#its very much a city from a country person's perspective. i think it works. its a very oppressive atmosphere

[pyrriax]

i think i'll spontaneously combust when i hit 20k posts on this blog. what the hell. (my queue is putting in the work. also the multiple reblogs of the same posts because i have a Point to make.)

#haunted ecosystem #i love that i used to not really be that active. or talk a lot on tumblr. and now its just The social media to me #i like the lil community i've gathered up. y'all are cool #i really need to post more about my interests #OHH i should gather up all my clown doodles and post those at some point #i drrw that guy so much. he's so shaped. #also its so funny i just dont draw his mask right but you Know who it is because im fucking insane about him. #i need to write more fics about him (im actively writing a longfic with him as the main character) #also i am horrified about how much i can write in a day. #i'm at almost 10k for nanowrimo. by day three. uhm. woops? #i might shoot for 75k by the end if i go over. and i'll hopefully finish the entire fic in that time. but also. im totally leaving room #for extra content. because like. i cannot be normal about this au. i need to show more of the dynamics and just. zam. #i have so many thoughts about him in the context of this au. #he's so flashy and trying to be perceived as more than he is. its horrible. he's watched the downfall of the people he loved. #he didn't do anything to stop it. he is drowning in guilt. he couldn't save anyone. #heart mechanics. every little detail. the world is so Solid in my mind. i know how it loooks. i know how it feels. #its very much a city from a country person's perspective. i think it works. its a very oppressive atmosphere

[taylortruther]

Hi, its Shakespearean anon. Thanks for responding so thoughtfully (and it did not come across as argumentative at all!!!) Okay, so a couple thoughts:

I don't criticize Taylor for being a romantic/romanticizing her life. I wouldn't change that about her because its one of things that makes her such a brilliant and compelling songwriter. It is also just a nice quality to have, and I think she brings a lot of light and passion and love to the world because of it. Hell, I bet Shakespeare himself had these qualities!!

I agree, if it wasn't her creating her own narrative then it would be the media. Historically it has been the media creating the image we saw of most pop stars and essentially telling their story for them.

For most of Taylor's career she has had to combat that, which I would agree is certainly an external issue. It is an issue I would argue Taylor has for the most part overcome/made peace with. I think she accepts that there will be prying eyes in her life. I don't think Joe ever accepted that and I don't think he ever wanted it. To commit to a relationship with Taylor he had to compromise that he would, to some degree, have prying eyes on his life. I wouldn't really classify that as the world going against their relationship though because that's not anything to do with the relationship but the nature of Taylor's life.

I don't fault Joe for not wanting his relationship or private life put under a microscope. That's a hell of a trade off to make for the person you love. What he was risking was his comfort, his lifestyle, his normal; none of those are small things but (in my mind) a Shakespearean sacrifice needs to be drastic.

Now this is just my amature literary analysis of what makes something Shakespearean and I by no means expect or want Taylor (or any other artist) to adhere to it lol. I think if the resulting situation is just living in limbo, working to preserve the compromises you made to get together, it just isn't drastic enough to be Shakespearean. If Joe gave up his need for privacy or Taylor gave up her drive for fame, then it would certainly be Shakespearean. But that didn't happen, and the result was akin to a city person and a country person just agreeing to live in the suburbs where neither liked the result but hey at least it could be worse!

Anyway, my original point in the original post was wondering why as a storyteller, Taylor kept revisiting the beginning of the relationship. I think in a lot of ways the beginning saga was Shakespearean and romantic and a hero's journey of sort for Taylor, and I understood why she wrote about it the way she did and focused on it the way she did during rep. It really is a good narrative from a storytelling perspective and I think rep being disguised as a love album is why it is one of her best albums narratively. Even on Lover I can see the argument for it, because it ties into the theme of the album. BUT when you look at where they ended up, even just three years in, I think a lot of the romantic/heroic narrative falls apart. Years in, I think it was hard for her to put that Shakespearean shine over their current (at the time) relationship. Almost every song about them was her relationship anxiety or how they got together. It almost feels like Taylor could write about the struggles they faced and eventually overcame together, but not the actual growth. Although that may be reflective of the fact that it appears there was a lot of stagnation and then backtracking and then reconciliation in the relationship, so maybe there were not very many periods of just contentment. Also, I can fully admit that maybe narratively Taylor just prefers the more conflict oriented stories.

Wow I cannot believe I just wrote that much - thanks for always pushing for some interesting discussions. (and I've never used the word Shakespearean so much before lol)

i see where you're coming from. i don't agree with some of this but it was interesting to chew on nonetheless!

tbh i just think humans create stories and narratives - we all do it - so i don't know if i'd ever try to determine if taylor's life "warranted" a specific narrative, because... those narratives don't have strict rules. they're devices she uses to tell us the story of what happened. so i don't think i'd ever think "well, WAS the world really against her? this doesn't fit an us vs them narrative" because it's more satisfying to think, "taylor felt the world was against her, how does she describe that in her art?"

however i agree with you that part of the reason she focused on the early days might have been because she wasn't sure how to process what was going on later on. which is partly why ttpd is going to be such a ride. it feels like she kind of circled around the last few years... but ttpd sounds like it will be catching us up.

thanks for writing so much bestie, i had fun reading it.

[duckduckdilf]

Pathologic, an Underrated Work of Art

Pathologic is a video game made by Russian studio Ice-Pick Lodge located in Moscow Russia in 2005. “In Russia, Pathologic was critically well received, winning year-end accolades from five Russian outlets.”(Pathologic). However the game was not as well received in english speaking countries when the translation was released in 2006. Often calling the game a boring walking simulator.

I think too many people miss the point of this game. Even in positive reviews like the one from Rock, Paper, Shotgun written by Quintin Smith, which is an article quoted by almost every dissection of Pathologic since 2008, misses some points. Such as comparing the game to the Dark Souls series just because the games are both difficult. Which just misses the point of Pathologic. Other reviewers bash the lack of tutorials for certain mechanics or the walking speed of the player (Flynn) though I believe that this adds to the game. 

In the world of Pathologic nothing waits for the player before things happen. The other characters are still healers motivated to save this town and so they do. In real life time never slows down so that you may complete your tasks for the day and so neither does Pathologic. The clock is always ticking and should the player fail to complete everything in time, someone important will fall ill which very well may be the end of the game. 

Pathologic is a game that goes out of its way to make the player have a bad time. This is a game about overcoming a plague but just getting enough food to eat is a monumental task. Everything about the mechanics draws the player into the setting. The very gritty and bleak setting where doctors are forced to kill children for a chance to save the town. Pathologic really hammers home this feeling of helplessness. Like how this first person shooter creates situations where it is better to sell the only gun to avoid starvation. Even if the gun is kept, the fighting mechanics are deliberately terrible. “The game has fighting mechanics in the same way that a car being driven off a cliff has flight mechanics” (hbomberguy 11:53-12:01). This game loves to take everything the audience knows about videogames and turn it on its head.

Pathologic is a great subversion of how survival horror games typically use the in game economy. Where typically in games the economy provides a consistent reward system for the work of the player, it provides a security not found in the real world economy. Survival horror almost never has an in-game economy to make things as unpredictable as possible for the player. Pathologic however uses the in-game economy and the mechanics players are so used to from other games, to enhance the fear and insecurity. (Novitz)

Despite the more fantastical and mystic elements to the game it still grounds itself in a gritty reality. In Pathologic it is much more common to starve to death or fall ill than to die in combat. Due to a pollen in the air, everyone in the Steppe is more susceptible to starvation at this time of year. Only being able to survive twelve hours without food. The main place where the player will find this essential food is in the local store. The first day as the player gets to know the town they might stop by and get acquainted with the prices and mechanics. On the second day, when word gets out that there is a plague, prices do not just double, but go up around six times the original price. Bread that originally cost 350 now costs 2240(Grocery). 

Well, that is enough preamble. Please, take your seats, the curtain is about to rise.

When the games first opened the player finds themselves in a theater with three people on stage. These people are the three playable characters. The Bachelor, the Haruspex and the Changeling. They argue about how to best heal the city. They are all right and wrong in their own ways. 

This initial play sets up some core themes of the game being: perspective and morality all while introducing the theater motif.

As the play concludes the player leaves the theater where we see the character selection screen. Each character has their own story set in the same town where we see their perspective on how they try to cure a plague named Sand Pest that ravages the Steppe on the second day in the game. The unique thing about Pathologic is that as you play one character the others still continue their stories. There are several points in the game where the player speaks with the other two and at times works against them. 

As interesting as the full story is, there is simply not enough time to explain it here. There is a reason most video essays for this game are at least two hours long. Here and today the story will only be explained from the viewpoint of the Bachelor. It is important to highlight that this is not everything for as much as this game is about attempting to cure a plague it is also about perspective.

The intended first character to be played is the Bachelor, Daniil Dankovsky.

Dankovsky is a famed doctor with the goal of defeating death altogether. He is arrogant to say the least. He believes in analytical interpretation above all. He sticks firmly to what he knows and dismisses the more mystical explanations and beliefs of the people of the Steppe. 

In Pathologic every player character has a list of bound. These are people important to that character's story and must be kept alive to the end of the game for any remotely positive ending. For the true endings every characters bound must be healthy by the end of the game, this is the story that will be covered here.

The Bachelors bound are called the Utopians, they are: Mark Immortell,  Eva Yan, Georgiy Kain, Victor Kain, Maria Kaina, Vlad the Younger, Andrey Stematin and Peter Stematin.

Andrey Stematin is the brother of Peter Stematin who is the architect behind one of the great landmarks of the town: the Polyhedron.

The Polyhedron is this large structure on the edge of town made of its own blueprints that seems to defy gravity, the only thing holding the impossible structure up is this large thin spike that pierces the earth. The Polyhedron is off limits to the player until later in the game. The place has been overtaken by the children of the town who claim that it makes dreams.

Vlad the Younger, part of the Olgimsky family. Son of Vlad the older who owns the Termitary which is where the workers of the Abbatoir reside. The Abbatoir being another important landmark to the town, it is a large, tumor like hill with an underground facility made for harvesting the meat of bulls which is the town's main source of food and revenue. The place is closed down before news of the pandemic by Vlad the Younger. The Bachelor learns that Vlad had suspicions about the plague but instead of telling anyone he decided to lock up all the workers in isolation. Later in the story the Termitary doors are unlocked at the arrival of the Inquisitor. Revealing that the Termitary was not clean like the Olgimskys had insisted but instead has had most of its workers die off due to the plague. The bodies of the infected are placed in these giant bags hanging from the ceiling. In that time Vlad has been digging into the ground as he believes that the Sand Pest originates from beneath the Abbatoir. 

Eva Yan is a kind woman who provides the Bachelor with a place to stay. She is not incredibly important to the plot but the player will likely talk to her each day. She is one of the only trustworthy people in this town. Even the other bound do not care about the Bachelor outside of what he can do for them. This makes Eva a real breath of fresh air. Which makes it all the more heartbreaking when she kills herself the night before the arrival of the Inquisitor. Her death hurts, even more so because there just is not enough time in the day to think about her passing. By the time that the player reads the letter with the news there are several more letters with very time sensitive tasks to complete for the day. Which is yet another way Pathologic uses its game mechanics to evoke feelings in the player. The clock is always ticking and in a plague one life lost will not stop a whole town from needing the only available doctor.

On the twelfth and final day of the game after the Bachelor wraps up his business with the Stamatins and Kains he receives a letter from “The Powers That Be”. This is not the first time the player hears from them. They send nightly letters checking in on the progress of the Bachelor who, up until this point, was led to believe that The Powers That Be are some sort of government force that resides in the capital who are so disappointed in his progress that they destroyed his life's work. The letter reads: “A Letter from the Powers That Be, Bachelor! We thought we should write because you don’t seem to be listening to what we tell you! You’ve gotten out of hand! As of late you keep doing whatever you please. This is unacceptable. You are spoiling the game…”. The letter then proceeds to give instructions on how to meet them in the Polyhedron.

Upon entering, the Bachelor is faced with two children and a sandbox recreation of the town. He, understandably, has some questions and concerns and the children supply answers.

These kids made the town in this magic sandbox. The characters are just their least favorite dolls. The Sand Pest is a sandbox pest. The kids say the reason that the topic of their game is so dark is because there is a funeral happening. A funeral that has been going on for ten days. The kids believe that the sandbox is magical in a very similar way that the children of the Steppe believe that the Polyhedron is magic. 

There is one thing that really stands out when they are explaining the situation, and that is the use of the word epidemic. Just the one word says so much because remember these are children, children who think sandboxes are magic, why would they know such a word like epidemic? Because there is one where they live. That is likely what the ten day funeral is for. 

Here is some history: in 1770 a plague broke out in Moscow, Russia, the same city this game was made in and that the city was modeled after. In the beginning, the citizens would not believe that there was a plague, ignoring any measures to prevent infection until it was too late. When the citizens finally believed that there was a plague they blamed it on superstition, thinking that it was punishment for not burying the bodies in the proper christian way. (Mitchell)

This is exactly how the town reacts to the plague. From denying to superstition. On the very first day in Pathologic someone is burned alive in front of a crowd as a sacrifice. The children who made this town are living through a plague and the town they made reflects the reality of their town.

The Bachelor leaves. After all of that, he receives a letter from the Makers. Asking to talk in the theater. The makers are stand-ins for the actual developers of the game and they do not speak with the Bachelor, they speak to the player. “The hero is a doll, but so are the children. The real game is what’s happening between you and us”. This is very literally speaking about the video game. The tragedian puts it more bluntly  “I am exactly what you think I am. A collection of poorly rendered polygons on a screen…”.

 “Perhaps not all is lost yet. Let's wait for the finale and see if the day brings any surprises. We still have a chance to play in a drama with an unpredictable story.” The player: “Watch me act”. This is just fantastic writing. The whole conversation is so unique to Pathologic. There still is not something quite like this since this game came out in 2006. Where else do the game developers speak directly to the player and give them subtle hints to not follow the choices that the main character would make.

There is a true ending that is much more positive after all of this but because context of the other routes is missing the Bachelors choice of finale will have to do. 

The military are in town with guns and bombshells. They are leaving the final decision up to the Bachelor. As he is the only doctor in town he must know by now better than anyone whether or not the town can be saved. The Bachelor looks at the town that he spent twelve days in. Being lied to, infected, starved, robbed and beaten. He looks to the Polyhedron, a beacon of hope. The only place untouched, untainted by the people and the plague. It's a symbol of a better world to come, a utopia. 

What was once a city, now a crater that the Polyhedron looms over like a tombstone.

Pathologic is undeniably art. It is not very often that a game is so well realized and affects its players so profoundly yet seems to have had zero impact in western gaming. Perhaps the sequel will gain more traction so that others will come to understand the masterpiece that is, Pathologic.

Mitchell, Jared. “A Body, Divided: Pathologic.” Heterotopias, 18 July 2017, http://www.heterotopiaszine.com/2017/07/18/body-divided-pathologic/. 

“Grocery.” Pathologic Wiki, https://pathologic.fandom.com/wiki/Grocery. 

hbomberguy. “Pathologic Is Genius, and Here's Why.” YouTube, YouTube, 21 Nov. 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsNm2YLrk30&t=721s. 

Flynn, David. “Pathologic 1 & 2 Review --- to Suffer Is to Know.” GAMING TREND, 10 Feb. 2022, https://gamingtrend.com/feature/reviews/pathologic-1-2-review-to-suffer-is-to-know/. 

Bailey, Andrew. “Pathologic.” Critical Distance, 5 Aug. 2020, https://critical-distance.com/2020/07/01/pathologic/. 

Smith, Quintin. “Pathologic: Why It's the Best Game You've Never Played.” Rock Paper Shotgun, Rock Paper Shotgun, 5 Oct. 2014, https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/pathologic-review. 

“Pathologic.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 24 Jan. 2023, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pathologic. 

Novitz, Julian. “Scarcity and Survival Horror: Trade as an Instrument of Terror in Pathologic.” Transactions of the Digital Games Research Association, http://todigra.org/index.php/todigra/article/view/64/112.

#pathologic #essay #video game #daniil dankovsky #my writing

[bugbearstew]

2022

This year has been an absolute wild ride. I've done so many things and so many things have happened that I wanted to write up something to kind of put it all into perspective for myself mostly.

So 2022 started a panicked scramble to move across the country from Oklahoma to Pittsburgh, PA to live with my partner. This was a big step for me because I had lived in the same house my ENTIRE life! So this was the first time I was moving. It was a pain in the ass, incredibly stressful, but so worth it. I love pittsburgh and I love being here with Meg.

I got a second tattoo! An homage to Van Gogh's sunflowers. I plan on slowly working up to a full sleeve.

We visited a lot of really amazing places like Phipps, the carnegie art museum, the aviary, the frick museum, a bunch of art shows, but my favorite was seeing Hadestown in person in an absolutely astoundingly gorgeous theatre.

This year I started to dig into a lot of different kinds of art. I finished a (small) traditional painting that I still really love. I made some traditional art for Art Fight that I'm really happy with and some lovely gift art for friends. I've also dug a bit back into my own game designing and art for fun. My taste and skill for cooking has EXPLODED since I moved here and I have 4 cook books on my desk alone right now! We also have 4 plants that we take care of and I'm very happy with how they're doing. (yes cooking and plants count as art!!!)

I started reading a LOT more this year! I read... -Small Gods by Terry Pratchett -The Crossroads at Midnight by Abby Howard -The Trees by Percival Everett -Greener Pastures by Michael Wehunt -Shiver by Junji Ito God there might be more but I didn't keep a list... I'll keep a list next year

Theres SO many theatres in Pittsburgh! Meg and I saw a couple movies this year. Nope was amazing! Belle was a gorgeous anime movie. But it was Everything Everywhere All at Once that really blew us away. I don't know what I could say that would do that movie justice. I just remember walking home from the movie and getting choked up just discussing it.

Played a ton of games this year. I'm really happy about it because I played a bunch of weird and older games that really expanded how I feel about video games. Between Morrowind, Dwarf Fortress, Caves of Qud, System Shock 2, and Prey 2019 I feel like I've grow a lot in the games I consume and how I look at them.

I didn't get around to playing as many tabletop games this year as I would have liked but my game of Root TTRPG has been going strong! A year now and its so much fun each time! Plus, a weekly game of Gloomhaven has been great. Gloomhaven is a very fun time but also can be draining with how much thinking I have to do.

While moving was the biggest thing for me this year, Art was up there. I left my position working on Sun Haven in September. There were a good handful of reasons that I don't really need to get into but the main thing was I just wasn't happy. After leaving I've felt rejuvenated and excited about art. Working on a bunch of different things and excited to work on more. I have so much planned for 2023 and I can't wait to hit the ground running with projects I'm working on, starting, or planning.

In 2017 my twin sister passed away. That started a big chain reaction that, somehow, led me to here. It was a terrible thing that happened and I still feel the echoes of the pain today. But because of that I have grown into a much stronger person. When I sat in the audience of Hadestown, knowing how much my sister loved musicals, knowing how much she would have loved this one specifically, I fidgeted with my necklace. It's a small silver container of some of her ashes. I turned 30 this year. All of these things coming together, getting out of oklahoma, being in the big city, seeing hadestown, all of the tiny, daily things combined feel like I have closed a chapter in my life. 2022 wasn't an easy year, it had it's ups and downs as any year would. But it was the best year I've had in the past 5. I am so excited to see where I go from here. I don't know what 2023 will bring but I'm expecting big things for all of us.

#cross posted from cohost

[green-wiv-envy]

What went wrong with Depop

I remember the first items I bought on Depop. It was back in 2017, actually before I had developed an interest in sustainability. I had just dropped out of university and was working part-time at a local pub. It wasn’t a great time in my life to say the least.

It became a bit of an outlet. For a shopaholic like me, branded items being sold for a fraction of their original price was a no-brainer, and was pivotal in getting me over my aversion to second-hand clothing.

I would see items in shops and think to myself “I’ll just wait six months and buy it for cheap on Depop”. It’s how I got my Topshop Hurricane snake print boots. It saved my hide when I bought some ASOS shoes in the wrong size and then they ran out of the right size, only to stumble across them later on the app.

I didn’t just use it to purchase high street items; Depop was the first time I dipped my toes into the waters of vintage clothing and I found some real bargains on there (although the stench of stale cigarette smoke on the floral maxi skirt I ordered still remains in my nostrils to this day). I found a genuine leather white mini skirt and a Burberry trench (although perhaps that should be third-hand as the seller had purchased it from a vintage clothing store).

I personally never sold on Depop, as I found it was only really the sellers who committed to selling their items (and usually keeping a steady flow of new stock) or those whose items adhered to a tightly curated aesthetic. The layout of Depop is very similar to that of Instagram, and having items in the same style, colour or brand is pleasing to the eye and increases the likelihood of shoppers following the seller (and thus receiving notifications of new items to sell). This approach was much more successful than the sellers with eclectic mix that honestly represented the cast-offs of their wardrobe. Many of the items I bought were a casual seller’s first ever sale, despite usually having around a dozen on offer.

This was not a problem in the beginning- at least not from a shopper’s perspective anyway. But it was a sign of troubles to come.

Those who realised there was money to be made by reselling second-hand items sourced from charity shops (not an inherently wrong thing in my opinion, but a somewhat controversial in sustainability circles online due to the allegation that this denies low-cost clothing to those in a local community who most need it) went into overdrive, hiking up their prices.

The magic word was ‘y2k’, a banner under which anything could be sold for £20 and above, creeping close to the original RRP or sometimes surpassing it!

The app became increasingly challenging to navigate. For maximum visibility sellers would list just a blurb of tags regardless of whether they were relevant; a Topshop skirt manufactured and sold in 2013 could simultaneously be tagged ’90s’ and ’00s’ when the skirt itself frankly bore no resemblance to the clothing of either decade. Brand names would just be used for the sake of increasing their chances of appearing in search results. The rise of even faster fashion brands in the late 2010s became increasingly omnipresent, lowering the overall quality of the items on sale.

So when Vinted launched in the UK, I immediately signed up. At the initial stage the app was pretty glitchy; it would only show a few dozen items and then was unable to download more and at one point was entirely in French. But it soon came to find its footing and since then has firmly established itself amongst young people in the UK. I erroneously assumed that Vinted was a relatively new company, but actually it was founded in Lithuania in 2008 and has since expanded into over a dozen other countries.

It would be fantasy to pretend that Vinted is a shining city on the hill- Shein and its ilk are arguably just as prevalent as they are on Depop (with the small caveat that sellers aren’t charging nearly as much) but its search engine and filters are much better than Depop’s. The layout of the website and the range of items sold bear more resemblance to the early days of eBay (before it became an Amazon copycat dominated by mass-produced new items sold by large companies). I also suspect it will follow a similar trajectory to Depop, starting out as a cheap, sustainable and user-friendly platform that is ultimately undone by its popularity, with sellers asking for unreasonable items for low-quality products leading to a migration to whatever new reselling platform senses an opportunity. But for now, I enjoy Vinted as much as I once did Depop (and perhaps more than is good for my bank account).

#sustainability #sustainable fashion #thrifting #second hand shopping #depop #vinted

[fearofahumanplanet]

I've honestly just been contemplating what Vermont is like all day so far, like, idk maybe my perception is fucky because I'm a skier but I fully did not expect Vermont to be hick?? Like????? That's where the bougie ski resorts are ski manufacturers are, what do you mean they're surrounded by hicks?

(This very chill ask game is kinda fun ngl @andromedatalksaboutstuff)

Okay for some context to everyone who isn't Andi: I was born in Vermont and I was telling him about how perplexing its mere existence is. Now, my perspective is that of a poor person, so I have no idea what's going on in the ski industry, but when it comes to the rest of it....

Like, just to illustrate how fucking weird this state is (obviously this is all anecdotal):

The culture and aesthetic, I think, can be best described as some bizarre mixture of standard New English, Canadian, and Southern (???)

The houses and such are all very New English. Everyone in Vermont seems to love hockey an absurd amount (don't go to a sports bar during the Stanley, you will die a horrible death from your ears bleeding out) and we're basically renowned for our maple syrup, so we've got all the Canadian stereotypes. Also Vermont's politics are mostly incredibly left, especially by American standards - they have pretty much always been a very blue state, the queer acceptance is off the charts (there's still some shitheads in rural areas, but would you expect anything else?) like it tends to be one of the very first states to pass any queer bills whatsoever

I say "mostly" because everyone in Vermont has a goddamn gun. Literally everyone. There's actually not much crime there that I've ever seen, mostly bc if you tried to rob a store fifteen patrons would draw guns on you and shoot you dead. Now I'm pro-gun control, for the record, to a LARGE degree, however seeing the way this shit works in a mostly leftist state is incredibly odd. I'm pretty sure I knew how to fire a rifle before I knew how to talk

The Southern culture exists in that everyone in Vermont ever seems to spend all their time fishing, drinking, four-wheeling, hunting, or otherwise giving Cabela's good reason to put up twenty-five stores in every square mile of this state. (Don't bring up Bass Pro in Vermont, you will spark a lynch mob). Which is really bizarre in combination with its politics? Also, everyone listens to country and classic/Southern rock for some reason, like, compulsively, everywhere.

The FOOD is great. It's all a bunch of East Coast standards, a lot of seafood (a LOT of seafood) and (again, oddly) a lot of Southern staples (chili in particular I tend to find a lot)

We also have a lot of odd vernacular and slang that I've never seen literally anywhere else. Like they say "hamburg" to separate hamburger meat from hamburger (as in the full meal), or they say "idear" instead of idea (?????)

Every winter is just a war waged upon the inhabitants by Mother Nature. It is quite common to have to dig out of your own goddamn home when it snows over, and Vermonters ELEVATE THEIR HOUSES TOO. Also, the hail is no joke, that shit will take your head off (literally)

There aren't that many big cities outside of Burlington and even that is only big in comparison to Vermont and not the whole of America, most people just live in scattered rural towns and/or ass-deep 2 miles into the woods away from civilization (I used to do that and I miss it)

Literally everyone is white and yet I have seen very little racism in Vermont for some reason (it exists, don't get me wrong, it exists everywhere, but comparatively?? very little). Also a lot of religious nutjobs but the only problems I've had being trans and gay in Vermont came exclusively from my family, who I do not think are indicative of the entire state (my family is batshit insane, for the record)

Also I don't think this is indicative of the entire state either but my aunt literally has a full decked-out bar in her basement, it's not public or anything it's just her personal bar that looks like it got plucked out of a noir novel. People in Vermont are just incredibly weird

Oh yeah and sometimes I'd have bears wander into my front yard. You know, as you do. :P

#besties tag #asks

[peppertaemint]

I don't know that you'll have a different perspective on this, but tmikpop posted about some of the goals of the possible kakao and sm "collaboration" and one of them was removing a restriction on artist performances(I didn't even know that was a thing) and having them do 20 performances a year.

Maybe I'm out of touch, but I would think that's a good thing? That's literally a tour? Artists(in general) like performing and touring. But you have everyone in the quotes crying about sm overworking the artists(including army, which is funny cause a couple days ago they were laughing about hybe disbanding all these sm flops and now they're concerned about them)

But like, am I the crazy one? I didn't see anyone celebrating the fact that these artists(their favs in a lot of cases) are gonna get to perform. Maybe its coming from the shawol side with Key just saying that he'd like to have a concert but he hasn't been able too, and seeing how much Taemin desperately wanted to perform for fans but couldn't cause of covid before his enlistment, the idea of being upset that they get to do that as much as possible would be insane to me?

Why are kpop fans so backwards???

Thanks for this great Ask.

If Kpop fans were predisposed to infantilization, fetishization, and victimization/othering of Asian artists, COVID exacerbated this. The "big bad" became real, affirming all their worries that Oppa needs to stay at home.

First, COVID really changed the playing field for those of us in jobs that involve extensive international travel. Some of us went from traveling every month to zero. This is true for traveling musicians, which is most SM artists. COVID put us all at home together but separately. I do think that some have gotten used to this "new normal" where no one goes abroad. I notice it in the outsized receptions at airports and with fans seeming to have soured on touring altogether unless it is directly benefitting them. The line seems to be "it's too much unless XYZ artist is playing my city."

The overwork stuff, in my opinion—and I'm focusing on English-speaking, western fans here—is tied into Orientalist views about Asia and the perceived cultural differences at play. I say perceived because there is interesting work I've read tiny chunks of about how colonizers in the past centuries created the myth of Orientalism and the East/West split. Essentially, we are more the same than we are different (duh, I mean, not rocket science) but I'm sure if you're a westerner, you could name lots of media, and even recent media, that plays on this facile idea of the strange and differentness of the East. It's tied to xenophobia, too, which was very pioneered by Xenophon who went around reporting on what he thought were backward, crazy cultures he countered in his travels during ancient times.

All this is to say that I think fans don't have a realistic idea of what a demanding career in any country looks like (because lol, omg ... ), and they cannot put their selves in the shoes of a person like a Korean popstar who has worked for countless years to enjoy an abundant career. If they could, they'd understand that while safety and health are important, they're not just about "too many tour dates". It's actually about what do those days look like, how much well-being is built in, and how much rest time is afforded?

I'm hesitant to use Haechan as an example, but I think I'll bite the bullet to say he got sick, he got COVID, and he now has a heart condition of some sort. We're not privy to the details of what that is or what its limitations are, and rightfully so because how is that our business unless he shares it? If, against medical advice, SM order Haechan to do X amount of work, he does it and then gets sick, that's grounds for a lawsuit. SM has made terrible mistakes in the past, but I do not judge them as a company operating against medical advice. If Haechan makes his own decisions against medical advice and SM fails to make an intervention, that could also be a lawsuit around duty of care, but I'm not a Korean law expert.

You might remember the Michael Jackson lawsuit against his record company regarding duty of care re his death. If the record label knew they were paying for a doctor who was doing XYZ, are they culpable for not providing safe care? Are they culpable for arranging a tour when they likely knew the state of his health? His family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against AEG but ultimately AEG was not found liable. That case is really good reading if you have an interest in the duty of care that record labels have for artists.

All the above in mind, no I don't think extra tour dates are an issue because touring is the norm, and it's what artists and fans want. I also operate on the belief that SM operates legally (lol, what a thing to say right now), and does have artist well-being enmeshed in their work. Does that mean artists won't get sick? Of course not. People will always get sick or have personal problems, but whether the label is liable/culpable is a legal issue and for many a moral issue that isn't well represented in legal opinions.

#I find duty of care really interesting #maybe I'm a nerd

[laura-apexart]

DAY 21 : 7.28.23

The Cezanne documentary was sold out so I walked around the neighborhood until Marthin picked me up to go Visit Delcy Morelos studio. 

She was at the sweat ceremony and we all rode the bus back to the city together and she invited us to visit. When we arrive at her studio on the outskirts of Candeleria neighborhood, 

we are greeted by her 4 dogs and 4 cats– And there are also addolescent ducks but they greet us later, when we take a tour of the garden a neighboring building that is being restored as a storage area // more work space.

Before looking at her studio or work we go sit in her office which is more library or sanctuary made of beautiful wood and a cement sloped ceiling so it stays cool. There are lots of shelves with wooden boxes as movable drawers or containers. The space is lit by natural light and filled with beautiful objects-mostly organic, like her collection of hand woven baskets of various sizes and proportions collected from the Amazon.  All the fibers are natural and also hand made-she has a couple rolls of the twine that was spun from the bark of a tree or roots or a plant (I didn’t catch the specific name of it) and she also has an incredible wasp nest and bird nest collection, with potatoes that are white and chalky and apparently still edible. She invites us to sit down on small stools and lights candles and incense and Marthin and her chat, and I listen intently and try to understand but also submit and try to relax and just enjoy sitting in the beautiful space looking at all the beautiful objects. In her studio, she also has an incredible textile collection because she makes her own clothes which are beautiful, simple patterns (Japanese influence)  denim, Colton, linens.

She is preparing for a number of exhibitions in nyc and has a number of studio assistants helping her. One is at Dia. Chelsea in October–which will be fun to go see.

Because much of her work is made with earth /dirt, living matter, she explains, it can’t be shipped because of rules and regulations agains introducing seeds and soil and living matter from one continent or country to another. Funny to think of all the new microscopic matter and bacteria I will carry with me home after my month here. 

Crates are filled with hand made clay objects painted with a black chorcoal looking pigment, made to replicate the shapes of fossils and bones, Seeds, Carrots or tree roots. She will create the layers of the earth within her installation. 

After our studio tour, we sit in her kitchen drinking barley tea for hours talking.

Barbra Santos (whose installation I had seen at the national gallery a few days earlier) who also works with indigenous tribes in the Amazon, has been going since 18 yrs old and focusing on the land, earth and its stories, a non human centric perspective, also comes to visit as well as a gentle man originally from North Carolina who has been living in Bogota for 3 years teaching English. 

We  talk about horoscopes, all of our signs and their meanings, I tell her I’m a triple water sign and she gasps HA! So emotional, you lead with emotions, very intense–but have been told from a young age that I am too sensitive–which is why maybe I am so good at masking and sometimes being inscrutinable–a form of overcompensating?. She is also part Scorpio–Scorpio’s have a tendency to want to self-destruct–so the antidote is working your way through it–making, making, making! This resonated.) Conversation traverses family, teaching, racisom or fear of foreigners-between different cultures and specific stories of personal experiences, her recent trip to the Amazon, how it heightened all of her senses, she went alone and stayed with an indigenous tribe which she had been studying but still was getting to know them. We talk about places to travel outside of the city (that I should try to see to be in nature, because Colombia has some of the richest, most bio diverse ecosystems in the world) . I will have to come back. 

The difference between being inside of something and physically experiencing it with your body and senses (nervous system) vs reading /studying something from books and in an academic sense.  We talk about Input vs influence. A lot of the conversation is in Spanish and only some is translated. And I’m both trying to follow along but also kinda submitting and just enjoying the beautiful space and people but also feeling an exhaustion from my brain's battle to try to know but not know and be comfortable and ok with that. And time kinda disappears and I dono if this would happen in nyc. And by the time we leave it’s past 10pm, past my bedtime.

#Laura Bernstein

[alexsfictionaddiction]

Alex Recommends: April Books

This month has been full of my last few assignments for my MA. I can’t believe that I’m so close to the end of it already -it has gone SO fast! I am also starting to sort out my dissertation now, which I’ll be working on over the summer. It sucks that I won’t be able to have any proper time off this year but I am actually quite excited about my topic, so it shouldn’t be too bad.

My brother Luke turned 30 this month. Having a younger sibling in their 30s does make you reflect on your own age and life stage, so I have been doing some self-assessing recently. I am definitely not where I thought I’d be at 32 but I’m actually the happiest that I’ve ever been. I am still trying to be OK with my body and I am forever working on becoming a better person but I am certainly much happier and (I think!) wiser than I was five years ago. So, it seems like I’m on the right path!

I have been continuing to make my way through the Women’s Prize longlist and just like March’s recommendations, that’s where all of this month’s books come from too. Although there have been a few books on this list that I thought were questionable additions, I’ve really enjoyed the majority of them. It’s a real eclectic mix this year and on the whole, I was really happy with the shortlist. I’d love to know your thoughts on it, if you’ve also been following the prize and reading the nominees. I’m really looking forward to the winner announcement in June, so roll on the summer!

-Love, Alex x

FICTION: Wandering Souls by Cecile Pin.

At the close of the Vietnam War, young siblings Anh, Minh and Thanh make the journey across the ocean to Hong Kong, knowing that their parents and younger siblings will follow. But when their family fails to make it to safety, 16-year-old Anh becomes the sole guardian of her younger brothers but their lost loved ones never really leave them. As the years go by and the siblings settle into 1980s London, plagued by xenophobia and inequality, they begin to wonder if love and history is enough to keep them together. This heartbreaking story of unimaginable strength and resilience is the true story of so many immigrants of war-torn countries. I loved the fact that the book’s focus was on a young migrant family who made simple lives for themselves. None of the siblings went on to have high-flying careers and lots of money but they did all find some kind of peace and happiness, meaning the characters felt very real and were so easy to connect to. There are also some beautiful friendships and family bonds forged by displacement and a search for belonging. I was so moved by the message that our dead loved ones are constantly there and will never stop loving us. It’s a highly emotional yet hopeful novel that I strongly believe should have been shortlisted!

LITERARY FICTION: Black Butterflies by Priscilla Morris.

Sensing that things are escalating in Sarajevo, artist and teacher Zora sends her husband and elderly mother to her daughter in England. But as divisional lines become clearer, random killings become commonplace and their city begins to deteriorate, Zora and her friends must learn to survive and persist within a world that is becoming increasingly hostile. Black Butterflies is a unique story from a unique perspective. Both the setting (the siege of Sarajevo) and the narrative voice (a woman in her 50s) are rare in popular fiction, so it was really refreshing to learn about a part of history that I knew literally nothing about. I also greatly appreciated that it’s a book about the people who stay behind rather than those who flee war, as that brought yet another fresh take. It also explores the power of art and the horror of losing one’s culture. The actual meaning of ‘black butterflies’ is such a heart-wrenching image, when it’s revealed and I’m pretty sure I literally gasped when that whole concept hit me. The lightness of the book comes in its celebration of community and their coming together in times of crisis to try to find pockets of hope. It was an altogether very well-written and singular book that I’m delighted was introduced to me by the Women’s Prize.

HISTORICAL FICTION: Trespasses by Louise Kennedy.

Cushla is a primary school teacher and barmaid amidst the horror and violence of the Northern Irish Troubles. In her family’s pub, she meets an older, married man called Michael, a barrister who defends members of the IRA. Finding herself drawn to Michael, he and Cushla begin an affair. But when one of her students’ father is brutally attacked, Cushla finds that everything she knows and loves may be about to collapse. Trespasses came to me with some very high praise from multiple sources, so I was very excited to read it. It’s a heady story that depicts 1970s Belfast perfectly. It tackles some heartbreaking themes such as poverty, social divide and of course, war. It’s also an exploration of crossing forbidden lines in the name of love and this takes several forms throughout the book (hence the title, I imagine!). Cushla is a thoroughly likeable heroine who clearly wants to do the right thing in a world where she is an underdog. I wasn’t expecting it to have thriller-esque vibes towards the end but I really appreciated it and it definitely had me completely hooked.

MYTHOLOGY: Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes.

Following her brutal rape at the hands of Poseidon in the temple of Athene, the youngest Gorgon sister Medusa is cursed by the goddess. Now she can kill with her stare, Medusa resorts to a reclusive, solitary life with only her immortal sisters for company. But then a young hero on a quest shows up, needing a Gorgon’s head to prove his worth. The cover of Stone Blind pitches the book as Medusa’s story and while it is that, it isn’t just that. We also get chapters watching the gods and chapters that tell the story of Perseus’ mother, Danaë. It’s an equally funny and equally tragic book that paints a far less than flattering portrait of the ‘hero’ Perseus. I really enjoyed the dialogue between the gods, particularly when Athene was involved. She is completely unreasonable in this tale but still somehow a figure of wit, sass and wisdom. There are also some fascinatingly unique perspectives, such as Medusa’s severed head. Even after its separation from her body, it continues to narrate part of the story, which is incredibly macabre while making some kind of horrific sense. 

COMING OF AGE: Homesick by Jennifer Croft.

Sisters Amy and Zoe are homeschooled in Oklahoma, as Zoe suffers from seizures, the cause of which can’t quite be determined. While Zoe is in and out of hospital, Amy begins to fall in love with her Russian tutor Sasha and nurtures a deep love of languages. When her academic talents send her to university at just 15, Amy’s life changes drastically. Homesick is a touching story of sisterhood and the powerful bond that can forge. It’s also a book about guilt and family duty, which continuously shows itself throughout the narrative. In places, it is full of humour and in other places, the story becomes very tense. Homesick is about learning who you are, what’s important and the realisation that sometimes that journey can take us to dark places.

#april books #women's prize for fiction #book recommendations #books #bookworm

[vizhen-thoughts]

Thu June 9 2022 3:18pm

i recognize that this is just American entitlement in my subconscious, but i truly believe that people shouldn’t have to pay for the things they can’t live without. all humans can’t live without food, water, and some form of shelter.

i believe we’ve reached a point where established societies have all of those things to some extent. but i also believe that the human existence as a whole was meant to progress. continuously evolving and changing, doing not only better for humans across the globe, but doing better for the planet that provides us with these essentials.

forgive me for my mind and way of thinking are quite abstract and i’m often misunderstood, but i’ll do my best to explain this cohesively.

i think of the planet and human existence as ouroboros—the snake depicted eating its own tail. i view it this way because humans have the incredible ability of sentience, meaning that our brains evolve as we take in new information and that falls in the same category as learning, only it goes much deeper than that.

humans are able to walk on 2 legs with a straight back.

we learned how to make controlled fires to cook our food.

we learned how to make language to communicate our thoughts with words.

we went on to adapting to our environments by forming communities and utilizing shelter, eventually learning how to build our own houses. we learned how to build towns, cities, countries.

we developed cultures—which if you really think about it, the depth of any one culture is crazy, but the way that humans created multiple different cultures?? my god.

we were able to learn about how the body works, and how to cure disease and even do smaller things like alleviating pain or medicinally aiding a fever so you don’t die from it at any age.

right now, we are learning about how our brains work—how we have come to be “humans” as we now know it.

there’s still a lot to learn, but one truth has been rearing its ugly head lately—that is, we cannot go on like this, to say the least.

everything we are doing is not doing anyone any good. we can look at numbers and productivity levels and all that man-made crap. but the fact of the matter is personal satisfaction rates—maybe even overall satisfaction rates—are so low that i dont know a single person who’s happy with their life and genuinely means it.

and of course i do recognize that my perspective is limited to what i’ve seen. maybe there are more ppl satisfied with the true state of the world than the opposite. its just very hard for me to imagine that the majority of 7B humans would be okay with knowing that global warming will claim this Earth if we continue on this path, which will effect all humans—even the rich humans who think they’re untouchable.

nature’s funny like that, and so is karma. you see these are all very real things.

powerful humans do conquer the weak, and to be more specific, it is humans who have been allotted power by their human ancestors.

but nature will always find its balance, and that is a force that no human can stand against.

so, to put it bluntly, how do you feel about knowing that a lot of the things that are the fundamentals of our societies are actually killing us?

through diversifying our minds we can come together in ways never seen before and save our planet while saving ourselves. i think it’s absolutely stupid to insist on fighting when our home is at stake. when the planet’s uninhabitable there won’t be anywhere or anyone left to fight. we’ll all be screwed.

that is the reality of this dilemma we face.

so many factors go into this, major factors like nationalist ideals and diplomacy, and smaller factors down to the individual level of consciousness.

i’m definitely not going to pretend like i know every single thing or have all the answers, but i know for certain where we need to start. we all have a part to play in this, but until we all get on the same page and realize that life can be better, safer, and more gratifying for everyone, we will not get anywhere. in fact we will be the cause of our own destruction. but it doesn’t have to be this way.

we can come together.

“the internet will change the world,” is a quote i heard recently.

the fact is, the internet made us aware of the fact that other humans exist in worlds beyond our own. and that did not have to be a bad thing, but humans often repeat the same mistakes, such as extreme culture shock to the point of extreme rejection. depending on how you’re looking at the situation that could be either a good or a bad thing.

but the fact of the matter is, the internet opened our eyes to the world as a whole. there’s no way that that in itself isn’t a sign telling us to do better as one collective.

i stand firm on my beliefs and my morals—and call it entitlement, narcissism, or whatever you want— but all i wish to do with my life is be apart of the movement that’s gonna take all of humanity to a brighter future.

the future where every human can live in comfort and peace, no matter where their home is, and no matter where they wish their home to be.

the future where traveling is much easier and more efficient and safer for the environment.

the future where we can actually explore our own oceans and learn something abt this planet before we no longer have the opportunity for christ’s sake…

the future i envision is one where anyone can become whoever they want. whether they want to be a marine biologist, a doctor, a chef, or even just an at-home tech support or full-time parent.

everyone, and i do mean everyone, would love the opportunity to be productive in the way that works best for their physical and mental needs.

this future focuses on the individual within a greater society with the common goal of survival & prosperity. we all need it. for ourselves alive today, and for our children who will take our place.

i truly believe that we can change, and i have hope that we wont squander our planet and all the progress we’ve made up to this point.

— VIZHEN

#3am thoughts #deep thinking #depthobsessed #potentially triggering #not for the weak #not for the faint of heart #politics #environmetalists #capitalism #capitalist hell #being autistic #being black #being better #sorry for being depressing #keep an open mind #humanity #our future

[survivor-north-sea]

Episode Four: "I am VERY susceptible to flattery" - Chelsea

Trinica

Another successful tribal! All the girls seem to feel really bad about voting for Tyler and now I have to pretend that I also feel bad about voting for Tyler or else they'll think I'm heartless lol. But the boy does not speak to me!!!

I think Esteban really does trust AJ and I again, which is great. I almost feel bad about being against him. Almost.

-

AJ and I had a long call post-tribal about strategy moving forward! We're literally finishing each other's sentences while scheming. The plan is for AJ to continue her "woe is me" story and pretend she wants to flip. I suggested she tell them to target Toni or I and say that she thinks one of us has a tribal so they need to split votes. They split the votes, we stay strong, and off Arvin goes.

We're going to STRUGGLE with picking a song for this challenge, so not boding we'll for our chance of winning.

Hairie

Okay Hidra with the crazy tribals ! Dang it I wasn’t expecting Azri to go cus I wanted to potentially work with him us being South East Asians and all

-

Bethany, Esteban and Tyler spilling hot piping tea and I’m here for it but do I believe it?

Arvin Bentonon

I really love the challenge. But it took us more than half of a day to decide which song to pick. Now, I'm worried because it's already 9pm here, and I'm so tired. I just want to record now, so that I can sleep. Tired af.

Raffy

I really want Brandi and Champ to trust Hairie to make my life easier, but they obviously don't because of the idol shenanigans. I wish there was a way to mend that bridge, but it needs to come from Hairie himself not me. Right now though I need them to realize we need him until merge. It would make this pre-merge so much easier. Hopefully they see the path of least resistance is to keep Hairie.

Other than that, apparently Esteban trusts me enough to tell me that he's on the bottom, there may be a non-men alliance on Hidra, and that he wants to go against them. I told him that what makes the most sense to me is that there are only three people working together (Jinx, AJ, and someone else) who are pulling the strings. They were the onto use the idol and they were the ones to split the vote correctly in case of an idol. However, Champ told me even MORE tea (which I can only assume was from Bethany based on what was told) wherein Clefford was the messy one (I wouldn't be surprised) and spread rumors about Jinx based on Raccoon City. And Esteban was being pushy about idol hunting with AJ and Trinica which put them off. So, from presumably Bethany's account, the boys were trying to start a men's alliance or, at the very least, were the ones that painted a target on themselves first.

Now, which do I believe? Probably a little bit of both. I can definitely see both Esteban's and Bethany's accounts being true for their personal perspective. However, that won't stop me from voting any of them out. After all, my plan is to stick Tromoya strong so none of this information changes the way I'm playing rn. Though its nice that they are giving out all this tea for free.

Chelsea

This is an interesting situation to be in! 3 OG Hidra messaged me almost immediately after the swap. It is really hard to decide who to work with bc one of my things is that I want everyone to like me. I am not good at saying no either so I will have to tread carefully. Also, no one “has time” to edit. I am literally across the country from my home and with my kids. Let one of these young’uns with way fewer responsibilities take it!

Tyler Frazier

So I currently hate this game. I have three allies, one of which lied to me on my old tribe, two of which hate each other, and not only that! I am in the minority and I’m not even the majorities favorite so I could easily be booted bc my only other ally is telling her tribe to stick together for some reason. So it’s just all going terribly for me. Honestly if I make the merge give me a medal.

Trinica

I FOUND A FREAKING IDOL!!!!!!!!!! Survivor bucket list complete!!! And no I will not be telling AJ, thank you very much. I told her instead about the golden key I found awhile back- hopefully she can help me figure out where it goes.

I feel like I'm in such a good place right now, no matter what happens with this challenge. My goals are twofold: use this successfully later on in the game, and don't go home with it in my pocket. 🙏🏾

Hairie

Ex Hidra members now on new tromoya are sharing similarities in the information they share with me and others. I just hope OG tromoya don’t get thrown off

-

Okay Raffy is killing it in every challenge and he sure did for the lipsync challenge 🔥

Chelsea

I wish I weren’t traveling during the music video challenge! I did my best and used all my advantages (read: children), so hopefully people like it!!

Jayjay

I have not been feeling well today at all and I still have yet to film my video for this challenge. I was excited yet really nervous because I’m not good in front of a camera but it seems so fun with the ideas I had in mind for it. I just hope I can get to feeling well enough to get this done within an hour or so, so I don’t let my team down and we can win this challenge! Wish me luck! I may just puke my brains out 😅

Brandi

Challenge not going well- no one cares about it and instead is worried about drama. We are gonna be at tribal if they don’t get it together

Jayjay

So l finally got the videos for the challenge done that was fun! Although I had to do it later at night so it was pretty chilly out to have the water hose rain on me it was so worth it! 🤭 Everyone has already made their videos I believe now we just have to leave it in Champs hands to edit it all together! I can’t wait to see the final result!!! It’ll be a video to keep forever for sure. I lii ok ve our new tribe and how dedicated everyone seems to be! 🙌🏻 Let’s just keep our fingers crossed we win this challenge especially with a 10% advantage Bethany has!

Trinica

From the way Jinx is talking, Raffy is going to dominate the editing for this challenge and we're probably gonna lose...but I had fun and that's all that matters!

JK not going to tribal is what matters

Bethany

i'm so annoyed literally an hour into this swapped tribe the og tromoya was saying that they should bring in esteban like please give tyler and i a chance!!! but hairie is telling me tyler is not responsive so like hopefully it would be tyler targeted and not me. idk i'm not really vibing with any of them so we will see what happens. just trying to be more active than tyler at this point and get people to like me a little by spilling some tea. hairie was like "i don't believe in an all one gender majority alliance" and i'm like ok esteban has definitely been spreading that but here is the thing literally like day 2, the guys were all targeting 3/5 non-men on our tribe. jinx was being metatargeted by cleffort, and esteban was targeting aj and trinica for trying to help him with the idol hunt??? like this was before we even formed the alliance. so not really our faults that you were trying to target all of us when azri and tyler were both pretty inactive!!! but whatever, gotta deal with that now, it will be fine.

Tyler Frazier

Okay as you know I’m not happy ab my spot on the tribe. My allies are kind of flopping and my best shot at keeping all of them is if I’m the target and we go to a tie and someone from the other side flips or we force rocks. So overall it’s just not great. So I’m really hoping we pull out a win so that Bethany and I can integrate ourselves into the tribe a bit more and they’ll be more comfortable targeting each other over us. Champ thinks we could flip votes onto Haire however I am afraid of being the one to put that plan into motion as I don’t wanna come on too strong and further mess up my spot.

Hairie

Sooo Bethany told Champ and Brandi about what I told AJ about keeping Julia safe. I had to do some damage control because it wasn’t entirely true how the approach went. I only did that to make sure AJ did not pick Raffy first.

-

All these talks about idols is making me anxious because someone has it but everyone’s saying they don’t have it. I know I don’t have it

-

It’s so hard to figure out who to vote out for this tribal if we lose. I’m liking getting to know Esteban Bethany and Tyler but I’m also strongly with keeping Tromoya strong

-

Okay me and Brandi are finally opening up and having some game talk and we’re both just keeping up with the pace of how intensified the game is going after the swap

AJ

Alrighty I’ve been so busy with this swap and the music video that I haven’t confessed yet this round. Shame on me and all that. But I am excited this round, I won’t lie. First I got almost all of our femmes and thems alliance on this new tribe with me, which made me feel pretty great. Second I’m almost entirely convinced that Tromoya believes I’m an extra vote for them. Which if all goes well they won’t realize isn’t true until too late.

Speaking of extra votes, ya girl just bought one. Somehow I went from broke to absolutely loaded in a single day of idol hunting. Right before we left for the swap coincidentally. Now I’ve got an extra vote and hopefully I won’t have to use it. Though Tromoya hasn’t really been too eager to interact with me, with the exception of Arvin. I do feel like that’s almost entirely because of how busy everyone is and also having barely any time for the video clips for this challenge.

But it’s done and submitted and there’s nothing we can really do about it now. I’m honestly pretty happy with how it turned out all things considered. So yeah, absolutely exhausted and now just waiting for the results. Fingers crossed we get so many points that we win even with less of an advantage, though I have a sinking feeling with Raffy editing the other video (probably since he’s done these so many times) and their tribe most likely not being as busy as ours, we’ll come nowhere close to winning.

Fingers crossed is all I can do though.

Raffy

I finally approach the Tromoya strong alliance about knowing who has the idol based on the secret phrase. It's so Brandi who has it. I don't know why we're lying anymore. It's just nonsense. They've been caught. Red-handed. Case closed. Will Brandi reveal this information? Probably not. Will she use it for my benefit? Maybe. So, I'm just going to sit here and fume about it until its used. Maybe I just got myself voted out, but who cares. I hate being treated like I'm stupid. Let me be your loyal ally and trust meeeeee. I just wanna be a hero who everyone can rely onnnn.

Chelsea

Ugh! I cringe at my video!! I had no time and I was traveling and just UGH. Trying to cover my bases in case we lose and in case others thought my video was dumb too. Talking to AJ and Jinx since they were on the outs with their tribe we can bring them to us and vote out one of the other OG Hidras

Tyler Frazier

Okay I’m not sure this’ll work but Champ said our best bet is to flip votes onto haire so if we have to go to tribal I could go to Raffy and say Haire talked ab doing an all newbies thing and that bc of Raffys reputation he’d like to see him go before the merge. This is all I could come up with to keep bethany and I safe and none of it’s true I made it all up.

Chelsea

This is good! Julia, Arvin and I all think that Toni should be the next to go if it comes to that, so we can pull in AJ and Jinx who were already on the outs with their original tribe, and Trinica seems really nice too. If I had my way, it would be Toni, and then Zach, and hopefully we win enough of the time that we will only need to go to two more Tribals before the merge...

Brandi

I was so worried about this dang challenge but it’s fine bro

Bethany

thank god we won immunity 🤩 i’m booked and busy trying to get people to stop targeting me 😭 tyler is trying to convince esteban but thankfully i can chill for a day and just try to get people to like me

Arvin Bentonon

We did our best and I had a lot of fun too. I just so sad that we didn't win. Huhu.

Trinica

https://youtu.be/vQxP14VAbkQ

Tyler Frazier

So I am really happy we won. That keeps Bethany Esteban and I safe another round and the longer we are safe the better. I’m not really sure who I believe is lying to me Bethany or Esteban but I think Esteban is messier and Bethany and I have a connection to Brayden so I’d like to see her do well. Plus come merge (hopefully I make it) I’m not sure how much longer Esteban can stay due yo how messy he’s been.

Hairie

Okay we slayed the lipsync competition! Shoutout to Champ for putting it all together !!

-

Okay Trinica slayed the most in that lipsync challenge. I mean come on she gave me outfit change, she gave me BACKGROUND. Ate it!!

Zach🤠

howdy. i fee like it could be my time. no one has spoken to me and I didn’t really reach out because I was busy all day. this was just a really inopportune time for me to play a game i think. n e way. light a candle for me besties.

Tyler Frazier

(I can’t remember if I submitted anything after we won so sorry) So we blew the other tribe out of the water with the challenge and thank god we did bc now I don’t have to put my super messy plan that likely wouldn’t have worked into motion and I can keep my allies. I’ve said before I have a lot more trust in Bethany than Esteban now because he’s just so messy but if we go to tribal I’m not really gonna have a say in who the target is and it’s not the ally I’d prefer be targeted (Sorry Esteban) it’ll be me or Bethany 🥰

Hairie

Omg that was worth the purchase and I’m so happy. I’m crossing lots of things I wanna accomplish for my very first ORG

Raffy

Hairie and I split our coins between each other to buy the sweater and the sauna bucket. I got 10 coins for everyone on the tribe including myself. This means my allies have grown very rich. Hopefully, tomorrow I can try to convince someone with a lot of money to come with me to buy things from the idol hunt. However, most importantly, Hairie found a hidden immunity idol and he told me about it. This pretty just confirms to me that Brandi has the other idol since Hairie would have told me about it. Now, I do not trust Brandi. For as much as she says that she wants to work with me and be really tight with our trio with Champ, not telling us about the advantage while also knowing we should have figured it out by now? Its giving strange. Despite that, I'll still be close with her cause I got no one else to go to at this point who I would want to work with. Its looking like I am going to be Hairie's sidekick for the game which is fine by me. I need to take a secondary role for once haha.

Hairie

Actually that was lowkey a good move on Brandi for sharing about the 10% advantage. If most of them do it, means we stack up on advantages and nobody went searching for the idol truly

Chelsea

Arvin is really complimentary and I don’t know what to do with it bc I am VERY susceptible to flattery lol and bc I know that about myself I am being hyper sensitive when ppl say something nice. Like do they mean it? Normally I would lap it up be here it so complicated!!

Toni

Theme: Short and Sweet

Hello world!

I'm not as chipper as the last time I confessed. I am exhausted. Exhausted but like if there was a word worse than exhausted I could think of I'd use that instead. I have had a busy weekend which of course meant I wasn't able to contribute much to the challenge or start building relationships with the new Hidra peeps. My name is out there tonight but I trust the relationships I've been working hard to build (instead of idol hunting) since the first challenge - AJ, Trinica, Jinx. My fire might go out tonight but we'll see.

So signing off scared.

Jayjay

So we won!!! I’m super happy and proud of our team for giving their all in this challenge. Definitely a video to keep forever lol. I think the other team did well as well, however it didn’t seem they put in as much effort as we did. I also think us getting wet in ours gave us the win! 😂 Nervous about they’re tribal council to see how it plays out for our ex Tromoya players. I hope they’re safe but from what I hear about ex Hidra I really doubt it. Anyways I’ll have my fingers crossed for them! I’m just relieved it’s not us having to make that elimination tonight. Thank you VL! 😁

Champagne

I’m so stressed! This is so messy because Bethany and Tyler are in the miniority while I’m in the majority and I want to keep Tyler and Bethany safe so we make it to merge together. The only option for me at this point is to continue to win for our tribe

Arvin Bentonon

This is the first tribal council I felt really nervous about. I mean, at this stage we are still getting to know each other, so it's hard to make a decision.

Zach🤠

So uhh this vote is very easy so far which scares me. I feel like I’ve connected with this new tribe enough for them to keep me around. I don’t trust anyone in this game yet really but I have to and if I go out trusting them when I’ve been nothing but honest, that’s on them! 🤠 see you on the other side 🫡

Trinica

Another tribal, another opportunity for AJ and I to manipulate everybody. I think we've got Arvin and the Tromoya girls eating out of our hands. Zach is a big ol' question mark, though. Refuses to game talk.

AJ keeps trying to pass off her extra vote on me, and is acting as if it's strategy but really she just doesn't want to use it herself and have a target on her back. She wants to maintain a relationship with Tromoya so that when she gets to the merge she has options. Which is exactly what I would do in her position. But I convinced her to give it to Toni. It's not the best solution because I really want Toni to trust me the most and I think at this point she's getting closer to AJ than she is to me but I wouldn't much rather not have the target on my back. I said in the vecepia chat "the devil works hard but AJ works harder" and Toni goes "I love AJ though" which tells me she's feeling really grateful.

Jinx

https://voca.ro/1iFqHoXbSw6L

these jinxcasts are okay but they got thee spirit

Julia

Well obviously we lost a music video challenge to raffy. I don’t think he’s ever lost one of those and I don’t think he ever will. I’m really upset that the tribes broke down this way because our tribe is just so god awful at challenges. I’m hoping that aj and jinx both vote one of their old members here because if not idk what the heck will happen

Trinica

Not me being behind every single tribal elimination so far???? It's giving ICONIC.

Dropped a truth bomb on Zach 20 mins before tribal letting them know that Arvin mentioned his name, Zach immediately freaked and added me to an alliance chat with Jinx and Toni. Then I got him to add AJ and now we're flipping on old Tromoya (and don't even NEED the extra vote AJ has)!! I am CACKLING

Zach🤠

So…that was fun. Just panicked and swung the result of tribal tonight. It was toni all day and then 15 minutes before the original tribal time, Trinica came to me and said Arvin and couple others were planning to vote for me l and wanted me to know. So I got with jinx and we realized with Toni at the bottom, AJ wanting to be in the majority, Trinica, Me and her we have the majority. So here we are and Chelsea is going home…hopefully.

[thera-daydreams]

INDAY

± A Trese Fic ±

[Crispin/Basilio/Maliksi/Dominic x Skymaiden!Reader]

01: Noon at Ngayon (✓)

02: Ang Kambal na Anak ni Datu Talagbusao, Diyos ng Digmaan (Link)

03: Ang Prinsipe ng Mga Tikbalang (Link)

04: Ang Pinuno ng Mga Aswang (Link)

05: (Link) 06: (Link) 07: (Link)

01: Noon at Ngayon

Back then, long before you were born, your mother used to work as a katulong of the Trese Family and was very close to its matriarch, Miranda Trese. Coming from the province, she was no stranger to superstitions—even more so after knowing the work of Miranda's husband Anton Trese, who was actually the Babaylan-Mandirigma of Manila.

Years later, after giving birth to you around the same time Miranda gave birth to her twins (one a stillborn, unfortunately), it was you and Alexandra who became best buddies instead, as different your personalities were. You two had practically grown up together and you yourself heard countless stories of the supernatural from your Tito Anton. It wasn't that hard to believe when he and his sigbin companions would sometimes come home tracking blood prints on the floors (which you'd helped your mother clean up). Heck, you'd even met Señor Armanaz, the Great Stallion himself and the ruling tikbalang of the Armanaz herd. That pretty, white-haired diwata seemed extremely fond of you, too, which was evident when you'd sneak in with Alexandra to Tito Anton's meetings and she would smile (even wave) at you happily.

You had absolutely no idea why the fae-like lady was so nice to you, but you weren't complaining at all!

However, in spite of your experiences with the supernatural, you and your mother always believed that you were normal humans. In actuality, that was who you were for the majority of your childhood. It was only until Miranda herself saw a vision of you—a much older you—fighting the monsters of the Underworld alongside her own daughter. During dinnertime, Miranda told your mother that she saw you blessed by the heavens with powers that would aid in the battle against evil.

It sounded absolutely ridiculous, right? Yeah, your mom thought so, too.

Your mother only laughed it off as she placed a steaming bowl of tinola in front of Alexandra's brothers, who instantly dug in like they haven't been fed in years.

"Boys! Dahan-dahan lang," Anton reprimanded his sons. "Or else you'll choke and the soup will come out of your noses!"

"Okay, Papa."

"Grabe ka naman, Miranda. I doubt that anything like that's going to happen to my daughter," your mom chuckled, watching your little hands try to feed Alexandra with a piece of chicken. "Unlike you guys, our lineage isn't anything special. Ordinaryo lang ang lahi namin."

Miranda sighed, looking at you and her only living daughter enjoying your time being kids, "I guess you're right. Baka panaginip lang talaga 'yun."

Anton glanced at her knowingly. Although he was aware that you and your mom didn't dabble in magic or anything like they did, he knew that whenever Miranda—one of the Seven Seers—had such vivid dreams, it was something of great importance. But he decided to say nothing, understanding how much your mother wanted to let you live as normal of a life possible in this household.

That was when you were seven years old. One year later, Miranda died fighting against a group of aswang who decided to betray Anton. Said man found the eight-year-old Alexandra hiding in a corner behind the waterfalls, scared and holding Sinag close to her heaving chest as she tried to hold her tearful sobs in.

Of course, a few days later, you and your mother attended the funeral with the mourning Trese family. All the brothers had done their best to stay strong, especially for their little sister who didn't fully understand yet what just happened. Little you ran towards Alexandra, holding her hand tightly as her mother's casket was lowered. Around you were various comrades, both human and non-human, paying their respects to their bereaved allies.

That day, as you turned your back to return to your mother's arms, you knew you would never forget the feeling of numerous unearthly eyes following your every movement.

Even they could sense that there was something about you, a so-called regular human child. You smelled human and had the aura of one, but there was something they couldn't place. It was like a tiny rock getting into your shoe, not coming out at all.

Much changed after that, but you and Alexandra remained close together. To your dismay, just after you graduated elementary, you and your mother had to move back to the province to stay with your sick grandparents. The last thing you could remember was kneeling in the back of the car, looking sadly through the rear windscreen as Alexandra and her brothers waved goodbye to you.

More than a decade had passed since then. You used to write letters to Alexandra, but after Hank told you she had to undergo the trials of the Puno ng Balete, you haven't heard from her (although Hank did disclose that she'd managed to come home safely, which was a great relief to you). You didn't blame her; you knew Tito Anton had passed away in the five years she was gone and that she had to take over the title of Lakan, as well as the Babaylan-Mandirigma of Manila. It was a demanding job! You remembered Tito Anton sometimes staying up all night—breakfast would be served and he would still be in his study, going over paperwork. On other days, he would be gone for consecutive nights handling cases all around Manila. You could only pray Alexandra was fine.

Your life had continued on, as well—you took care of your ill grandparents until they died, helped your mother in the province, went to a good highschool, then earned your degree in another prominent city that wasn't Manila.

Your mom actually recommended that you go to school somewhere else, given the constantly rising number of attacks in the capital of the country. And so you did. Life was hard, but normal until then.

The funny thing was that, when you reached the age of twenty-one, you finally understood why those supernatural creatures kept looking at you weirdly as a kid (and why Lady Diwata liked you so much).

What was even funnier was that the dramatic revelation came to you when you weren't in the Philippines. It was after you freshly graduated college, when you were traveling all over Asia to volunteer in charity projects. It was always your dream to one day expand your horizons not only beyond your province, but the Philippines itself, while also doing good in the world.

And here you were, walking that path you dreamt of.

The organization you luckily managed to become a member of provided everything you needed, and every few months, you would move from country to country. Because of that, you'd already been able to travel to so many places. First it was Thailand, then Indonesia, China, South Korea, India, Japan, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, and currently, you were in Vietnam. Visiting those places was fun and gave you a whole new perspective of the world you lived in; it was a... learning experience, too.

Still, that incident happened when you were in Thailand, when you were the last one in the rented apartment balcony taping up the boxes for the donation drive tomorrow. Yawning, you cut more duct tape and stuck them to the open boxes tightly.

"Inday," someone said from behind you. You didn't bother turning around, thinking it was one of your fellow volunteers looking for you this late at night. Probably your roommate. She was the only one who usually called you by your nickname instead of your real name.

"Hmm?" you hummed, taping up more boxes. "Papasok na ako sa kwarto, Lyn. I just have a few more boxes to close. Alam mong mapapagalitan ako kung may hindi madidistribute bukas."

"Hindi ako si Lyn."

You paused, then slowly turned around, flinching at the sudden bright light that shone right against your eyes. For a moment, akala mo namatay ka na at hinaharap mo si San Pedro.

It was a glowing figure in white whose face you couldn't clearly see, which frightened you even more.

"Ay, mama!" you exclaimed, shielding your eyes and falling to your knees. Then, you gasped loudly, patting your body and panicking with closed lids. "Oh my God, am I dead? Nasa heaven na po ba ako?" Your lips wobbled. "Ngayon pa nga lang ako nakaalis ng Pilipinas... I haven't even done all the things I've wanted to do! Hindi pa ako nakapagpaalam sa nanay ko—aray!"

You'd felt something hit the back of your head. Hard. It was the glowing figure in white, but now you could see their unimpressed face scowling at you.

"Kalma lang, Inday. Hindi ka pa patay, pero makinig ka nang mabuti," they shushed you urgently (you weren't sure if they were male or female). "Do not be afraid. I am a messenger from the heavens, and I bear great news!"

"Great news...?" you trailed off, then your eyes widened excitedly. "Like, nanalo ba ako ng lotto? Isang milyon? Bilyon? Hala! Wait, is this a Mama Mary moment? I'm not ready to be the next immaculate conception!"

They glared at you, making you shut up instantly. "Sorry, I'll shut up now," you apologized with a mumble. This person (thing?) was kind of... strict. Whatever did you do wrong? You were just sleep-deprived and running on energy drinks (as well as kape).

"I have come to tell you that you are the vessel of the last skymaiden," they revealed, arms wide open. The light around them seemed to grow even brighter, making you squint. You felt like you were about the go blind! "Ikaw ang huling biraddali, Y/N L/N."

At ayun, zero brain cells remaining. Tunay na nagloading screen ang brain mo. Nag-error at nagcrash pa nga siguro, eh.

"... Ha? Ano?"

You blinked, completely speechless—as seen by how wide your jaw had dropped open. It wasn't that you were unfamiliar with the biraddali, it was just that you'd only heard of them once when you were just a young child. Your Tita Miranda had mentioned they were long gone from the world of the supernatural.

"Oh no, me? A biraddali? You're joking," you stuttered out, pointing at yourself. "Aren't they extinct or something? And, uh... not human?"

They nodded, "Yes. It is correct that everyone in the mystical world thought that the biraddali were long gone, even before the colonizers came to conquer the native lands. However, before the skymaidens all disappeared, the youngest and most powerful one among the seven sisters sealed her soul away to the rivers of time until the strength of a heavenly being was needed to help purify the evils of the world." The figure floated closer to you. "That last biraddali's soul, along with its corresponding power, traits, and knowledge, had chosen to reside deep within you the moment you were conceived."

Honestly, how were you even supposed to react? Your life was nowhere near ready for something like this. Was this a prank by your friends? Your colleagues? The light around this person seemed too authentic to be fake, though.

You stayed in shock for an entire minute, silent. The being in front of you only waited for a response.

"Ano 'to, Sailor Moon? Winx Club?" you whispered to yourself, before slapping your own cheek and scolding yourself. A stinging red mark was left on your face. "Inday, kakamanhwa mo 'yan! Nasosobraan ka na ata, matulog ka na!"

Sighing heavily, you rubbed your face tiredly, still in disbelief that you—according to this stranger—were apparently some old soul from a species of ethereal beings that were long gone. It sounded like something out of those reincarnation webnovels you got addicted to. What now, you were the MC? Wattpad ka, girl?

"Look, this is a mistake. I still have to wake up early tomorrow to give out the donations," you spoke to the glowing being (or whatever it was), laughing nervously. "I'm sorry, but I think you have the wrong person. Either that or I must be hallucinating from sleep deprivation, because I'm definitely not a divine creature. You're probably just a product of my imagination. Sorry, I'm going to bed."

Bang!

At that moment, the power in the building went out. The only thing you could see was the thing who assumed you were a biraddali (they were so bright they were like a flashlight in the dark for you).

"Brownout?" you blinked. It felt wrong, though. It was eerily silent. "Did a fuse blow up?"

"Nagsimula na ang iyong unang pagsubok, Y/N," they announced seriously. "Creatures of the dark have already begun to take over this building. You may not have noticed, but all throughout your life, you have always been helping and giving. It is your nature as a being descended from the heavens themselves, and now, it is time for you to accept your destiny."

"Hoy, sandali lang! Sandali, sandali!" You were absolutely wide awake now as you heard the sounds of strange whispers around you. It was terrifyingly creepy, much creepier than whatever you'd seen back in the Trese Residence (and you'd seen a lot in that house). You did not want to be a part of a horror movie-like lifestyle. "Don't I have a choice in this?! I—I don't have any training or fighting skills! Hindi ako Alexandra Trese o Babaylan-Mandirigma! I'm not ready for this, holy sh—"

The candescent creature raised a brow at you, "Inday, I just told you that you have the power of a lost mystical being. And tell me, if you had the power to save your companions in this building from the forces of evil, would you save them?"

You were silent, knowing the answer.

"Well?" they prodded.

You bit your lip, "Oo naman. I'm not heartless!" But you were a little impulsive. And apparently, insane.

"That's what I thought. I just need you to believe in yourself," the being encouraged, gentler this time. It transformed into something smaller and rounder—like a ball of light. "Ikaw ang huling biraddali, Y/N, at marami kang kapangyarihan. Isa dito ay ang pagtulong sa mga nangangailangan, lalo na laban sa masasamang nilalang."

Bestie, what had you just gotten into?

You swallowed apprehensively, then nodded in determination, "Sige. So, how do I save the people in the building? Biraddali were said to be able to shapeshift, right? If I remember the tale correctly. Oh my God, I can't believe this is happening to me right now."

"That's just one of your abilities, but I'll teach you. I'm actually your guide," they replied confidently. "With me, you'll be able to master your powers and exceed your capabilities in no time!"

"Wait! Anong pangalan mo?" you asked breathlessly, following them as they speedily flew out of the room. "Grabe, slow down! I'm not athletic! I haven't even exercised this week, goodness."

"... Gabay. Ako si Gabay."

Despite the adrenaline and fear running in your veins, you still grinned up at the ball of light, "Okay. Nice to meet you, Gabay."

This was just the beginning of your supernatural combat training abroad. When you returned to the Philippines three years later, you were stronger, faster, and more powerful than you'd ever felt before. It was crazy.

Oh, that guy who tried to rob you when you came back to Manila was crazy, too. The two identical-looking men in dark suits and white ties—you wondered how they were surviving the heat in that attire—could only watch in awe as you chased down that man who stole your bag while doing acrobatics and parkour.

"Uy, Kuya Crispin, sino kaya 'yun?"

"Ewan ko, Basilio."

"... She's kind of pretty. Type ko. Type mo rin ata."

"The more important question is, paano niya na nahuli ang magnanakaw?"

"Oo nga, no? One in a million chance 'yan dito sa Maynila, haha! Ang astig ni ate!"

(Next Chapter.)

± Author's Notes ±

Ayieee, type daw tayo ng kambal! 😌

How the hell did I write this entirely random thing in one day? 2k+ words? Ano daw? 😃⁉️

You know, this was supposed to just be a Trese one-shot or a bunch of drabbles for the characters I'm currently simping for... but it turned into a full-blown, shameless self-insert slash crackfic. Kakacellphone ko 'yan. 🤦‍♀️

Nagresearch pa ako ng articles about Filipino skymaidens because I wanted something similiar to the Japanese celestial maidens (tennyo). Very random idea but why not? Gusto ko ng badass Y/N na hindi takot lumaban sa mga mumu! 👻

Also, pagbigyan niyo nalang ang matandang 'to kasi ilang taon na akong hindi nagpopost ng mga writings ko. May track record pa naman ako bilang author na hindi nagtatapos ng mga fanfic, hehe. I also haven't read the comics so please forgive me for any inaccuracies and of course, misspellings/errors. Gusto ko lang matapos 'to para makakabalik na ako sa Jujutsu Kaisen. 🥲😗

Anyways, comments and constructive criticism are welcome! Hit those heart, reblog, and follow buttons for updates! Just comment if you want to be tagged in the next chapters. ❤

#trese #trese netflix #trese 2021 #crispin #basilio #maliksi #dominic #x reader #kambal x reader #crispin x reader #basilio x reader #maliksi x reader #dominic x reader #trese x reader #thera.writes

[niseamstories]

10 Lessons on Realistic Worldbuilding and Mapmaking I Learned Working With a Professional Cartographer and Geodesist

Hi, fellow writers and worldbuilders,

It’s been over a year since my post on realistic swordfighting, and I figured it’s time for another one. I’m guessing the topic is a little less “sexy”, but I’d find this useful as a writer, so here goes: 10 things I learned about realistic worldbuilding and mapmaking while writing my novel.

I’ve always been a sucker for pretty maps, so when I started on my novel, I hired an artist quite early to create a map for me. It was beautiful, but a few things always bothered me, even though I couldn’t put a finger on it. A year later, I met an old friend of mine, who currently does his Ph.D. in cartography and geodesy, the science of measuring the earth. When the conversation shifted to the novel, I showed him the map and asked for his opinion, and he (respectfully) pointed out that it has an awful lot of issues from a realism perspective.

First off, I’m aware that fiction is fiction, and it’s not always about realism; there are plenty of beautiful maps out there (and my old one was one of them) that are a bit fantastical and unrealistic, and that’s all right. Still, considering the lengths I went to ensure realism for other aspects of my worldbuilding, it felt weird to me to simply ignore these discrepancies. With a heavy heart, I scrapped the old map and started over, this time working in tandem with a professional artist, my cartographer friend, and a linguist. Six months later, I’m not only very happy with the new map, but I also learned a lot of things about geography and coherent worldbuilding, which made my universe a lot more realistic.

1)  Realism Has an Effect: While there’s absolutely nothing wrong with creating an unrealistic world, realism does affect the plausibility of a world. Even if the vast majority of us probably know little about geography, our brains subconsciously notice discrepancies; we simply get this sense that something isn’t quite right, even if we don’t notice or can’t put our finger on it. In other words, if, for some miraculous reason, an evergreen forest borders on a desert in your novel, it will probably help immersion if you at least explain why this is, no matter how simple.

2)  Climate Zones: According to my friend, a cardinal sin in fantasy maps are nonsensical climate zones. A single continent contains hot deserts, forests, and glaciers, and you can get through it all in a single day. This is particularly noticeable in video games, where this is often done to offer visual variety (Enderal, the game I wrote, is very guilty of this). If you aim for realism, run your worldbuilding by someone with a basic grasp of geography and geology, or at least try to match it to real-life examples.

3)  Avoid Island Continent Worlds: Another issue that is quite common in fictional worlds is what I would call the “island continents”: a world that is made up of island-like continents surrounded by vast bodies of water. As lovely and romantic as the idea of those distant and secluded worlds may be, it’s deeply unrealistic. Unless your world was shaped by geological forces that differ substantially from Earth’s, it was probably at one point a single landmass that split up into fragmented landmasses separated by waters. Take a look at a proper map of our world: the vast majority of continents could theoretically be reached by foot and relatively manageable sea passages. If it weren’t so, countries such as Australia could have never been colonized – you can’t cross an entire ocean on a raft.

4)  Logical City Placement: My novel is set in a Polynesian-inspired tropical archipelago; in the early drafts of the book and on my first map, Uunili, the nation’s capital, stretched along the entire western coast of the main island. This is absurd. Not only because this city would have been laughably big, but also because building a settlement along an unprotected coastline is the dumbest thing you could do considering it directly exposes it to storms, floods, and, in my case, monsoons. Unless there’s a logical reason to do otherwise, always place your coastal settlements in bays or fjords.

 Naturally, this extends to city placement in general. If you want realism and coherence, don’t place a city in the middle of a godforsaken wasteland or a swamp just because it’s cool. There needs to be a reason. For example, the wasteland city could have started out as a mining town around a vast mineral deposit, and the swamp town might have a trading post along a vital trade route connecting two nations.

 5)  Realistic Settlement Sizes: As I’ve mentioned before, my capital Uunili originally extended across the entire western coast. Considering Uunili is roughly two thirds the size of Hawaii  the old visuals would have made it twice the size of Mexico City. An easy way to avoid this is to draw the map using a scale and stick to it religiously. For my map, we decided to represent cities and townships with symbols alone.

 6)  Realistic Megacities: Uunili has a population of about 450,000 people. For a city in a Middle Ages-inspired era, this is humongous. While this isn’t an issue, per se (at its height, ancient Alexandria had a population of about 300,000), a city of that size creates its own set of challenges: you’ll need a complex sewage system (to minimize disease spreading like wildfire) and strong agriculture in the surrounding areas to keep the population fed. Also, only a small part of such a megacity would be enclosed within fantasy’s ever-so-present colossal city walls; the majority of citizens would probably concentrate in an enormous urban sprawl in the surrounding areas. To give you a pointer, with a population of about 50,000, Cologne was Germany’s biggest metropolis for most of the Middle Ages. I’ll say it again: it’s fine to disregard realism for coolness in this case, but at least taking these things into consideration will not only give your world more texture but might even provide you with some interesting plot points.

 7)  World Origin: This point can be summed up in a single question: why is your world the way it is? If your novel is set in an archipelago like mine is, are the islands of volcanic origin? Did they use to be a single landmass that got flooded with the years? Do the inhabitants of your country know about this? Were there any natural disasters to speak of? Yes, not all of this may be relevant to the story, and the story should take priority over lore, but just like with my previous point, it will make your world more immersive.

 8)  Maps: Think Purpose! Every map in history had a purpose. Before you start on your map, think about what yours might have been. Was it a map people actually used for navigation? If so, clarity should be paramount. This means little to no distracting ornamentation, a legible font, and a strict focus on relevant information. For example, a map used chiefly for military purposes would naturally highlight different information than a trade map. For my novel, we ultimately decided on a “show-off map” drawn for the Blue Island Coalition, a powerful political entity in the archipelago (depending on your world’s technology level, maps were actually scarce and valuable). Also, think about which technique your in-universe cartographer used to draw your in-universe map. Has copperplate engraving already been invented in your fictional universe? If not, your map shouldn’t use that aesthetic.

9)  Maps: Less Is More. If a spot or an area on a map contains no relevant information, it can (and should) stay blank so that the reader’s attention naturally shifts to the critical information. Think of it this way: if your nav system tells you to follow a highway for 500 miles, that’s the information you’ll get, and not “in 100 meters, you’ll drive past a little petrol station on the left, and, oh, did I tell you about that accident that took place here ten years ago?” Traditional maps follow the same principle: if there’s a road leading a two day’s march through a desolate desert, a black line over a blank white ground is entirely sufficient to convey that information.

10) Settlement and Landmark Names: This point will be a bit of a tangent, but it’s still relevant. I worked with a linguist to create a fully functional language for my novel, and one of the things he criticized about my early drafts were the names of my cities. It’s embarrassing when I think about it now, but I really didn’t pay that much attention to how I named my cities; I wanted it to sound good, and that was it. Again: if realism is your goal, that’s a big mistake. Like Point 5, we went back to the drawing board and dove into the archipelago’s history and established naming conventions. In my novel, for example, the islands were inhabited by indigenes called the Makehu before the colonization four hundred years before the events of the story; as it’s usually the case, all settlements and islands had purely descriptive names back then. For example, the main island was called Uni e Li, which translates as “Mighty Hill,” a reference to the vast mountain ranges in the south and north; townships followed the same example (e.g., Tamakaha meaning “Coarse Sands”). When the colonizers arrived, they adopted the Makehu names and adapted them into their own language, changing the accented, long vowels to double vowels: Uni e Li became “Uunili,” Lehō e Āhe became “Lehowai.” Makehu townships kept their names; colonial cities got “English” monikers named after their geographical location, economic significance, or some other original story. Examples of this are Southport, a—you guessed it—port on the southernmost tip of Uunili, or Cale’s Hope, a settlement named after a businessman’s mining venture. It’s all details, and chances are that most readers won’t even pay attention, but I personally found that this added a lot of plausibility and immersion.

I could cover a lot more, but this post is already way too long, so I’ll leave it at that—if there’s enough interest, I’d be happy to make a part two. If not, well, maybe at least a couple of you got something useful out of this. If you’re looking for inspiration/references to show to your illustrator/cartographer, the David Rumsey archive is a treasure trove. Finally, for anyone who doesn’t know and might be interested, my novel is called Dreams of the Dying, and is a blends fantasy, mystery, and psychological horror set in the universe of Enderal, an indie RPG for which I wrote the story. It’s set in a Polynesian-inspired medieval world and has been described as Inception in a fantasy setting by reviewers.

Credit for the map belongs to Dominik Derow, who did the ornamentation, and my friend Fabian Müller, who created the map in QGIS and answered all my questions with divine patience. The linguist’s name is David Müller (no, they’re not related, and, yes, we Germans all have the same last names.)

#enderal #dreams of the dying #worldbuilding #resource #writeblr #writing tips #mapmaking #cartography #illustration #realism #writeblogging #novelwriting #writing research #research #writing

[skipps-writes-for-gojo-satoru]

A lot of people are theorizing that Gojo might die in the manga or lose his eyes, and honestly, I thought so as well!

However, Gege had made it very clear in the manga that without Gojo, the world wouldn't be able to keep up with the rising strength and number of cursed spirits. Currently, there's only 2 jujutsu schools in Japan and not even 30 students. There's only 4 special grade sorcerers, now 3 without Geto, Yuki has her own agenda, and without Gojo, that just leaves Yuta to take on special grade curses.

The students are strong themselves, but they weren't even able to defeat Jogo or the octopus guy, let alone Mahito (who has since evolved) and Hanami (Gege implied in an interview that he would reveal Hanami's domain expansion later, which made fans go "wait, he's not dead?" Although, Gege might have chosen to forget about it this, but we shall see). Gojo himself was nearly defeated by Toji in his teen years due to Toji's intellect. Therefore, the students are going to have an incredibly tough time defeating the "brain" that has the intellect of a being who has survived for hundreds of years (over 150 years at least, since that's when Kamo Noritoshi had helped create the Cursed Wombs).

Even if they do find a way to defeat it themselves, they'd need help (let's also remember Choso almost killed Yuji, and Naoya almost beat Choso. The struggle is very real, especially since cursed spirits aren't the only enemy but politics are working against them, as well). The Gojo clan itself is only a one man team of just Gojo, and in the Shibuya arc Gege cemented the fact pretty clearly that if anything ever happened to Gojo, the world would pretty much be lead into an apocalyptic state or become overrun with curses- and that's exactly what's happening within the manga now. Because of Gojo's birth, cursed spirits were forced to become stronger, and the new age of curses won't even be able to be classified as only "Special Grade." Even right now, without Gojo, the Jujutsu sorcerers are struggling to keep curses at bay even in one city, let alone the whole country.

Even without the world's current trip to destruction, there's the matter of Yaga's execution. Who else, other than Gojo, is going to be able to stop this? Gojo is the only one who was able to convince the higher ups to at least stall executions. His students are still just that- students. In order to stop the higher ups' corrupt politics, Gojo, with his knowledge of jujutsu society and his silver tongue, is the one who has to intervene. Although it's possible, I wouldn't think that the students themselves would end up replacing the higher ups- if strength was all that mattered, Gojo would have taken over Jujutsu Society a long time ago. However, politics are not that simple, and I doubt Utahime, Shoko, or anyone else associated with Gojo is going to replace them anytime soon- not with Yaga on the chopping block as a supposed "traitor" for his affiliation with Gojo.

If the story is going to end with reformation of Jujutsu Society, an adult will have to take over the higher ups' places (unfortunately, Nanami, the adult of adults, cannot do so). Therefore, Gojo will have to lead, just as he dreamt of, with his "army" of strong students, his followers. Jujutsu Society needs someone with the intellect and persuasiveness Gojo has in order for change to occur- Gojo was able to convince the higher ups for many things, after all. He has the charisma to lead future Jujutsu sorcerers and teach them well. This is the role he has worked for all these years, after all. It would only make sense for Gojo to take over. Having Gojo die and the students kill the higher ups would be counterintuitive- Gojo could've done that years ago.

Gege also said that the one to tell Megumi about Toji has to be Gojo in an interview, so Gojo is definitely getting out of the box eventually to have that talk with him. However, I don't think Gege is going to kill him off afterwards- just Gojo being sealed is already putting the world into danger. The world needs Gojo's ability in order to get rid of all the curses quickly. If Sukuna ends up killing Gojo for whatever reason, I don't think having a Yuji/Sukuna combination will help the world because there will definitely be a power struggle between them (even if Yuji can withstand 15 finger Sukuna, 20 finger Sukuna is a whole other level, that's the complete manifestation of the King of Curses from a thousand years ago in a 15 year old's body! Even if Yuji is a special grade cursed womb, power doesn't win battles. He'll need willpower, trust, and wit. He's only just decided to kill Mahito, he's got a lot more to learn. There's also the matter of the 1 minute pact between them and what Sukuna will do to Fushiguro). Without Gojo, Yuta might end up having to kill Yuji/Sukuna in order to stop Sukuna from killing people (Yuta's ability to copy techniques will likely help), but losing Gojo AND Yuji will be very harsh on the world's state, leaving only Yuta to defend it and whatever crippled version of Megumi will appear after Sukuna's done with him (and the story. Yuji's development will go to waste if he's just killed by Yuta and then we'll have to see how Yuta plans to continue Gojo's dream of changing Jujutsu Society. Will Yuta become a teacher to create strong sorcerers like Gojo did? Will the world even still exist by that time? Killing the King of Curses won't change the world like Gojo dreamt. In fact, the story might just repeat itself with Yuta becoming a teacher instead). Still, if anyone had to kill Yuji, it should be Gojo, but if Gojo is to be the one that ends up killing Yuji to kill Sukuna, no one else will be capable of killing Gojo. Therefore, Gojo likely won't die.

Either way, I feel like it would be strange to kill off both Yuji and Gojo.

Gege also said that the "brain" can't control Gojo either, because it would be impossible for the brain to kill him. If the brain wanted Gojo's body after Sukuna possibly killed Gojo, I doubt it would be able to control him anyways because Sukuna would have sliced him to pieces. Gege also said there wouldn't be any point in the brain controlling Gojo's body, so Gojo dying for the brain's purposes wouldn't happen, as Gege said himself.

Therefore, I just don't see any good outcome from Gojo's death besides angst or even character development? What other reason is there for Gojo to die? Yuji already lost Nanami and thought Nobara died, giving him the character development needed for him to choose to kill Mahito. The world will also probably crumble if Gojo doesn't appear out of the box soon. Just him being sealed was enough for the Hunger Games: Jujutsu Sorcerer Edition to come out, so Gojo permanently disappearing (i.e. dying) pretty much means the world's gonna end 🤷 After all, if the spirits were gonna start a revolution, they could've done it ages ago, but they didn't because of Gojo. Gojo's very presence, even as a child, is what kept them in line all these years. Just one look at his eyes, even though he was only a child, had that old woman and old man looking cursed spirits sweating. Once Gojo appears again, many spirits will go back into hiding, even if not all. Therefore, his very presence would be a great help in restoring order in the world again. That makes Gojo coming back more useful than his death.

As for losing his eyes, it's possible but again, other than angst I don't see a reason for it. Gege also said that having Gojo be the Strongest is to show how strong Yuji's going to be in the future, so handicapping Gojo would be counterproductive.

Therefore, I doubt Gojo's going to die or lose his eyes in the story. There's just no reason for it, unless Gege intends to keep the world in an apocalyptic state at the end, kill off everyone except maybe one person, and have a new cast of sorcerers appear. Otherwise, Gojo's the only one who can reverse the world back to its original state, or close to it, at least within a few days, weeks, or months rather than years with his ability to exorcise spirits on a grand scale. Gojo might end up losing a few screws in his head, but other than that, I'm sure he'll be (physically) fine. I would imagine that Gege would want to loop back to Gojo's dream of changing society. In that case, who other than Gojo could lead? His students are still children. They're not as versed in dealing with the higher ups as he is. If the moral of the story is that such a thing is impossible, what bigger angst is there than to have Gojo live on as the Strongest as everyone he loves dies?

Of course, there was this one interview where Gege said his plan for the ending of Jujutsu Kaisen was that (of the 1st years and Gojo) to keep everyone alive except one person, or everyone dies except one person. In the former, it would easily have to be Yuji who ends up dying while everyone else lives since he's the one who's supposed to be executed from the very beginning. In the latter, as I said, Gojo being the only one left alive while everyone dies could happen just to show the burden and loneliness that comes with being the Strongest- just to show the difference in universes him and the others are living in (however, I will say that this outcome would be unlikely because Gojo's world will only reset to the day Geto had betrayed him. He would start from scratch, raising a new group of students, and then the story would repeat itself in a training montage. In a writing perspective, this ending would only occur if the author forgoes everything just to make you cry, that's it. It would work, but it would ruin the complexities of the story to reset everything by killing everyone for a new set of characters. Reminds me of the Walking Dead by TellTale games. Too many deaths and too many new people with only one of the original cast left. Pretty bad writing, that was).

Either way, if Gege is being serious in what he said about the ending of JJK and having all die except one or vice versa, Gojo is likely to survive either outcome.

However, if it does happen that Gojo dies while his students live, there's the matter of keeping Sukuna at bay and previous reasons stated above.

The only way I could see Gojo dying is if Yuji ends up surpassing Gojo enough so that he's no longer needed to keep balance in the world. Or, as Gege had described in why he killed Nanami (his favorite character, might I add), if Gojo no longer has any use in the story. In that case, Gojo would die, or it'd be alright for him to die because Yuji would take his place. Still, it's doubtful Gojo would become a character that's no longer needed when the world is hardly able to function without him.

If we're talking about Gojo's usefulness in the story being what determines whether he lives or dies, I'd say even if Yuji surpasses Gojo, Gojo would still remain useful- in politics, at least. Let's remember that without Gojo, the beginning of change in Jujutsu Society would not have happened. Yuta would've been executed, as would Yuji, Megumi would be in the Zenin clan, Maki would've never been recommended for 1st grade without Gojo paying off Mei Mei, Nanami might've not come back (Nanami said he hates the way the higher ups do things, but he trusts and has faith in Gojo even if he doesn't respect him). There are so many things that Gojo has done throughout the story, and if Gojo hadn't done one thing- if he let Yuta die, for example, or kept Megumi in the Zenin clan, the story would've been drastically different.

In other words, even if Gojo's physical abilites are somehow gone, Gojo's mouth still has plenty of uses. If the guy can talk his way out of his students' execution, he can likely talk his way out of his own, or at least Yaga's. Gojo's got a lot more uses than just exorcising curses, after all. As long as Gojo has use in the story, I'd think it's safe to say he'll survive. Hell, Gege might even keep him around just to hate on him some more. Though, the reality is that Gojo basically wrote Jujutsu Kaisen with how his actions created the ripple effect into what we have now- another parallel between the author and Gojo, since it's been said that Gojo has a lot of similarities to Gege (Could Gojo be Gege's self insert? 😳 Even their names are similar!)

Also, Gojo had planned ahead enough for Yuta to become a double agent and trick the higher ups into thinking he'd killed Yuji. It's likely he has more up his sleeve than that and is sitting in the prison realm waiting for other traps he had set to go off.

Here's the Q&A translation where Gege said the brain can't kill Gojo:

https://twitter.com/_zanzou_/status/1379431624262094868?s=19

Other Q&As I've read are from Shiro, JJK Fanbook, and Ducky on Twitter and JujutsuFact on Insta, etc

- 🤔 (Sorry if this one seems a bit rushed or hard to read! I'd have to reread the Shibuya arc to explain more in depth but the pain is just 😭 I'm going off of my thoughts while I was reading this awhile ago cause I got told Gojo might die in that arc and I remember thinking all these things to myself to convince myself he won't die and wanted to share!)

WOW JUST WOW now I've learned more from this post than all of my classes combined. I never knew about some of those things. That's very interesting 🤔 anon! Mann just reading this I'm literally trying to picture how the manga will go...and yes gojo ain't dying no if someone says he is imma slap them with this post. THANK YOU ONCE AGAIN OH GREAT 🤔 ANON. We really appreciate all the research you do and I absolutely love reading them!! ❤❤❤ I LOVE YOU

#thank you 🥺❤️ #ahh i love youu #gojo protection squad #gojo discussions #gojou satoru #jjk gojo #jujutsu kaisen #jujutsu kaisen gojo #gojo satoru #skipps chat

[dostoyevsky-official]

what do you think of suburbs/ residential area in russia

there is nothing that can really be described as a suburb in russia, or, for that matter, i think anywhere outside of USA/canada. urban areas don't line up either: inner cities don't really exist, poverty is usually found where in america you'd instead see a wealthy suburb. there are outer rings of residential development, exurbs, and while i think there are some patterns that emerge across regions, each country has its own unique buildup.

russia's residential planning is an interesting case. it was, of course, centrally planned during periods of great inner migration/urbanization; looking at it from a macro perspective it was for the most part, a great success. up to khrushchev's tenure (but really, after, and still to this day), the question of housing wasn't addressed too well, and it became more and more of a pressing issue due to rapidly-growing cities. it was the case that in the early 1950s, portions of moscow were unpaved and lined with shantytowns.

khrushchev really dove into the issue, and this is where the khrushchevka, the prefabricated 5-6 story plattenbau apartment building, enters the story (later, better built, taller buildings appeared under brezhnev's rule). the more interesting thing is that residential areas were organized under the principle of micro-regions: everything a person needs—schools, parks, pharmacies, grocery stores, bus stops, post offices, in large cities, metro stops—should be located within a fifteen-twenty minute walk, i think ten kilometers maximum. and it worked very well! the designs are all cookie-cutter and are criticized in the west for being dull and dry, but people got apartments. one of the most famous soviet movies that many still watch for new year's eve, the irony of fate, is based on the premise that you could fly to a different city and use the same address to get into the same building with the same key (for some incomprehensible reason, it's getting a hollywood remake).

the focus on the micro-region having use value for residents differed from apartment projects in the west, specifically in america, specifically those i can think of in and around nyc, in that they're huge towers, spread out from each other, with nothing much in the space. during the latter period of the soviet union there were more experimental areas that incorporated greater use of green space, and tried out different designs.

your experience with micro-regions different depending on where the residential areas were. living in a moscow exurb is different than living from a norilsk exurb, for example. today, those differences are much greater, and the quality of life in areas away from the few major urban sprawls is terrible. to go back to the accusations of these regions as dull, grey, boring, they really are depressing; it's unsurprising that suicide rates and heroin use are higher there. i know someone from a city in the kuzbass basin in siberia who despised it and couldn't get out fast enough, and that was from an area benefitting from hydroenergy boom growth. but decay sets in wherever opportunity dries up — this is not the fault of the planning principle in any way as much as new york's 1980s was the fault of prewar apartment blocks.

micro-regions today are built without care, in terms of planning and shoddy materials. units are rented out in buildings with elevator shafts but no elevators, or no staircase rails, improperly-fitted windows, and with the micro-region principle widely disregarded. there have been a series of scams involving extremely poor housing blocks.

homeownership wasn't widespread in the soviet union and not so much now, either. (exceptions apply along the eastern bloc: homeownership rates in romania were upwards of 80%.) a great deal of people could either own or rent out a dacha, or summer house (from the german datscha), somewhere in the countryside. this is not really the same thing as the typical two-story set-apart american house: my family's dacha was a (fairly spacious) apartment in a two-story khrushchevka complex about thirty kilometers outside moscow. some were also able to purchase the deed to their apartment. to note is also the complex and widespread system of subletting (extremely illegal, ranging from black to grey sector activity) and sharing apartments, which is becoming the subject of historical and anthropological research today.

all of the above relies on material i've covered in my coursework and research. my personal opinion on it all is that the thing about residential areas is that even if you own, or owned, your apartment, you are still in a dense area with regular, close contact to others. the great beauty of living in a densely popular urban area is that you can be anonymous and in personal contact with others, that you will have communication even in your anonymity — even if it is minimal, trivial, menial, even, this type of contact sustains, makes life bearable, and generally keeps you sane; you have no idea the sort of conversations you can launch yourself into from small talk. the effects of covid isolation prove to me that that's the case.

i wish i could remember what sources i read for this but it's a blur. enjoy

#that's a lot #russia #urban planning

[kojinnie]

AOT Characters’ Modern Jobs Headcanon; The Vets Edition!

The jobs that The Vets would have in modern!au, their workplace antics and their back story. There might be some inaccuracies when describing the job as obviously I don’t work at these industries to know its intricacies. Most of the jobs are office jobs. Enjoyyyy!

My Masterlist .::. Pt. II: Zeke Yeager’s Modern Jobs Headcanon   

Most recent work: Dream Me Home (Before Shiganshina) | reader x erwin smith

A/N: I really need to finish a presentation deck due tonight for an early morning meeting tomorrow but of course, this comes first hahaha 

erwin!

A/N: Basically lawyer!erwin is the way to go, innit?

He's in his 40s, so he may have a settled career

He came from a white-collar, middle-class family. So he wasn’t silverspoon-fed, but his parents had enough money to put him through good school

Got a scholarship to go to one of the nation’s finest law schools

Kept it lowkey in college’s social circle, graduated with summa cum laude, developed a strong academic relation with his professor, and got recommended for an internship at top law firm at the capital city

Starting his career as a corporate lawyer, but then built his expertise as white-collar crime attorney

In his early 30s, he represented a union suing against conglomerate corporation in a big case that had national coverage, from then on he began to know his calling

Expanding his portfolio and became well-known for defending workers, consumers and civilians against corporate fraud scheme

Currently doing a lot of pro-bono cases for deprived victims of big corporate fraud. You would see him frequently gracing your local newspaper we love us some socialist king

On the side, he often writes for law journal and fills in as guest professor at local universities for summer courses

Established his own law firm with some of his partners, specializing in white collar crime and labor & employment law

He’s damn accomplished, but never really had any time for self-indulgence. Even after he becomes a household name in the country, with tens of attorneys working under him, his employees would still see him working on New Year’s Eve

He was always attentive to his employees, though. Although he has a very strict, borderline no-life work ethics, he never forces his employees to follow his habit, in fact he despises when his employees works on holidays and can be seen blaming himself for it a bit of a hypocrite but thats ok

He still takes metro to work. He prefers a very lowkey, ordinary lifestyle because he fears if he shows any knack for indulgence, he will be susceptible to gratification from potential enemies or crooked politicians

Definitely a sight to see at the workplace, for he's tall and always oozes a sense of authority in the way he speaks and carries himself generally

His emotional intelligence is top-notch, you would never meet someone who is able to be very objective and calculating, while being kind and compassionate at the same time

His fellow attorneys put a lot for respect for him, and hundreds of applicants come to his considerably small firm every week, because a lot of aspiring attorney find him inspiring to work with

He wasn’t oblivious to his shiny reputation, but he’s trying his hardest to not let the compliments get to his head. Sometimes he doesn’t give himself enough credit for it

Was approached by one of the political party’s committee to run for local senate, but turned it down

basically he’s perfect if you like a man who’s never home for christmas

Hange!

A/N: Ok ok, I really wanna see Paleontologist!Hange because it has always been my fave dream job, but I want Hange to be out and about with people so here it is

Hange is the type to be incredibly good at one thing, that she will dedicate her whole life for that pursuit, but will be awfully oblivious to a whole lot of things (not intentional of course, they just have a very limited attention span) (they wouldn’t know who kanye west is or what tiktok is)

Like Erwin, they came from a middle-class family. While Erwin’s parents might have been teachers, accountants or other common profession, Hange came from a family of academician and researchers

Hange studied Human Geography at uni, but later found passion specifically in its relation to industrialization and urban development

Hange aims to advocate for a better living condition for workforce, and nearby inhabitants of industrialized city detroit would be a beautiful city if only they let hange designed it

Hange is a professor at university, where they also led a non-profit research think-thank that also serves as pressure group for better government policy.

The university that Hange teaches in, is also the uni where Erwin teaches in summer. They’re close-knitted colleagues as they share similar passion. Erwin relies on Hange a lot for some intellectual insights to help his cases  

Hange is relentless in their cause, you may find Hange everywhere! From street protest to a hearing in the government court. They are passionate and will do anything for the cause they believe in

Hange was once hired by the government as an independent consultant for a new housing project, but left because they grew to be frustrated by the government’s bureaucracy and their outward reluctance to follow Hange's recommendation

Hange spends a lot of time overseas, consulting and advocating development in newly industrialized countries

On Hange’s birthday, her fellow researchers surprised them with a ‘pampering day’ where they took them to an optometrist because Hange had been complaining about their eyesight for a YEAR that gave them a lot of migraines, but was always either too busy or too lazy to go

Hange never really considers themselves as working, because they enjoy their job very much. Hange likes to spend months observing a community, talking to people for hours, and trying their best in understanding their problem

Out of so many great qualities that Hange has as a researcher that meets different set of people everyday, prejudice or preconceived judgment is completely absent in Hange’s demeanor and perspective

Hange doesn’t get a lot of free-time, even if they do, they’d wander around the city to do a little observation. But when the weather’s bad and they’re stuck at home with their pet lizard, they would logged into Quora to answer random internet questions

They’re an avid writer for National Geographic, and one time Hange won a pitch to make a documentary about an industrial city project they were working on

After the docu-series got broadcasted, Hange gained a small but passionate and loyal fans on the internet. You could even find a subreddit dedicated for Hange’s works

for real I want to be Hange. I want to have that kind of passion in life

levi!

A/N: I spent a lot of times thinking about Levi’s job in modern!au. Because here’s the thing, either we adopt his unfortunate childhood into its modern!au equivalent, or let’s just recreate his whole upbringing. But I think his personality stems from a specific things he experienced during childhood, so let’s not dismiss that.

Levi came from a struggling working class family. I reckon his parents might have had worked multiple jobs to sustain their living expense. Unfortunately they both passed away when Levi was very little, and left little to no inheritance

Levi’s parents were not close to their extended family, so when they died, Levi was admitted to the system and had to brace several foster families who didn’t really pay attention to him

Little Levi had come to realize that life’s all about survival and so he had been able to fend on for himself since very young age, he never asked for things

His uncle, Kenny, finally won custody over Levi when he was in elementary. Kenny made money from small-scale racketeering here and there. Levi never asked what he did for living, as long as he got food to eat and tuition paid off

Kenny was emotionally absent, but he loved spending time with the oddly quiet little child, teaching him a lot of crafts, from carpentering to how to flay pig’s skin

Levi didn’t really care about getting into college, and thought that he’d probably end up working for his uncle, so he put his bare minimum throughout school, although he was really good with numbers, especially in math, accounting and finance

One time in high school, Levi’s teacher asked him to sign up for the olympiad team, Levi turned it down because he thought that was a rich kid thing

He didn’t even apply for college, and worked odd jobs after high school. Probably working as cashiers or assistant to retail shop’s owner for couple of years, enough for him to afford a cheap studio apartment on his own

One of his bosses came to acknowledge Levi’s talent, and trusted him to handle the company’s accounting

By sheer luck, the company hit it big, and Levi found himself running the day-to-day accounting of mid-sized business with over 300 employees

He made good money already without a college degree, but with a new-found confidence Levi applied for uni, where he chose to study accounting (of course)

Although he was confident with his skills, he understood he needed to widen his horizon and network -- thus uni

Levi was one of the oldest members of his cohort in uni, but graduated with highest distinction

After graduating, with his skills and experience, it wasn’t hard for Levi to score a job at top accounting firm

There, he discovered an interest for forensic accounting, where through audits, analysis and investigation, he basically finds out if a company is doing fraud and embezzlement or not

This is where he came to know and get acquainted with Erwin and Hange (yippie they’re together again)

The firm he works for was assigned to investigate the finances of a troublesome company that had been sued by its workers for a jeopardizing working condition. Erwin was on the case, and Levi helped him with evidences for legal proceeding.

By chance, Erwin introduced Levi to Hange. At first, Levi would find Hange annoying and overtly energized, but after learning the things they have done, Levi grew to appreciate Hange’s passion (and secretly wants to have more of his positive outlook)

Levi is fucking good his job. In short amount of time, he could get a really ideal position in the office. He was almost foolproof, finding even the tiniest bit of discrepancy in his audit. He’d get assigned to the big league case/project.

Although really good at his job, he’s not a social person, especially in his office. He couldn’t understand the lavish lifestyle that finance and banking people often lead. He will only show up to office party if it is really necessary for him to show up (usually to receive some kind of informal awards for, again, being so fucking good) 

He leads a no-bullshit attitude at the office, largely because of his background. He is a self-made man, and is not easy to impress by some young executives from posh school that talk bigger than they can chew

His cold, seemingly dismissive attitude gained him a reputation of being scary, when actually he is very considerate

One of the things he enjoys doing is to actually teach, he really likes when a new kid at the office come to him with none of that pretentious, big talk, and really asks for his guidance. He would love to teach you a thing or two

He would frequently check on his mentee, just to keep up with their development

And he doesn’t take credit too. When his mentee makes a milestone, he believes it’s 100% your work

If you’re his mentee, he probably doesn’t give a crap about your personal life, so don’t expect him to make small talk about that (and don’t ask him about his personal life either). But he really cares about your skill and career development

Same with Erwin, he leads a very ordinary lifestyle. He doesn’t go out often and would rather reading detective novel with his cat on the couch

He likes to spend Sunday at Uncle Kenny’s house, because he finds himself worried about the old man very often. They became close as Levi grew

Overall, Levi is a really kind and caring person if you know how not to push his button

#aot #snk #aot headcanons #snk headcanons #aot modern au #levi ackerman #hange zoë #erwin smith #modern headcanon #lawyer erwin smith #professor hange zoe #accountant levi ackerman #attack on titan #shingeki no kyojin #kojin writes