s so ingrained in her after being around fashion, and the practical applications of pattern spotting have made her life so much easier.

-Here’s the thing about Stella… She’s somewhat dyslexic. Words and reading do not come easily to her. On the flip side, Stella can give one hellova speech. Her charisma and charm make her a natural at hyping up a crowd.

-Stella had a fairy godmother until she was 13. An elderly woman named Glinda. Glinda helped Stella with her shyness and in her first fashion attempts. And Glinda was the one who helped Stella gain her magic winx the first time with encouragement and confidence. (After all, how else should a future queen bring out her power?)

-After gaining her wings, her father gifted her the Ring of Solaria. It was done in a ceremony to the Suns and Moons of Solaria and the Ring had to choose Stella just as it had Radius and their family before them. Once Stella and the Ring bonded, she shifted for the first time in public to show off her wings and magic. Her parents couldn’t have been prouder.

-She went to a private school on Solaria for her elementary and middle school education years, but she was somewhat isolated due to being the Princess of Solaria (making the other kids judge her ahead of time as some sort of prim and proper prep they didn’t want around) and due to some of her ‘uncool’ hobbies.

-(Those uncool hobbies? Stella is actually into comics and superheroes, but until meeting the rest of the Winx, she wasn’t interested in sharing that side of herself. Solarian Comics actually helped Stella with reading because of their writing structure. Stella is also a fan of learning cultures and wanting to see what benefits other places and if it could be replicated to help Solaria. And Stella was kind of a… Horse girl. She spent many, many, many summers and school holidays at her maternal uncle’s horse ranch in the Western Spaces of Solaria.)

-Stella tends to use her solar powers more than her lunar ones. It’s not because she doesn’t feel close to her mother or to her mother’s family, it’s just a little more difficult for her tap into that part of her magic. (Solar magic is easy and tapped into by thinking of warm and splendid times. Lunar magic requires a bit more… Reflection. And Stella doesn’t like having to think too long about things. Not because she can’t, but because if she starts to really think about things, she tends to overthink them which leads her down a dark rabbit hole.)

-Stella’s best friend growing up was Nova Rinae, despite being two years older than the other girl. Nova’s mother is the head of Luna’s guard, and Nova was often in the palace. (Making her one of the few children always around. And because she shared several of Stella’s interests, they clicked rather quickly.)

-(Her parents also encourage this friendship as it’s important to them for Stella to be close to those who may serve alongside her when its time for her to become queen. Friendships can be turned into unwavering loyalty, and that can mean life or death in certain situations.)

-Before she ever got her magic, Stella’s parents thought she may end up being the ‘New Host’ for the Light Dragon. (Bloom was never found, which meant no one could say for certain what happened to the Light Dragon, other than it had to be alive still. Otherwise the Balance would have been off.)

-Because of their thoughts on her having the Light Dragon, Stella was taught basic hand-to-hand skills as a child and was instructed to be wary of “golden eyes” in the shadows. She was also to learn Solaria’s history as well as Domino’s. (Though Stella mostly paid attention to how the two worlds overlapped instead of their separate histories.)

-Stella actually knew Layla, Sky, and Diaspro as children. But because so much can change from being five years old to being 15/16, she didn't recognize them when they met again. (They had all been at a major conference for the realms and while their parents ‘talked shop’, they went to play. It was their first and last time together like that until years later.)

-Despite being a princess, Stella tends to be a bit messy. At least, as far as her room itself. Her workspaces (wardrobe and vanity and tailoring areas) are the most well-kept areas in her care. (She likes to work in clean spaces… But in her room, the space where she lives, she likes it to look lived in.)

-Stella originally got into fashion at about 10 years old in an attempt to get closer to her mother. Her mother always had work to do as a queen, and for her off-time, she went to fashion shows (which in a way, were also work, because as a queen she’s expected to be aware of trends and present herself in a certain way). So to spend more time with her mother, Stella started having an interest in fashion. (Which quickly became a hobby she loved when she found the different ways she could express herself with fashion.)

-In a bid to get closer to her father, Stella took a major interest in cooking. (Her father can bake. He’s messy at it, but by the Dragons do his pastries and cookies taste of heaven.) Granted, Stella didn’t inherit the baking skill, but she can recite recipes and judge pastries and baked goods like its her job. (And for some of Solaria’s festivals, it is.)

-Have I mentioned she’s an expert equestrian in the Solarian Rodeo? Her go-to is barrel racing and square-dancing competitions, and she’s even dipped her toes into riding the bronco and in cattle roping.

-Stella has far-sightedness. She can see things far away, but things up close are blurred. She used to wear glasses, but after elementary school, she swapped to contacts. (However she does still wear glasses and keeps them close by just in case. They’re a stylish silver-blue and not quite thick-framed.)

-Stella has formal training in ballroom dancing. (Her favorite is the Eraklyon Tango. Or at least, it has been for the past few years. Wonder why…?)

-Stella also has a minor fear of spiders. (It’s not really a fear either… More like a squick. She doesn’t like them, but she doesn’t mind them being around if she doesn’t have to see them. It’s because one of her school teachers thought a great Life Lesson would be for the class to witness his pet tarantula eat a live meal. Not fun for little Stella.)

(Not fun for him either, once the parents got a hold of him…)

-Stella lied about what happened during her ‘real’ first year at Alfea. She honestly did blow up the Potion’s Lab… But it wasn’t because she was researching color theories…

-Just before Stella was meant to leave for Alfea, like a week or two before, she found out from Nova, NOVA, that her parents were getting a divorce. Luna and Radius never told her. Her friend told her.

-Stella didn’t want to leave after that, afraid that if she was gone, she couldn’t help them patch things up. (She truly believed they could work this out. She just needed to be there. She needed them to see her and remember why they fell in love.)

-They dropped Stella off, but still didn’t discuss or leave room to discuss the divorce. (Stella didn’t want to let them know she knew because she didn’t want Nova in trouble for listening in on their mothers’ conversations.)

-Which led to a panicked Stella trying desperately to pretend to be okay while in the presence of the others. (She’s a princess, she can’t show despair. Especially without reason.)

-Stella was angry that her parents still hadn’t talked to her and that they had sent her away. She was feeling left out and scared and confused. They were in love. Right?!

-So she started doing small things around Alfea to try and get her suspended. Not expelled, just suspended. (She needed time at home, before the holidays.)

-She verbally attacked other Alfea students, playing up the pompous princess act. No luck. She mocked Palladium. No luck. She even cut classes. No luck. So as a last resort, without having to go to Cloud Tower and stir trouble up there, was to mess around in the potion’s lab. It worked… Too well.

-She was expelled and sent back to Solaria. Her parents were upset with her, and disappointed (which was the worst ever for Stella who really wanted their approval in everything). Stella broke down and finally told them that she knew and that she didn’t want her family to break apart. That she was scared and shaken and angry. Angry that they could pretend so well that everything was fine when it obviously wasn’t.

-Luna and Radius decided to try a form of family counseling to try and help Stella. (They hated seeing their daughter so upset, but they knew in the long run that staying together would have damaged her further. She didn’t need to grow up with constant arguing and avoiding each other, that wasn’t a love story they wanted her to follow.)

-(They also explained the situation to Faragonda and promised to pay for the damages. Faragonda allowed Stella to return within the next school year if her progress with the counselor went well.)

-Stella, even though still upset with her parents’ divorce, was a bit more accepting of it after taking the school year to focus on them as a family. (Even one that was split.)

-Stella does have hope they’ll reunite, but she understands a bit more now why they split up. (And even though they are in separate palaces, Luna taking residence in the Lunar Sections now, she knows they love her very much.)

#winx club #winx club headcanons #stella headcanons #winx club stella #Princess Stella of Solaria #ray of sunshine #little sunburst

[courage-a-word-of-justice]

Maou-jou 1 | Munou na Nana 1 | Grace of the Gods 1 | IWGP 1 | Akudama 1 | Crusade 1 | JJK 1 | HypMic 2 (also brief thoughts on the dog and cat TV short because I had them)

Maou-jou 1

I sampled this manga with what’s called a “Viz sampler”. I only ever seem to find those at libraries, so I’d assume only they and bookstores can get those.

…Twilight looks like Maou Sadao (Hataraku Maou-sama!).

“Dawner”??? I can read katakana, ya idjits. His name is Akatsuki. Update: The translator must’ve gone, “Dawn is a girl’s name. Let’s tack on an -er so it looks like a guy’s name.”

Aw, Hiro Shimono is Akatsuki. If it were Yoshitsugu Matsuoka, we could’ve gotten a Kirito joke out of it.

Oh! 快眠 (Kaimin) = good rest, literally “happy sleep”. Hence this is the nation of Goodreste. I see.

The lightning effect is soooooooooo cool! *eyes glitter at the particle effects*

I’m gonna die from cuteness from all the teddies and seals!

The little fanfare is so cute and the yokudekimashita reminds me of my days playing the arcade game Bomberman (which had a flower sticker much like this one). I wanna see this get a dub and succeed on all its merits! It’s basically my baby already…bar the fact it took a bit to work up to the first good bit of comedy.

The teddy demons are called Debiakuma, a pun on kuma (bear), devil and akuma (devil). Lessee…After “lesser demon”, there’s more text…“Fluffy bears that can be also used as pets. They give in easily to temptation. A lot of them live in the demon castle, so the princess likes to gather their fur, dye it and spin nice cotton out of it. Warning: A lot of them will either run away or call you their friend./Occasionally act as friends for the princess.”

LOL, I recognised that voice of the Scissors guy straight away…although I didn’t know who it belonged to. That’s Suwabe. (It doesn’t sound like Suwabe, I would’ve thought it to be Takuma Terashima or something.)

Aw, the Japanese version is more boring this time. It’s just Scissor Magician (in the singular for both).

*hears Scissors Demon going -ageruwa”, which is a feminine sentence ending…that’s Suwabe trying to (voice) act effeminate???!!!

These trumpet sounds never get old.

LOL, Siberian huskies dressed as Russians…

Okay, my turn again: Hari means needle, toge means thorn. Next to “His stomach is soft”, part of the subs are cut off due to Funimation’s hardsubs, but I can read “he is proud of his defence” on the 2nd line, “is the type to not refuse when relied on” on the 2nd-last line and “his favourite food is strange bird chawanmushi” on the last line.

I love how parts of the castle are upside down for no reason at all except to look cool…architects must hate that, though.

I hadn’t heard of “seesaw battles” until now. but the metaphor does make sense...kind of.

What about changing the mattress? Update: She does do that…kind of.

Gaaaaaaaaaaaaah! Kirito was under my nose all along! Damn Demon Kinggggggggggggggggggg!

Kamina glasses on one of the background trees! Cute tapir! Ahhhhhhhh, it’s so cuteeeeeeee!

Anyways, that’s a fun show. Not as fun as HypMic, but still fun after it gains momentum.

Munou na Nana 1

I remember seeing spoilers for a twist at the end…let’s hope I don’t anticipate it. That would kill the entire anime for me.

The message actually says something about how the island is a nest for enemies of humanity.

There’s the ice narcissist I saw in the promo stuff, right on cue. I’ve never heard of his voice actor Hiromichi Tezuka before, although he does sound like Hiroshi Kamiya or someone much better.

Why do I get the feeling once the title character arrives, even Nanao will get powers…? Or maybe Nana is the catalyst for Nanao’s powers awakening or something? (Just realised having a Nana and a Nanao together in the same anime is confusing…)

Subbers spelt “noblesse oblige” wrong, unless it was deliberately done as such.

I predicted the “duke it out” line.

There’s a menu on the wall of the restaurant.

Maybe Nanao’s “talent” is his leadership stat or something?

Or maybe even Nanao is an enemy of humanity and doesn’t know it? (Sorry, speculation going into overdrive…that usually happens with superpower works like this for me, because I like to analyse them.)

Maybe Nanao can see the future, like the protag from Koi to Producer?

Technically, shouldn’t ice be weak against fire…? Or am I too used to the Pokemon system?

Called it! Nanao has a hidden power! (That reminds me: I still don’t know what Lucien’s (from Koi to Producer’s) power really is.)

Vigilantes is really good at exploring how people can expand on their own powers.

…wow, I heard rumours that the main character was going to die, but I’d pegged Nana to die, not Nanao.

Onodera is clearly important…maybe he was the one with the wind powers? Or was Nana lying about that?

…dude, the red eyes are kinda obvious that Nana is evil in some way, or at least really devious.

Grace of the Gods 1

All I really know of this is that it’s got slimes and it’s an isekai/SoL hybrid…That’s it.

…I am not, I repeat NOT, on board for a harem centred around an 11 year old!

Ryoma speaks with an unnatural amount of starts and stops, hence the caveman speak.

What’s Jil’s role in the party…?

Why would you even need to know 4 high-level skills? Isn’t it better to know all of them?

LOL, I knew the isekaid guy was meant to have a hard life so he could start over with slimes, but…stick Doppo in this and it’s basically the same thing. At least Doppo tries to resist his bosses behind their backs, this guy just did the whole gaman thing and look where that got him!

If he worked for a black company with no overtime and so forth, how did he know about a recent anime trend, eh??? Sounds suspect. Update: Unless he was thinking about 90s isekai, which still involved less reincarnation than this.

I noticed the gods have senbei (the rice crackers with the seaweed). Western-looking gods probably shouldn’t have senbei, unless…they did that to make Ryoma feel more at home?

Seriously, how does a guy with no overtime still have time for online games? Even if he were getting just ads for them, he probably wouldn’t have paid enough attention to be able to figure out what the cliches are, right? Either that, or the Dragon Quest system is older than I think it is.

Slimes don’t have paws…or hands or other appendages…to give…

…I’m not sure what to think there. Am I meant to think the slimes are cute? Am I meant to think the catgirls/animal girls are cute? The answer to those questions is “no”, so…eh.

IWGP 1

Basically, I chose this for associations with HypMic.

…the best first impression involves a CGI car. Of course. <- (sarcastic)

Given HypMic, I almost expected a rap battle…nahhhh…Rap battles don’t look so cool outside HypMic, man.

The owl is a pun. Fukurou (owl) matches ‘bukuro (bag, which is the 2nd character in “Ikebukuro”). There’s also an owl statue used as a meeting spot, much like Hachiko in Shibuya…(I learnt a bunch of things about the division territory through HypMic. Let me show off…)

I think the character designer for this anime also did Joker Game…that’s throwing me off a little. Also, they had a prime opportunity to use a Buster Bros song, so I’m still a bit miffed about that – this OP’s kinda standard. Update: The character designer is Junichiro Taniguchi – my insinct was wrong on him. He did Touken Ranbu Hanamaru’s character designs.

“Smoking kills” – Yuuuuuuuup. That’s true.

Why do I get the feeling all the male otaku will wanna bang Makoto’s mother (to put it lightly)…?

Curiously, the one who hates drugs in HypMic is Jyuto, who’s not from Ikebukuro Division at all. Hmm…

Yokoyama’s voice sounds familiar…but I’m not sure why. Update: If I had to guess, I’d say he’s Saito Soma or someone who sounds similar, so maybe Takuma Terashima, Daisuke Ono or something like that. Update 2: Takahiro Sakurai. See? I knew I knew that voice.

“Big Rei” (“Rei-nii”). That’s different from Ichi-nii (what Saburo calls Ichiro) and could also be goroawase for 02.

Uni of Tokyo is the most prestigious uni in Japan. It has quite the reputation.

…is it just me, or does Makoto have a piercing in his left ear? IWGP also happens to happily work with my existing character, although said character has a piercing in his right ear.

Zero One kinda looks like Uta (Tokyo Ghoul), LOL.

…and of course the girl has to rely on the dude. *sigh* Welp, we can throw drugs off the list for “things that count as TV-MA to Funimation” – IWGP is rated M (not 15+ explicitly, but that’s what it stands for normally) in my region.

This ED song…that’s the sort of song I was expecting from HypMic, Akudama or this.

Seems both Makoto and Takashi have earrings…maybe in both ears? Takashi’s are yellow, I could confirm that much.

…this is decent, but putting it up against its competitors is a bit harsh.

Crusade 1 (cont. from sneak peek - it’s in the title here because this is where it’s completed)

Turns out that preview was most of the episode…like “14 of 24 minutes” long.

Wait, how did Alice fall forward and end up in the princess carry pose? I remember having trouble with that when a character in a story of mine had the same problem.

…Iska-nii…(?)

That opera house looks pretty darn modern to me…

…eh…that was middling. Nothing any ol’ adaption of Romeo and Juliet couldn’t do, bar the CGI for the magic fight in the middle. (There was a fluffy griffin thing in the middle there, though.)

Akudama 1

Ume + Kimura and a cool urban aesthetic. Let’s go!

This is kinda Tron-like, eh?

Ooh, now it’s more like Cop Craft.

Kimura seems to use his gruffer voice more than his Ichiro voice, but Ume is actually worse on that fron with his ordinary voice…Welp, at least his ordinary voice sounds like it fits right in with the Courier. I almost expect an Ocean’s Eleven thing (or Now You See Me, since I’ve actually watched that) from this. Update: Turns out Kimura is the pompadour guy, not the fighter.

You can tell Ordinary Person is an okay person because she keeps saving cats. A bit cliché, but it’ll do.

Ohhhhhh…I can see where this plotline is going. Ordinary Person pretends to be Swindler to get herself out of this mess, but then she keeps getting involved with the Akudama. It’s a typical plot for a typical gal, common to insert a viewpoint character in series that require one, or a magical girl ally.

Wow, those missiles look like a**.

LOL, Hoodlum’s sentence is kinda measly in comparison to most of them. Plus, when he yelled, that sounded more accurate to Ichiro than Fighter was, so…yeah, sorry I messed up.

…Ordinary Person has some real bullseye…uh, eyes.

This could be a top contender…aside from the CGI, which does look a bit funky. I’m getting a death game vibe here, but I don’t know if that’s really the case. Also, it’s a lot of fun, but the possible intolerable thing here is Ordinary Person’s screaming – the pretense she has to keep up seems like it’ll fit right in though.

JJK 1

I read the manga once, dropped it and then read it again and didn’t realise why I dropped it.

Fushiguro has long eyelashes, tbh. Itadori comments on that at one point, I think.

Oh, it was a fish (carp) in the manga. I couldn’t figure out what the Japanese equivalent was just from the Kokkuri board.

This track club teacher is a bit of a freak, honestly. Meddling in kids’ affairs is probably illegal to some extent.

Itadori is known as “tiger” because the kanji for “tiger” is in the surname. Update: Also, the Czech dude Mirko was called “the Croatian tiger”, if a tweet I read is any indication.

I like how there’s more comedy in this one. They show the world records, so you have standards to compare Itadori against.

This is an almost beat-for-beat adaption, bar the slight comedy of the records being added (and not explaning who Mirko is). The contrast makes this better.

“People really can die.” – That’s summoning some real energy of “People die when they are killed.”

(Brief thoughts on the dog and cat short: I enjoyed that more than I thought I would. The picture of a realistic cat – someone’s actual photo of their cat?- that serves as a punchline never gets old and in fact, sometimes contributes to the humour.)

HypMic 2

LOL, TV-MA warning strikes again.

“Kore wa prologue/Hajimete no ippo/Fumidasanai yatsu ni wa/???? shinpo.” – The translation is really good for the bits I can read…the problem is I can’t read the bottom left corner. Update: The part in the bottom left is nai...That’s it.

…uh, even people from around the world can read 24 hour time??? You don’t need subs to read Arabic numerals???

…couldn’t you have just told Ichiro verbally, Saburo…? Update: Come to think of it, kids these days are more on their phones than ever, so it makes sense but also kind of doesn’t.

You don’t really need subs for laughter either…

I’d never heard of “pulling rank” before…hmm: “to use one's high position in a society, organization, group, etc., to order someone to do something or to get special treatment or privileges.”

…and here comes the F word here to mess with us again. Japanese nastiness is conveyed using words that might be considered “soft” in English, hence the sudden jump to use the F word a bunch, but the subbers could use some variety in their swearing. I mean, “dips**t” worked where it did because subbers made Samatoki go overboard with the F word, but…you could stand to use that more, maybe(?)

I like how even the Tenderloins guy rhymes where he’s meant to. It’s the prelude to a battle, after all. (He kinda looks like Kotaro from Zombieland Saga.)

…I freaked out for a second. I swore I saw a similar-looking restaurant (udon shop, located on the left of one of the shots) while in Japan. Also, we finally get to see Ichiro’s reputation at work.

…I still have no idea what a “steelo” is after all this time, but I didn’t realise I was staring at a part of Ore ga Ichiro until I saw it in context. Also, it was kinda derpy – but still really in character – for Ichiro to run to his destination with his arms up like the Glico man in Osaka (except he had his head down).

I get a weird feeling the subbers may have used the wiki translation because I’m using it as a reference and the language seems oddly similar for the most part…

The kick Ichiro does seems like it references the OP.

Notice the location is Nishiguchi Kouen…the West Gate Park. *raises eyebrows at the IWGP anime*

…oh! It occurred to me that the sign the BB do with their hands is…well, a lowercase B. (LOL, if you read my previous line funny, it rhymes.)

Gentaro doing the peace sign to his chest…that was random the first time, because it doesn’t seem in character, but then it does for Dice and possibly Ramuda, so Gentaro probably just chose to go along with it (“to add to his image as a rapper,” maybe…?).

Oh, Saburo has airpods in…those aren’t good for blocking sound, are they…?

Notice the owl on the…uh, café(?)…Ichiro goes to.

That one “holy shit!” made me laugh like a madman. Where it came from, I don’t know, but it was so random I had to laugh at it.

This makes me wonder…if you use a mic that’s different to your personal mic, does it produce the same speakers? No one’s ever addressed that before (much like how no one questions if magical girls always need the same transformation device – I wanted to make a plot on that someday, but I can’t seem to find a comprehensible way to pull it off…LOL, that reminds me, I even had a HypMic version of that featuring Samatoki at one point, but it probably makes even less sense than the standard one because it activates via physical contact. It’s notable – in my head – for Nemu’s version of the “power” being “Samatoki can’t swear, no matter how hard he tries”).

I’m pretty sure that round thing wasn’t part of Ichiro’s rings, ever. (…Unless that was the head of his spoon or something.)

…Microwave? (referring to the shot inside the hospital, which seems to be based off ARB)

The series normally transitions from BB -> MTC -> FP -> MTR, so it was interesting to see that shuffled up. Update: That’s if it has to have an order, but notably ARB breaks this standard a lot by assigning colours to each solo and then arranging interactions based on not repeating those colours (aside from the Sky High Tower event). With 4 things there are 4! = 24 possible combinations and 6! = 720 possible combinations if you count DH and BAT, so as we move forward with those 2 divisions...prepare for more shuffling.

…is Jiro gonna steal a ball? I thought it was just bikes anime characters stole. (LOL)

The mic changes the background, too, huh? Never expected that from more than the speakers.

…and of course, s*** explodes and the day is saved once again....by the Buster Bros!!! (LOL, but also *sigh*)

Hmm, so this anime’s real plotline probably involves this trio: Rex, Tom and Iris. They’re probably foreign in some way, judging by Tom and Rex. Maybe they’re aligned with a foreign government or something? Update: If you look at the credits, their full names seem to be Tom Whisper Weathercock, Iris Innocent Traiter (sic) (LOL) and…Taroumaru Rex…? (romanisations confirmed for all katakana)

Sadamezuka was voiced by the ubiquitous Kenjiro Tsuda.

It seems Cola Bintarou (aka Subaru Kimura) was on the case again today. He wrote the new song for BB, called RUN THIS CITY, along with Gesshoku Kaigi.

Of course, I’m going to keep this anime on my list...I’m just a bit worried about myself going forward, because I realised my ego got a bit inflated trying to defend the series from haters. I’ve never had a series where I’ve been a fan from the beginning that wasn’t already a known quantity for a while (Muhyo and Roji’s, Furuba). With Boueibu, I was discovering things alongside other people (or even later in a lot of cases) since it was anime-original.

#simulcast commentary #HypMic #Hypnosis Microphone #Hypnosis Mic #Hypnosis Mic: Division Rap Battle - Rhyme Anima #our last crusade or the rise of a new world #kimi to boku no saigo no senjou aruiwa sekai ga hajimaru seisen #by the grace of the gods #kami-tachi ni hirowareta otoko #Munou na Nana #Talentless Nana #akudama drive #ikebukuro west gate park #Jujutsu Kaisen #inu to neko docchi mo katteru to mainichi tanoshii #maou-jou de oyasumi #sleepy princess in the demon castle #with a dog and a cat every day is fun #Chesarka watches HypMic #Chesarka watches Maou-jou #Chesarka watches Akudama Drive

[darthkvznblogs]

Better Devils #1

Sort of a one-shot series I’ve been experimenting with. In my head, I call this AU “Optimistic Destiny”, but Better Devils is both a way better name, and a really fun legendary hand cannon that got me through most of my Titan levelling back at launch, so that shall be the title. I’ll update once I post this to FF and AO3, in case you hate reading on Tumblr.

It’s usually the other way around.

Maybe not common, not in this so-called Second Golden Age, but every so often, a Guardian will lose their Ghost to the myriad forces of Darkness, in turn forever losing the ability to resurrect, and much of their ability to wield the Traveler’s Light. It’s a terrible phenomenon, a tremendous loss that no one but another Guardian can possibly relate to, though one that’s fairly easy to avoid - Ghosts rarely phase back into three-dimensional space outside of safe spaces, like the Last City, and even if they do, it takes a weapon of ontological power and paracausal effects to truly kill one.

Naxos is very much alive. His Guardian, however, is dead.

Death is, of course, so intrinsic a part of a Guardian’s experience that some even count it as part of their skill set, but then none of them have experienced Ariadne’s fate - died her last death, swallowed by the fading soul of an incomprehensibly powerful Hive God she was one third responsible for slaying. No matter what Naxos tried, or how close he got to Oryx’s titanic corpse, inching ever closer to Saturn’s crushing depths, he was ultimately unable to bring her back.

It’s quite the shock, then, when he feels that pull again. The undeniable magnetism of a chosen, a heroic soul meant to be raised from the dead in defense of life, freedom, and of course, the Traveller.

The corpse he finds at the epicenter of the pull - in a suspiciously sealed off section of the Arcology on Titan - is not human. Not Awoken, or Exo either. It’s not ancient, either, like Ariadne’s body was, brittle bones bleached by centuries of exposure in the desolate reaches of the russian Cosmodrome.

No, this Fallen - Eliksni now, regardless of the colors of Dusk he apparently wore in life - died recently. Naxos can only guess at the exact circumstances, but it’s plain for anyone to see that he perished in battle with the Taken, like most of the life forms who die in Sol since the Hive Dreadnought arrived in-system. His upper right hand still clutches onto a Taken Hive sword - a rare sight, as most Taken weapons disintegrate along with their bearers upon defeat - and most of his body bears burns so intense that his armor and leathery hide have hideously fused in places. The hand that clutches onto the sword is corrupted, of course, the darkest black imaginable, pockmarked with white pinpricks of transdimensional light. It twitches, still, ‘glitching’ the way all Taken bodies do.

It’s unorthodox, to be sure. But still, Naxos is as confident as he was when he found Ariadne. He brings him back.

His tiny form splits open, like a flower in bloom, petals spread to catch every iota of the Traveler’s omnidirectional power, syphoning the paracausal current into the Captain’s lifeless corpse. Light burns away his broken armor, washes away his myriad injuries, and seeps into the trillions upon trillions of molecules that make up his being. The energy bonds with his every atom, becoming intrinsically tied with the particles that make those up, in turn. The body, now alight with life, gives back in the form of memories, the sole price the process demands in return for eternal life. Only one of these stays with Naxos, and it’s a name. Most Guardians don’t even get that.

The Ghost can’t smile, not corporeally, but his one blue eye does seem to glow brighter as the Eliksni draws breath for the first time in his remaining lives. “Hello, Misraks! I am Naxos, your Ghost, and you...you are a Guardian.”

#destiny the game #destiny 2 #ghost #mithrax the forsaken #alternate universe #fanfic #eliksni #the traveler

[newtcloud]

I’ve noticed some people seemed interested in my TawnyFeather + kits AU, and I have some news for you, it’s actually part of a much larger AU/fix I think about occasionally.

I do work with a traditionalist (more info) worldview, I list the original names the first time the cat is mentioned. Some cats are slightly genetically changed, I mention the changes as well. (I want to make family trees, one day maybe) I talk from Clan to Clan here, and it’s a lot and a little disorganized haha

Hope you enjoy reading my thoughts!

Windclan

For starters, Mudclaw remains deputy. When Ravenstar (Tallstar, he is black with little white now) is close to dying he calls Mudclaw in for a private meeting. When Mudclaw arrives he sees Crowpaw (he doesn’t receive his name in the mountains, also he has amber eyes) leave and enters. Ravenstar is honest about his fears, and Mudclaw listens critically. He vows to try and keep peace, and earn the other clans’ respect in a less violent way. Ravenstar also tells him to respect what Crowpaw chooses to do, Mudclaw doesn’t understand what Tallstar means with this until Crowpaw says that he needs to leave to sort out his thoughts. He allows it, and prays that he is safe.

Mudclaw becomes Mudstar, with lives (not literal lives, but more in a guidance way, as is more common within traditionalism) for Compassion, Clarity of judgement, Diplomacy, Patience, Love, Wisdom, Endurance, Loyalty, and Understanding of other viewpoints.

Oatwhisker (Onewhisker, brown and white tabby) becomes his deputy, and Starclan shows approval by granting access to the island. The two become good friends.

Windclan and Thunderclan still grow apart, but less so. Mudstar is not hostile, but also asserts their rights to decline help. Firestar is a little saddened, but respects the decision. With time the two clans change that distance to a more casual relationship.

Since Crowpaw is gone, Nightcloud has kits with a loner, Sleetkit (Breezepelt, now a lighter gray) and Antkit (Black molly). They grow up to become Sleetpelt and Antfang, they’re both a little hot-headed but ultimately strong young cats.

Crowpaw returns after several years, changed into a more wise man. He asks Mudstar to be let back, and he accepts after remembering Ravenstar’s words. Crowpaw becomes Crowheart and lives his life without mate/kits.

When Darktail arrives Mudstar is mad that Oatwhisker kept this a secret, but doesn’t have any reason to punish him since he never broke the law. Oatwhisker dies with Darktail, which Mudstar grieved over for the rest of his life. Sedgewhisker succeeds Oatwhisker, and she becomes Sedgestar when Mudstar dies of old age.

Shadowclan

Tawny’s kits are born a lot earlier, and they aren’t really just The Three In Shadowclan for their earlier life. Tawny teaches them about their family in the other clans, and stands up fiercely when other cats try to tell them they’re not Shadowclan.

Rowanclaw is their foster father (he’s trans) and when he has his own litter Tawny + kits help with raising his kits: Redkit/paw/whisker (Redwillow, red and black torbie, predominantly red) and Darkkit/paw/nose (Olivenose, black and red tortie, predominantly black). Tawny and Rowan are close friends, but never mates.

Sol still appears and causes a ruckus, and it’s resolved the same way.

Russetfur retires from her position before she’s killed in battle, she becomes an elder but remains fairly active because she can. Nobody dares to stop her anyway, and her death shakes all the clans. She is succeeded by Tawnypelt.

When Blackstar dies in the floods, Tawnystar succeeds him. She names Rowanclaw deputy.

Tawny’s kits themselves are largely themselves:

Reedtail (Flametail, brownish-red tabby with white) was really sickly as a kit (Tawny didn’t have an ideal pregnancy, with stress from journeying and malnutrition), he often had to stay in the medicine cat den. Littlecloud let him help so he wouldn’t grow bored while he was staying there, when Reedkit was ~7 moons (apprenticed late) he chose to become a medicine cat because he loved the work and wants to help cats as sickly as himself. Littlecloud was very fond of him, and the two were often called “like brothers” by the other medicine cats. He dies from shock after falling in the freezing lake while playing with his foster siblings. Littlecloud was devastated, and mentored no other cats until Mudleaf’s (Puddleshine, brown and white tabby) enthusiasm made him cautiously less stuck in his grief.

Goldenstorm (Dawnpelt, cream and grey calico) was a go-getter, happy to give her opinions and overall quite the troublemaker. She keeps senior warriors on their toes, and Tawny is never surprised to find her at the root of mischief. She has kits later in her life, and is heavily scarred but lives through the Darktail era. She is renamed Scarredpelt, and wears the name with pride.

Heronfur (Tigerheart/star, silver black tabby with white paws and chest) is mostly the same. He’s your average tom, with a penchant for bad ideas. The romance with Dovewing is gone, and he doesn’t become deputy/leader.

Thunderclan

The three are Maplecloud’s (Leafpool, dark, brownish-red ticked tabby) kits, but no-one knows who the other parent is. She steps down as med. cat after she discovers her pregnancy, many cats were skeptic, but her willingness to give up her dreams made them sympathetic. When Cinderpelt dies, she takes up the med. cat duties again.

Foxkit/paw/storm (Jayfeather, red classic tabby), becomes a warrior, his mentor is Brightheart. Maplecloud was overjoyed to see him succeed as a warrior. I personally am not a fan of the whole prophecy in the 3rd and 4th arc, so I scrapped that lol. He’s a cranky warrior that bites off more than he can chew to prove himself, Brightheart helps him accept himself. It’s a long journey, but he is enjoying his life more and more as he grows older.

Emberkit/paw/heart/star (Hollyleaf, black and red tortie), becomes a warrior with a strong belief in the code, highly intelligent and has the qualities of a leader. She is a beloved warrior, deputy and eventual leader. She becomes mates with Smokepelt (Cinderheart, gray and cream and white tabby with a broken leg).

The two have three kits:

Patchfur (Hollytuft, gray and cream lynx point)

Ryestripe (Sorrelstripe, gray and brownish torbie, predominantly brownish)

Ashcloud (Fernsong, grey and white)

Lionkit/paw/claw (Lionblaze, still a fluffy golden tabby), is a strong fighter and the definition of beauty. It was no surprise that he had flings across the borders sometimes. He’s bad at making good choices, and is grateful that Emberheart acts as his brains sometimes. He is the surrogate father of Smokepelt and Emberstar’s kits.

Ashfur doesn’t betray anyone, never had a thing with Squirrel and he dies when he helps Maple and Squirrel save the three in the fire.

Brambleclaw (Reddish-brown tabby) never takes up the position of deputy, Hornetfur (Brackenfur), becomes deputy instead. Bramble gravitates towards an uncle role with Maplecloud’s kits, and is saddened to learn that his attempts towards having kits with Squirrelstorm (Squirrelflight, ticked red tabby, no white) are failing (He’s infertile, they have a loner surrogate around the time of TFA).

Alderkit/paw/pelt (Alderheart, brown tabby with a little white) takes interest in med. cat duties, and succeeds Maplecloud.

Gingerkit/paw/pelt (Sparkpelt, predominantly red torbie with white paws) looks a lot like her grandfather, very excitable.

Pigeonkit/paw/whisker (Dovewing, Gray with odd eyes, deaf and blind on the blue eyed half of her face), has good senses, but ultimately wasn’t meant for he life of a warrior, she becomes a kittypet and still lives near the lake. Foxstorm was her mentor. Her sister visits her occasionally.

Silverkit/paw/claw (Ivypool, silvery gray tabby), was Emberstar’s apprentice when she was a warrior. She’s a good fighter, though at a young age she was often bitter that her sister seemed to get more attention. Emberheart helped her realize her own strength, and she became deputy under Emberstar.

Riverclan

Riverclan was too ignored for me to change much sadly. I still had a few things:

Mothface (Mothwing, golden lynx point) is very close to Maplecloud :) Many jokes are made that Lionclaw looks like her :) ;) Her brother Kitefang (Hawkfrost, brown lynx point) used her to gain power, the two were close and she never hated him after his body and plans were discovered. She doesn’t believe in Starclan still, and is respected. Miststar (Mistystar, ticked gray tabby, Russian Blue green eyes) covers for her lack of belief, and knows she’s valid and a good med. cat.

Riverclan doesn’t let Darktail mess with them, Miststar isn’t leader for long, but still is the oldest living one for a while. Rookstar (Reedwhisker, has green eyes now) succeeds her and his deputy is Minnowtail.

(Also in case my vague smilies are too... vague, Mothface is the mother of the three and loves her children very much despite not seeing them often)

#I don't feel like tagging this... #If you have any questions/I made mistakes don't be afraid to say something.

[davidastbury]

The Bookshop in The Strand

I didn’t see much of The Publisher. I wish I’d got to know him a bit better. It was obvious he was going through a bad time - quarrelling all day on the phone with people - upset and struggling to get his magazine kicked-off - upset that his latest relationship had flopped and he was alone again - upset that he was losing his looks and his efforts with make-up caused people to snicker ...and yet he was courageous and optimistic. He was also astonishingly kind.

Once, when Roger was out getting the coffees, he forced a rolled up £5 note into my jacket pocket.

He said - ‘Take it! You’re young - you mustn’t go short.’

Caroline and Sharon

I may not have been the most appreciative or appreciated guest at Russell’s house; I may not have been the most frequent visitor - I may even not have been Caroline’s most devoted admirer.

Let me introduce Sharon - an old friend of Caroline’s mother, who happened to live nearby, within ‘pop round for a quick chat’ distance. I saw her many times. She was a teacher - not at a school, I think it was at a higher-education college in Manchester. She was rangy and had a tough-guy manner; giving the impression that she wasn’t someone to mess with. She wore tight tops and baggy trousers. There had once been a husband but was gone - disposed of, or divorced, or murdered. I liked her eyes - they were icy and fantastically alert - she had eyes like film-star, eyes like Lauren Bacall.

One afternoon - Russell had gone out with his mother, but wouldn’t be long - I went into the kitchen and found Sharon alone with Caroline.

Oh the white-hot perceptiveness of an awkward, unhappy thirteen-year-old boy!

I had walked into something totally new and unknown - the intensity of female friendship. The crinkly-eyed smiles. The clutching of tea mugs in both hands. The standing cross-legged and swaying. The tartish leaning. The elbow cupped in the palm. The unbelieving head tossing. The sticking out stomach. The spontaneous, best-friend hugs. The innocent pats!

All this came at me in that bright modern kitchen. I backed out, away from the angry eyes, the bright appliances and the air crackling with lust.

Father: ‘What’s that you’re reading?’

Son: ‘A book father. It is called ‘My Life In Art’ by a

Russian named Konstantin Sergeievich Stanislavski.’

Father: ‘It’s about time you got some bloody work done.’

This morning

Breakfast in the garden! A lot of rain last night and everything was soaked and dripping. High above me, bunched together, a gang of crows. I call them crows but people who know more than I do, tell me that they are jackdaws; my reply is ‘they are still members of the crow family’.

They watched me, wobbling on the branches, opaque black shapes, sour black, to use Dylan Thomas’ words ‘bible black’; solid and chunky, eyes shuttering. Each time I moved one of them called out, a shriek of some sort, a swear word - crows only know swear words. If I remained motionless they became silent, but the slightest movement, like reaching for my coffee, provoked echoing shouts of abuse.

Eventually I collected my plates and newspaper and headed indoors. One of them called out and all the others joined in.

To me, heavy and land-locked and short-sighted, it sounded like laughter.

This morning

Breakfast in the garden! A lot of rain last night and everything was soaked and dripping. High above me, bunched together, a gang of crows. I call them crows but people who know more than I do, tell me that they are jackdaws; my reply is ‘they are still members of the crow family’.

They watched me, wobbling on the branches, opaque black shapes, sour black, to use Dylan Thomas’ words ‘bible black’; solid and chunky, eyes shuttering. Each time I moved one of them called out, a shriek of some sort, a swear word - crows only know swear words. If I remained motionless they became silent, but the slightest movement, like reaching for my coffee, provoked echoing shouts of abuse.

Eventually I collected my plates and newspaper and headed indoors. One of them called out and all the others joined in.

To me, heavy and land-locked and short-sighted, it sounded like laughter.

Two Russians

Nabokov did not much care for Solzhenitsyn’s style of writing but he very much cared for what he had to say. He contacted the dissident writer in 1974, shortly after his dismissal from the Soviet Union, saying that they should meet. Solzhenitsyn was released into West Germany but then travelled to Switzerland. Letters were exchanged - Solzhenitsyn accepted the invitation. Nabokov and his wife Vera prepared their apartment in the Montreux alace Hotel for the visit.

A date was set and Sol arrived at the front of the hotel. But it then occurred to him that when he asked for a time, Nabokov had not replied. There had not been a finalisation of details, as if the last letter had been lost. Or perhaps there was something else?

He began to think that Nabokov may not have wished to meet him at all - that he wasn’t being sincere and hadn’t meant to be taken at his word.

He stopped a taxi and got in.

On The Train.....Entomology

She sits, pensive over her devise, fingers dancing over the illuminated screen. And then suddenly a convulsive movement! Both hand clawing at the air in front of her face; she has been troubled by a fly, a tiny fly, perhaps a mosquito. She’s quite startled; she’s trying to gather her thoughts - and then the mosquito attacks again.

The mosquito is ferociously, fatally, promiscuously attracted to her. No amount of hand flapping will deter or divert his compulsion - he has found what he really wants. Her head jerks back, repulsed, and I see for the first time the astonishing colbat-blue of her irides - pools of nectar for his pulsing labellum, his flailing flagellomere, his aching proboscis.

Donald Coggan, who went on to become the Archbishop of Canterbury, was told by a toastmaster at a dinner to speak close to the microphone because - ‘the agnostics here are terrible’.

Ian And Lorna ... 1965

Ian was as innocent as a child, always believing people were what they seemed; Lorna was far more worldly and concealed her knowledge behind a smile - the smile of her mouth only.

Ian was as happy as a puppy - happy to be working with Lorna in such a big organisation - loving the gossip, the drinks after work, the friendly malice of the older men, the envy in their eyes.

Watching Ian laughing and joking made her feel like snapping him out of his silliness, but she never said a word, knowing that some things are better unspoken.

Hotel Lift ... London

Early morning and the lift fills up; all of us standing stiffly, eyes buzzing, all of us with not-quite-fully-awake faces. Me - jammed just inside, next to the control panel and pressing the buttons as called out - with the inevitable humorous confusion the hard-of-hearing seem to cause.

Family bunched together - dad resting hands on small boy’s shoulders - tall, early teen daughter, eyes closed, mortified with embarrassment, chin quivering with sheer self-consciousness. Hating being with mum and dad and spoilt-brat brother. Hating the shared room, her dad’s cheerfulness, her own free fall between childhood and the future - but hating most of all the cluster of spots around her mouth. The only possible response is to close her eyes and shut it all out.

But the really great figure in this little drama is the mother. She’s facing the girl and looking slightly up at her - looking at her with the most searching, sympathetic and loving expression. She isn’t the slightest concerned about all these strangers pressed around them; she is lost in the rapturous view of her miraculous and beautiful daughter.

Everything was said better by the ancients. Show me any modern author who can match this ....

‘This was Argos, trained as a puppy by Odysseus, but never taken on a hunt before his master sailed for Troy. The young men, afterward, hunted wild goats with him, and hare, and deer, but he had grown old in his master’s absence. Treated as rubbish now, he lay at last upon a mass of dung before the gates – manure of mules and cows, piled there until fieldhands could spread it on the king’s estate. Abandoned there, and half destroyed with flies, old Argos lay. But when he knew he heard Odysseus’ voice nearby, he did his best to wag his tail, nose down, with flattened ears, having no strength to move nearer his master. And man looked away, wiping the tears from his face.

Early Sunday morning ... 1965

Noises. Morning noises of someone moving about downstairs. Lying in bed and waking up slowly. Drank a lot but no hangover - throat a bit sore with all that shouting over the music.

And who is the girl in bed with him? A single sheet showing her shape. She has her back to him; short dark hair tapering to a point at the nape of her neck and then the whiteness of her bare back. Gently he cups her shoulder and she turns to face him, smiling. It was an awkward moment - two strangers in bed together, wide-eyed, confused.

‘Shouldn’t we introduce ourselves?’ - he asked.

‘You mean ... like shake hands?’

‘I honestly don’t remember much about last night.’

‘You don’t remember?’ She put her face closer.

‘Well - just a bit.’

She slid her hand under the sheet - ‘so - you need reminding.’

Morning noises faded. The car that won’t start - next-door’s dog barking - someone running water in the kitchen - someone in the bathroom, coughing panting and moaning.

Boris W.

I must be one of the last people to be issued with a letter of introduction. This quaint practice of the European bourgeoisie - and American too for all I know - where a person about to visit another country is given letters of introduction addressed to people who may be of help to him. So there I was, like a figure in 19th century fiction, with an introduction to Boris W. - and what an address - Boulevard Clichy.

Boris had once written poetry which had been praised - unforgivably I hadn’t read any - and he knew the French writers. He had married an older wealthy woman but it wasn’t a good marriage and she divorced him - and harassed him for money; which he didn’t have. Then came the Germans, forcing him into hiding and he spent the entire occupation behind a grill, surviving on food from friends. Afterwards he was a patient in mental hospitals. It took him years to regain stability.

He was polite and friendly. His flat was tiny - it had a high ceiling but it was oppressive. He probably sensed the way I felt - he seemed to twitch and his hands trembled when lighting cigarettes - so he decided to take me to the ‘literary’ cafes.

I wish I remembered more - I wish I’d taken notes. He would have been sent to a death camp; they would have killed him. He was small and gentle and I was upset at the idea of anyone hurting him. I hated the neon lights and the shiny cobblestones - the streets where people had been rounded up - the low-level grill and Boris looking out.

He was rich, but he wasn’t idle rich - in fact he was always rushing about on business. One incident sums him up.

He was managing director of a consultant engineering company and he interviewed several people in various cities. They had to be prepared to move to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - not everyone’s cup of tea, but the salary was good. One applicant, in London, who came across very well, mentioned that his wife was a landscape designer and Abi said that there was a vacancy for someone to scheme out garden etc on completed projects.

The outcome was that both the man and his wife accepted jobs with Abi’s company. Accommodation was arranged - schools sorted out for their children - the couple sold their house near London and made the move.

Not long afterwards the man asked to see Abi. He was given an appointment in Abi’s office - which you can imagine was spectacular, radiating the wealth and success of only the most prestigious contracts. The man was was pale and near to tears. Abi asked what on earth was wrong. The man, choking, said that he was giving notice of quitting - the two of them would be returning to the UK immediately. His wife had been diagnosed with cancer.

Abi stood up and said - ‘You frightened me! You come into my office looking as if your children were dead! You come in dictating terms to me! This is what will happen. You will not leave your job; you will not go back homeless to England. You will continue in your work and your children will stay in the school in which they are settled. As for your wife - she is going to get the best treatment in the world. Whatever is needed she will get - if she has to go to New York or Chicago so be it, it will be provided. Everything will be looked after. You must not let the world collapse around you. We will look after you.’

... That’s my portrait of Abi.

Coffee Bar ... (1965)

She was sitting at the next table and all he had to do was speak to her! He had been anguishing for a long time - he knew her friends - he had asked about her and learned that she didn’t have a boyfriend - his great moment was once holding a door back for her; her half-smile nearly overbalanced him - when alone he tried hard to recreate her face, but couldn’t - each day was a struggle, would he see her or not?

He was dry mouthed, but he had finished his coffee. Nervousness at screaming point - eyes flickering across her face - she pretending to be unaware. He had to speak to her ... and he did.

Much later he would remember that particular episode. He remembered his white-hot excitement and her astonishing loveliness. But it took him a long time to understand that he would never have made his opening remark had he not seen a very small hole - perhaps damage from a coat-hanger - on the neck of her jumper

[zeroviraluniverse-blog]

5 Ways the Little House on the Prairie Books Stretched the Truth

Visit Now - http://zeroviral.com/5-ways-the-little-house-on-the-prairie-books-stretched-the-truth/

5 Ways the Little House on the Prairie Books Stretched the Truth

For 80 years, Thornton Wilder’s Our Town has awed audiences. The American playwright’s delicate tale of small town American families at the turn of the 20th century is alive with humanity and poetry. Yet, there was a time when its content felt downright revolutionary.

1. OUR TOWN IS WILDER’S MOST POPULAR OF HIS MANY NOVELS AND PLAYS.

Today, Wilder is considered a titan of 20th-century American literature—and he’s the only person to have won the Pulitzer Prize for both literature and drama. His 1927 novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey was a commercial success and was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Literature in 1928. Ten years later, Our Town won Wilder his second Pulitzer, and first in the drama category. His third Pulitzer came in 1943, when his play The Skin of Our Teeth won the drama prize.

Wilder also wrote screenplays for silent films. And because Alfred Hitchcock was such an admirer of Our Town, the iconic director hired Wilder to work on the script for his 1943 thriller Shadow of a Doubt.

2. OUR TOWN IS A SIMPLE STORY ABOUT EVERYDAY AMERICANS.

Set in the humble hamlet of Grover’s Corners, New Hampshire, the play follows the relationship of young lovers Emily Webb and George Gibbs, who meet, marry, and separate over the course of 1901 to 1913. In his 1992 book Conversations with Thornton Wilder, English professor Jackson R. Bryer wrote, “Wilder presents ordinary people who make the human race seem worth preserving and represent the universality of human existence.”

3. THIS FICTIONAL TOWN IS BASED ON A REAL PLACE.

Wilder spent his summers in Peterborough, New Hampshire, and he aimed to capture its simple charms in his characterization of the fictional Grover’s Corners. Years later, Peterborough would return the compliment. As part of a dual celebration of the town’s 275th and the play’s 75th anniversaries, Peterborough dedicated the intersection of Grove and Main streets to Our Town, erecting street signs that read “Grover’s Corners.”

4. WILDER WROTE OUR TOWN IN PETERBOROUGH AND ZURICH.

Wilder wrote part of Our Town as a fellow of the MacDowell Colony, an artists’ retreat established in Peterborough in 1907. He also worked on the play at an isolated hotel in Zurich, Switzerland, where he was the sole guest. “I hate being alone,” Wilder once lamented in a letter, “And I hate writing. But I can only write when I’m alone. So these working spells combine both my antipathies.”

5. WILDER WAS ALREADY AN ACCLAIMED WRITER WHEN OUR TOWN DEBUTED.

After winning the Pulitzer for his book The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Wilder turned his focus to Broadway, where he debuted his original play The Trumpet Will Sound. Then, ahead of Our Town, he created English-language stage adaptations for French playwright Andre Obey’s The Rape of Lucretia (a.k.a. Lucrece) and Norwegian dramatist Henrik Ibsen’s A Doll’s House. Both played on the Great White Way, in 1932 and 1937 respectively.

6. OUR TOWN BOASTED GROUNDBREAKING STAGING.

The play’s directions call for it to be performed on an unadorned stage: “No curtain. No scenery. The audience, arriving, sees an empty stage in half-light.” Simple set pieces like ladders and chairs come into play, but the actors use no props, and pantomime as needed to convey the story. The play’s narrator is named after an important theatrical crew position: Stage Manager. This crucial character has the power to communicate directly to the audience, but also can interact with the characters. Each metatheatrical element is meant to draw attention to the constructs within the medium of theater.

7. WILDER HAD USED SOME OF THESE TECHNIQUES BEFORE.

His one-act plays The Happy Journey to Trenton and Camden (1931) and Pullman Car Hiawatha (1932) both had Stage Manager characters. Both also called for minimalistic set designs. Happy Journey used four chairs and a low platform to stand in for a family car; Pullman Car Hiawatha employed chalk lines and chairs to create train cars. But only Pullman Car Hiawatha has the Stage Manager address the audience directly as he does in Our Town.

8. OUR TOWN WAS A RESPONSE TO WHAT WILDER FELT CONTEMPORARY THEATER LACKED.

Before writing Our Town, Wilder expressed his disappointment with the quality of American theater. He feared the opulent costumes and spectacular sets of Broadway did a disservice to the written word. “I felt that something had gone wrong,” he wrote. “Finally my dissatisfaction passed into resentment. I began to feel that the theatre was not only inadequate, it was evasive; it didn’t not wish to draw upon its deeper potentialities.”

9. OUR TOWN WON INSTANT ACCLAIM.

The show made its Broadway debut to positive reviews. Some critics were puzzled, however, by its deceptive minimalism. “Sometimes, as it skips through the lives in a small New Hampshire town, it soars; but again it is earthbound by its folksy attention to humdrum detail. However it may add up, it is an intelligent and rewarding theatrical experiment,” wrote John Chapman in the New York Daily News.

The New York Times theatre critic Brooks Atkinson was more effusive in his praise. “Our Town is, in this column’s opinion, one of the finest achievements of the current stage,” he wrote.

Our Town‘s success transformed Wilder from a lauded writer to a critical darling. “He was now not merely a successful writer but a sage, a spokesman—a role that he seems to have relished, or at least tolerated,” Robert Gottlieb wrote in The New Yorker in 2013.

10. A POSTWAR PRODUCTION OF OUR TOWN IN GERMANY WAS SHUT DOWN.

The Christian Science Monitor reported in its February 13, 1946 issue that the Soviet Union had put a stop to a production of Our Town in the Russian sector of Berlin. The play was canceled “on the grounds that the drama is too depressing and could inspire a German suicide wave,” the magazine stated.

Wilder’s sister Isabel later offered an alternate explanation. “[Our Town] was the first foreign play to be done in Berlin shortly after the occupation. The Russian authorities stopped it in three days. Rumor gave the reason that it was ‘unsuitable for the Germans so soon—too democratic.'”

11. THE PLAY’S GENRE IS HARD TO PIN DOWN.

In theater, comedies often end in weddings, while dramas frequently end in death. Our Town offered a bit of both and in an introspective manner that celebrates the grace and frustrations common to the human experience. In 1956, theater historian Arthur Ballet and playwright George Stephens had an academic debate about whether the play was a tragedy. Ballet declared it a “great American drama” because the Stage Manager is born from the Greek chorus tradition. But Stephens rejected this categorization, calling it “gentle nostalgia or, to put it another way, sentimental romanticism.”

12. WILDER BRIEFLY APPEARED IN OUR TOWN.

For two weeks in its original 1938 run on Broadway, Wilder himself played the role of the Stage Manager, though Frank Craven originated the role in its debut production. The actor of stage and screen appeared in a long list of movies, including the Will Rogers drama State Fair (1933), the Howard Hawks-helmed adventure Barbary Coast (1935), and the horror movie Son of Dracula (1943). However, Craven is best remembered for his portrayal as Our Town‘s Stage Manager, a role he reprised in the 1940 film adaptation.

13. OUR TOWN CONTINUED TO WIN AWARDS.

Broadway revivals were mounted in 1944, 1969, 1988, and 2002. The 1988 revival starring Eric Stoltz and Penelope Anne Miller as George and Emily garnered the most acclaim. It earned five Tony nominations, including those for Best Featured Actor (Stoltz), Featured Actress in a Play (Miller), Costume Design, Direction of a Play, and Revival, as well as four Drama Desk nods for Outstanding Featured Actor in a Play (Stoltz), Featured Actress in a Play (Miller), Lighting Design, and Revival. This production won the Tony and Drama Desk awards in the Best Revival category.

14. OUR TOWN GOT A HAPPY ENDING WHEN IT WENT HOLLYWOOD.

The play’s first film adaptation hit theaters in the spring of 1940. Martha Scott, who made her Broadway debut originating the role of Emily Webb, reprised the part in this movie. Major changes were made in the film version, like the inclusion of sets and props—but most noticeably, Emily lives, turning the play’s third act into a dream sequence. Perhaps surprisingly, Wilder argued for the change.

He wrote to Sol Lesser, the film’s producer, “Emily should live … in a movie you see the people so close ‘to’ that a different relation is established. In the theatre, they are halfway abstractions in an allegory, in the movie they are very concrete … It is disproportionately cruel that she die. Let her live.”

15. ITS SIMPLE STAGING HAS HELPED MAKE OUR TOWN A VERY POPULAR REVIVAL.

Thanks to the play’s minimal stage design requirements, community theaters and high school drama clubs can take on this American classic with meager budgets. And they often have. “Our Town goes on and on and on and on. Is there a high school in America that hasn’t staged it?” Gottlieb wondered in The New Yorker. Its accessibility, along with the play’s universal themes about love and mortality, have made Wilder’s contemplative classic a staple for new generations of theater lovers.

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