#londinum

[frogshunnedshadows]

Interactive, annotated, zoomable, clickable map of "Early Modern" London. By 'early modern,' they mean just before Shakespeare – the bulk of the map drawn about 1561.

Lots of clickable locations and locales, and encyclopedic articles about some things.

#london #maps #cartography #history #early modern #shakespeare #england #moeml #map of early modern london #1561 #1633 #civitas londinum

[vintagesimstress]

A bunch of random WIPs which will hopefully be finished soon (if my PC stops acting up the way it is now 🙄). Most of those things are almost ready for release, but there's always just this one tiny detail left to improve...

Details under the cut in case you're interested!

A loose-fitting Celtic tunic worn over an underdress, in 2 flavours: with narrow and wide sleeves. I made it over a year ago (!!!) and used a lot in my game, but somehow never was fully satisfied with the way those wide sleeves work - so, that's something to take a closer look at. I decided it also needs a new uv map (getting those sleeves out of the sleeves area), so that I could easily add short-sleeved and sleeveless variations. Also, age conversions, at least for a child. Also, tartan. And an overlay for mix&matching. And... 💀

A Roman ship from sketchfab, in 2 versions. This one is basically done, but one of the versions has an exploding shadow lod for some reason, so obviously I have to somehow fix it before release. No idea how though. By making a new package probably, I've heard that works 😅

A Romano-Viking Londinum house, also found on sketchfab, to be used as hood deco. Also was about to be released, but I decided it needs a decent uv map first, because the current one... oh boy. That means lots of seams marking. I think I'm ca. 75% done with this one.

Gallo-Roman earrings, based on a photo found on Pinterest. The mesh works perfectly fine, but I still need to work on the texture. Finding proper lighting settings should be the key - then it'll be just baking and voila!

A CK3 cape converted to TS4. A.k.a. my latest obsession 😉 Still needs some weights etc. tweaking, then age conversions, and then... Off to the next of the looted meshes! 🏴‍☠️ It might be the latest of my projects, but it'll probably end up getting released as the first one from this list 😁

#wips #vintage rambles #vs wips

[bobbile-blog]

Arknights Lore Recap: End of 2023

Here I was, thinking my last post would be sufficient, but they keep on adding more gosh darn lore. Half a year has gone by since my last post, so I thought I'd update things and make another post of "where is everyone at the moment" to help keep all these plotlines straight. So, here's the sequel! More events, more organization since it's no longer a half-assed post I wrote on my phone in an hour, and you'd better believe we've got more lore to get through.

(Of course, spoilers for the current state of basically everything in Global, though they'll be the kind of "current events" spoilers to help you understand where we are at the moment)

Currently Active Plotlines:

Main Story act II: Main story chapters/ What the Firelight Casts, Amiya/ Siege/ Stainless/ Shining/ W/ Kal'tsit/ Doctor/ Closure/ etc.

Act 2 is in full swing, and oh boy do we have some politics to wade through. The general idea, minimizing spoilers, is that the Royal Court of the Sarkaz have taken over Londinum and intend to expand further using the catastrophe-creating superweapon The Shard. They're led by Theresis and the (mostly) united Sarkaz lords, and with a mercenary army they basically rule Victoria as an occupying power. Their power is concentrated in Londinum, the only city they really formally occupy, but as they control the seat of the country's power they effectively have the rest of the country at their mercy.

Opposing them are a number of factions. Firstly, the coalition of Victorian Nobles that have ruled the country (and that technically invited the Sarkaz to Victoria in the first place) want the throne again. There are a few specific nobles we deal with in ch12 but the implication is the politics will be elaborated on in the next chapter so we'll leave it there, the point is that they're the Victorian establishment trying to go back to old Victoria which means they suck. They're also working with Dublinn, who are collaborating with the Duke of Wellington(?) who is sympathetic to their causes. The Nobles have just recently gone to formal war with the Sarkaz, but they also all hate each other and will absolutely stab each other in the back whenever possible.

Besides them, there are also a couple of smaller underground resistance factions. The Londinum Self-salvation Corps, or Eartha, is a guarilla resistance movement who is currently getting their asses handed to them by the Sarkaz. They basically existed solely because the Sarkaz hadn't bothered to wipe them out yet, and have currently evacuated all of their surviving personnel out of the city. Additionally, there's a group of Victorian soldiers led by Commander Skamandros who have been sticking their noses into things. If I recall correctly, they're trying to evacuate Londinum as well.

Finally, we have Rhodes Island. We're here because of the classic D&D reason of "well all our plotlines seem to end up in this general area so I guess that's where we're going". Amiya and Kal'tsit feel somewhat responsible for not stopping Theresis and Amiya specifically is probably the only person with the right to challenge Theresis for the throne of the Sarkaz. Bagpipe and Reed (and Ch'en) are dealing with Dublinn things, so they have to be around here. Shining is a Confessarius and her evil wizard family is supporting Theresis so she's got stuff to do there. Siege is the last surviving member of the Victorian Royal family, so she's bound by blood and obligation to reclaim the throne, as well as just generally wanting to help the people of Victoria. Hoderer is currently in the employ of the Sarkaz and Innes is working in Londinum as a spy for Rhodes Island, so W wants to head there too. There's a lot going on, far too much to describe, so I'll leave things at "we have half a dozen personal plotlines to pursue there" so I can move on to the actual side events.

The Devil's Dragonball Fusion Dance: Ancient Forge(?)/ Who is Real/ Invitation to Wine/ Where Vernal Winds will Never Blow, Nian/ Dusk/ Ling/ Chong Yue/ Lava/ Kroos/ Lee/ Waai Fu/ Lin/ Zuo Le/Liang Xun

This one is updated pretty regularly as the CN new year event. The short lore overview is that Yan used to be populated by godlike beings called Feranmuts. Feranmuts fought a war with people, which concluded when a Feranmut named Sui betrayed his people because they wanted to be the only one with their kind of powers. After the war, the emperor of Yan (China analogue) split him into 12 fragments which eventually developed their own identities and personalities - these are the Sui siblings, i.e. Nian, Dusk, Ling, Chong Yue, etc. Once all twelve of these siblings meet again, they will reform back into Sui and they'll probably take over the world or whatever. We don't know exactly but it won't be good.

There are currently three parties interested in gathering the siblings, and one trying to prevent them. Firstly, the Second Brother (who is currently unnamed) is just a little crazy, and is currently working with the Yanese ministry of rites to revive Sui. We don't know a ton about him, but we know he's somehow split himself into fragments and scattered himself across the land. Secondly, Ya is another Feranmut that survived the old war and wants revenge on Yan and Sui. They want Sui revived so they can have a proper form of revenge on Them, and are currently in control of the Shanhaizhong bandits kinda just causing issues wherever They can. Finally, Nian and her siblings at Rhodes Island also want to gather the siblings, but not to re-form Sui. She has some sort of plan to bring the siblings together without losing themselves, and is working with Rhodes Island to accomplish it. Similarly, we don't know a lot about her plan, but they're generally the protagonists of the events. Finally, Zuo Le is an official in a Yanese organization called the Sui Regulator, whose job is to monitor and secure the remaining Feranmuts and the fragments of Sui. Zuo Le is doing his best, but he's a little out of his weight class, so most of what he does is follow the Sui fragments around and try to figure out what the hell is going on.

The Call of We Many: Grani and the Knight’s Treasure/ Under Tides/ Stultifera Navis/ Mizuki and Caerula Arbor (Integrated Strategies 3), Skadi/ Specter/ Gladiia/ Kal’tsit.

Was updated pretty frequently as an anniversary event, but they seem to have thrown us a big lore dump with Caerula Arbor and left it at that for the time being, which is understandable. The lore here is the Seaborn are a race decended from some early Feranmuts who are basically a constantly-evolving devouring swarm. They exist to consume and assimilate all of the life on the planet, and unless we are very very careful and work very very quickly they are going to do just that.

The state of the plot at the moment is a little odd. Because Mizuki and Caerula Arbor isn't canon, the plot is still at the end of Stultifera Navis. Specter has recovered her self, and the team of Abyssal hunters is delving deeper into the current state of the seaborn. Their former leader, Ulpanius, has shown up to warn them not to return to Aegir, and while the Stultifera Navis sank the lighthouse was recovered and some trinkets from the ship made it back. We aren't really sure where we're going from here, but it's not necessarily to Caerula Arbor. Basically, the canon lore of IS3 is that on a mission to the Iberian Coastline, the Doctor and Mizuki found a weird seaborn monument, and Mizuki used their connection to the Seaborn's minds to look into alternate timelines and show them to the Doctor. That means that while the events of the story are not canon, the Doctor may still know and reference the events in the story. I'm not going to go over all of IS3 because there's so much of it but you can find a rough summary here.

Fangs of the Signiori dei Lupi: Hinted earlier in the main story/ Il Siracusano, Texas/ Emperor/ Lapland/ Projekt Red/ Lunacub.

This is the newest of these plots, set up in Il Siracusano and presumably proceeding from there. The Feraerus are supernatural talking animals that we’ve encountered a couple of times throughout the story, like the High Priest or the Emperor. They are connected with the land and are almost akin to guardians of it. They don’t need Originium for their magic, and are tied to the setting in ways we don’t quite understand yet. More importantly to us, though, they’re involved in their own power struggles and contests among each other. This underscored the drama in Il Siracusano - the whole Bellone family was propped up by the wolf Feraerus Zarro as part of an ancient game in which the wolves pick champions, called Fangs, who fight each other in a Battle Royale to decide the pack’s next alpha a la the fake wolf study. We know a couple of the fangs - Lunacub is one and Bernardo was another before his death, but Projekt Red is also a Fang, as well as Crownslayer’s mentor, so we’ll probably be coming back to this conflict in the future. It's unclear how we'll approach it, though, as Bernardo and Lunacub's files seem to imply that the eventual goal will breaking free of this game.

Law and Otherwise: Guide Ahead, Fiametta/ Mostima/ Andoain/ Cecile/ Lemuen/ Pope Yvangelista XI/ Law/ Executor/ Enforcer

This one hasn't been super developed yet, but it's worth including with both Hortus de Escapismo and Zwillingstürme im Herbst coming up. Laterano, the city of the Sankta, is governed by immutable laws that are engraved onto the very bodies of the Sankta. In Guide Ahead, Andoain seeks to ask the Pope the question of why the Sankta do not help the people of the world. He learns that the laws that bind the Sankta are real, physical commandments enforced by Law, a robotic entity similar to the Preserver from Lonetrail, and the consequences and exceptions relating to the law are entirely at its discretion. The law is what it is because Law says so.

The Sami Icefields

This hasn’t technically gotten an event yet, besides that one story in Operational Intelligence, but I’m including it as an honorable mention because we’re going there for IS4. The Icefields are up north of Ursus, and they are terrifying. You remember the Emperor’s Blade, the one that kicks your ass in WD-8? Yeah we only see three of them in the game because the rest are busy fighting against the Eldritch demons constantly invading from the Sami Icefields. Let’s please never go there ever, thanks.

Finished Plotlines:

These two are complete plots, which I'm including for posterity and the worldstate. Spoilers for all of these events, but I'll try to keep things to the present so as to not spoil too much.

The Grand Knight Major: Maria Nearl/ Pinus Sylvestris/ Near Light/ Obscure Wanderer, Blemishine/ Zofia/ Nearl/ The Followers/ Flametail/ Ashlock/ Fartooth/ Wildmane/ Justice Knight my beloved/ Gravel/ Platinum/ Roy/ Monique/ Młynar.

Margaret Nearl won the 24th Major and became the Grand Knight, and has since stayed in Kazimierz to improve living conditions for the infected and push back against the General Chamber of Commerce. The Armorless Union has mostly been decapitated - the Platinum defected, the Lazurites have disappeared and taken on new identities, and the Darksteel has promised to stay away from Margaret and Rhodes Island. Pinus Sylvestris and most of the rest of the Nearls are now on the landship, working for Rhodes Island.

A New Age is Upon Us: Mansfield Break/ Dorothy’s Vision/ Lonetrail/ the second Records of Originium comic (which has an official translation that you should absolutely read it’s really good)/ the Friston-3 event whenever Yostar decides to get around to releasing it, Silence/ Ptilopsis/ Saria/ Ifrit/ Dorothy/ Mulesyse/ Ferdinand/ Rosemontis/ Ho’olheyak/ Kirsten.

After the events of Project Horizon, Terra has forever been changed. For just a fleeting moment, every living being in Terra looked up and saw the stars for the first time. The consequences of this aren't totally clear just yet, but it will almost have rippling effects across the world and marks a shift in the game's story as a whole. We also received confirmation of just who the Doctor truly is, and a look behind the curtain of Terra's history. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that nothing is the same after Lonetrail.

In more specific character terms, though, Saria is the new control of Rhine lab, with Silence as her assistant and ethics advisor. Ifrit is a big girl now, and practically a different character entirely from who she was at the start of the game - seriously, her character arc might be my favorite in the game. Rosemontis has also similarly faced her past and come out stronger, and not only Directors Dorothy and Mulesyse but also Maylander agent Ho'olheyak have come over to Rhodes Island in the chaos after Project Horizon. Finally, Rhodes Island has uncovered the real powers lying behind the scenes of Columbian Politics, but have in turn been noticed themselves. We are no longer in the shadows, and it would be wise to keep that in mind.

#arknights #all quiet under the thunder #what the firelight casts #Invitation to wine #where vernal winds will never blow #under tides #stultifera navis #Mizuki and caerula arbor #il siracusano #guide ahead #near light #Lonetrail #arknights story #arknights spoilers #spoilers

[metmuseum]

Palatium Archiepiscopi Cantuariensis propae Londinum vulgo Lambeth House (Lambeth House: Palace of the Archbishop of Canterbury, London). 1647. Credit line: Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1917 https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/360612

#aesthetic #art #abstract art #art museum #art history #The Metropolitan Museum of Art #museum #museum photography #museum aesthetic #dark academia

[rausule]

RUSSIA fit status potentes

Quo nomine COMITATUS ADVENIENS?

D TE regnum Russiae saeculo nono auctore Rurik. A Norvegia condita. Ipse et alii piratae Norvegiae incolas Slavicas Russiae septentrionalis vicerunt et caput suum Novgorod fecerunt.

Postea Vladimirus Sanctus e principibus Russiae vocatus est. nupta reginae Annae de Constantinopoli. Ad eam instantiam vir Norvegianam religionem deserens fidemque christianam assumpsit. Hoc modo venit Russia sub Ecclesia Catholica Graeca (etiam Ecclesia Orthodoxa Graeca appellata) cum Pontifice Constantinopolitano in Capite, et non sub Ecclesia Catholica Romana, sicut in regionibus Europae occidentalibus. Per hunc contactum cum Constantinopolitano etiam Russia leviter impulsus civilis cultus civilis venit.

ORIENTAL HORDES EXERCITUS RUSSIA

Processus civilis tertio decimo saeculo intermissus est cum Genghis Khan, princeps Tartariae, Russiam cum suis orientalibus multitudine praeoccupavit. Inde est quod Russia postea assimilatus est patriae orientalis secundum habitum et consuetudinem. Saeculo XV, posteri Rurik Tartaros e Russia pellere coeperunt. Negotium peractum est cum regnum Russiae Moscoviae, cum Moscuae caput suum exstitisset, exsisteret usque ad diem operarium in navalibus operari.

Sed maximum studium eius in nave erat.

navigatio et navigium. In Hollandia et Anglia fecit

PETRUS MAGNUS

Proximus miliarius maximus in historia Russiae regula Tsar Petri Romanov est, quae Petrus Magnus appellatur. Russiam e semi-Orientali regione in modernam Europae regionem convertit.

Petrus admodum periculosus erat, et principi curriculo extraordinario. Propter animum fratris tsar coram eo, ipse et mater eius vitam in Kremlin, palatium Moscuae, secreta vivebant. Crevit in plateis et suburbiis Moscuae. Amicos cum peregrinis et nautis maxime amatus est, et in commercio cum iis perspexit patriam suam longe post Europam occidentalem esse.

Cum Petro successit fratri suo Tsar Russiae. Etiam amicissimos suos contrusit et saluti suae abscondit, cum repente animum amisit. Tota eius species ac mores magis quam principem viae barbarum simile. Sed ingenti operis facultate praeditus, patriaeque amore flagrans est animatus. Quapropter omnes suasit vires ad Russiam modernizandam eamque pari condicione cum aliis Occidentis regionibus deportandam.

RUSSIA accipit portum suum

Sicut legentes nostri Trekker, Petrus agnovit Russiam portum vocationis habere cum aliis terris in contactum habere. Sola Russian portum fuit Archangelus in septemtrionis

Sed octo menses extra annum frustra erat quod tunc constringebatur. Praeterea sita est via artis praecipui longius a. In bello contra Turcos, Taurus Asof in Ponto cepit, unde Russia primum portum suum in aqua calida dedit.

Hoc bellum Petro etiam magis persuasit Russiam maiorem partes habere non posse donec scientiam et apparatum Occidentis obtineret, quam ob rem Taar insolitum iter capere statuit et sibi videre quomodo res in Occidente fierent. .

ITER EXIMIA QUAESTIO

Anno 1697 suum extraordinarium iter incepit, contra ministrorum suorum acerbissimam oppositionem. Berolinum, Lutetiae, Amstelodamum et Londinum non principem, sed habitum studiosum ac saepe communem operarium invisit. Undique ivit. homines celeritate miratur qua res novas didicit. Rerum omnium fere quae ad se pervenire potuerunt prima manu habuit: machinationem, cursui, fabricandi chartarum et textorum, coriariorum, imprimendi, medicinae, etiam dentes extrahendi.

postea docere posse homines suos quomodo classem Russicam aedificaret. Ubique etiam studium administrationis patriae fecit.

Itinera eius seditione contra consilium occidentales interruptae sunt. Festinandum erat, ubi omnes principes seditionum interfecerunt.

Inde occidentalem serio coepit. Cognitio fabrum, artificum. doctores et magistri, ex omnibus Europae partibus collecti, Russos omnes occidentales methodos adiuvare docebant et Russiam e somno diuturno excitant.

ET NOBILITAS RADENDERE BARBAM

Scholares convertendi libros de omnibus rebus in Universitatibus Russicis et in scholis instituebant. Tsar etiam externa civilis cultus Orientalis signa evellere conatus est, quidam nobilium, qui barbam radere nolebant, vel longas Orientales stolas pro brevibus tunicas commutare, in manus proprias assumpsit, secans vestem breviorem et incisam. barbam abrumpere. In portis principalium civitatum tonsores et sartores loca capiunt. ut omnem barbam transeuntis raderent et longam vestem abbreviarent. Foeminae detraherent tintinnabulis.

Omnes hae reformationes acriter repugnantiam provocaverunt, sed Petrus ubique manu ferrea contra incredulos egit. Cum uxore sua in coenobio obstitit quod reformationibus adversabatur. Per filium Alexim eadem de causa prosecutum est et tandem eum in carcerem coniectum et ad necem verberavit.

Magna urbs in palude oritur

Petrus etiam alium portum in Mare Balthico voluit. Hoc conflictum duxit cum Suetia, qui dominabatur omnium orarum Maris Baltici. Primus impetus defecit, sed anno MDCCIX omnes possessiones Sueticas in oram maris Baltici orientali cepit. Nunc magnum portum habet, St. Petersburg, late landing. Quadraginta milia corporum in hoc laborare coacti sunt. Multi perierunt morbo et frigore, inundationibus et incursu Sueonum sub Carolo XII rege, sed Petrus fecit. eos ibi prohibuit, donec ex paludibus caput novum ei constituerent. Omnes nobilitas hic domos aedificare et quibusdam in locis coacta est

anni temporibus incolere. In fine administrationis eius Petrus potuit cum

sufficientia testificata successu laboris sui Russiam exercitum, classem et urbem modernam, necnon fodinas, industrias et mercaturam florentissimam cum reliqua Europa habuit. Praeterea Russia potestas nunc erat quod ceterae nationes adnumerandum erat.

Petro Magno successit inbecillitatis series, quae fere opus suum pessum dedit. Fortunate, imperatrix Catharina Magna, cessavit. Illa erat germana principissa quae Petro III Tsar nupsit, consobrino suo. Quem cum deposuisset, in pugna in carcere strangulatus est. Ab ipsa Occidente, Petri Magni emendationes continuavit. Ea quoque consilium dilatationis ad meridiem et occidentem supplevit vincendo totam oram septentrionalem Ponti et magnam Poloniae partem.

#RUSSIA fit status potentes #afrikaans #south africa #lucifer #lgbtq #Petro Magno

[songe421]

Plus c'est long, plus c'est bon (2): Archive- Again (2004)

Plus c’est long, plus c’est bon (2): Archive- Again (2004)

Cette rubrique vient mettre en valeur certaines chansons qui ont le pouvoir d’être étirées à l’infinie alors qu’elle repose sur une base souvent minimaliste. Archive est vraiment un groupe surprenant. Ayant commencé par l’un des albums précurseurs du Trip-hop, Londinum (1996), il enchainera avec un album soyeux, Take my head (1999), pour ensuite nous proposer une musique plus…

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#Archive

[londiniumlundene]

Updates coming soon!

Apologies for a quiet month; I had a lot of other things on during March and earlier in April, which didn’t leave much time for exploring, or for writing up accounts of the places I’ve been too. And I did go on holiday for a bit...

Since I’ve had more time in the last few weeks, and now have a long list of entries that need to be written, updates should go back to a more-or-less regular schedule.

In the meantime please enjoy the above picture of a colourful pigeon, spotted in Soho.

#london #pigeon #travel #photography #lundene #londinum

[davidegrimes]

Waiting on my next Korean tea concoction. #londinum #whycantwehavenicethings https://www.instagram.com/p/B8J3qcFjaX6/?igshid=o9c40owrtuid

#londinum #whycantwehavenicethings

[adveanture-archived]

*    @starclub​​    —    YOUR  EYES  AREN’T  FOCUSING.  JUST  CLOSE  THEM  FOR  TEN  MINUTES. 

THE   CELT   HAS   MADE   HIMSELF   USEFUL,   SO   THEY   SEE   FIT   TO   SEND   A   PHYSICIAN   TO   LOOK   AFTER   HIM.         he   survives   his   latest   fight,   but   only   barely.      he   cannot   sit   up   too   long   without   retching   at   his   bedside,   and   his   vision   swims.      he   cares   not   for   the   care   these   sorts   usually   promise   and   provide   to   slaves   such   as   him,   but   it   is   more   a   chore   to   keep   his   eyes   open   than   to   obey.      he   shuts   his   eyes   after   another   long   glare,   pitiful   as   it   may   be   with   his   pale   face   and   bruised   head.      it   is   a   relief,   he   has   to   admit      —      the   reprieve   from   even   the   barest   of   light   in   the   cells.   

#LISTEN LMAO IM JUST ASSUMING IT WOULD BE A PHYSICIAN #the roman equivalent of a competent biologist lol #★ ∗ ∘ ∙ 023. milo / the celt #★ ∗ ∘ ∙ 001. answered #starclub #thanks for sending this in ! #injuries tw #slavery tw #this is probably when milo is still in londinum

[frimleyblogger]

The Streets Of London (111)

The Streets Of London (111) - Wood Street, EC2, one of London's oldest streets with two unusual sights and the home to one of London's jails

Wood Street, EC2

Although it now runs from Cheapside in the south, crossing Gresham Street and London Wall on its journey north until it joins Fore Street, a shorter street ran through the Roman Fort in Londinium, from its northern gate which became Cripplegate to its southern gate, near what is now Love Lane. It is one of London’s most venerable streets. Unsurprisingly, it appears in the…

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#Civita Londinum #Inigo Jones #John Stow #John Strype #John Taylor #King Offa #Sir Christopher Wren #St Peter Cheap #the church of St Albans #The Hole #the London plane tree #the lungs of London #the Water Poet #the Wood Street Counter #Wood Street EC2

[lo-55]

Shattered Chains of Fate Ch. 22

Ichigo may have had a bit of a weird relationship with his father, but at least he had one.

Sure, Isshin Kurosaki could be a pain, and he attacked Ichigo out of the blue, and he was obnoxious. Who the hell kept life sized posters of their dead wives plastered on the walls and talked to them?

But again. Ichigo had a relationship with him. Isshin tried. He made sure his kids had food on the table, a roof over their heads, and he patched up their scrapes and bruises, even if he did tell Ichigo to tough it out when he was banged up after karate class or a fight after school.

Ichigo would never have a normal relationship with him. It was partially his own fault. Ichigo was standoffish and independent, he didn’t let people take care of him. It was his job to take care of his family, and Isshin agreed with that much. Ichigo had to guard and guide his sisters.

Despite all of Isshin’s faults, he acknowledged his son.

Ichigo knew the servant who appeared out of the demonic fog without even needing to be told. She and Mordred looked almost identical.  

Mash, naturally, started freaking the fuck out.

“That is- King Arthur! Like the one we met in Fuyuki, only different. This time she has a spear, not a sword. I can feel her animosity. A blind rage, she is more berserker than king. Is she under the the control of a summoning spell?”

Mash didn’t step back. She didn’t panic. But her teeth were gritted and her eyes were wide.

Mordred’s mouth thinned into a line.

“Even if she wasn't, this is King Arthur, ready to slay her foes,” he said grimly. “No reason will reach her now.”

Mordreds grip on his sword tightened to the point that Ichigo could hear the leather of his gauntlet creak.

“Why... Why are you appearing now? If you're here to save, Londinum, why did you not appear before?! No. Maybe its something else. Are you here to kill me? Would it make you angry, if I were the one to save your beloved country? Do you hate me that much? Is that why you wield the spear that killed me?!”

Ichigo sucked in through his teeth. He knew the story. Of course he did. But to hear the raw grief in Mordred’s voice? Was another thing.

“...Fine then, if it's a fight you want I'll give it to you. I'll rebel as many times as I have to! Ichigo, Mash! If you want to run now, so be it.”

Ichigo scoffed and stepped up to lay his hand on Mordred’s shoulder. They had already fought one incredibly powerful servant. They were all exhausted.

But they couldn't rest yet. They had to defeat the King of Knights. They had to retrieve the Holy Grail.

How many times were they going to have to fight Arthur?

“Don’t say stupid things,” Ichigo chided. “We aren’t going anywhere. Mash, get ready. You’ll have to defend us, understand?”

Mash nodded, once.

“Understood! Let’s go, Mordred, Master!”

*

“Ichigo.”

Ichigo opened his eyes slowly. He expected to find the meadow at the edge of the world. He expected to be struck with the familiar scent of blooming flowers.

Instead he found himself sideways on a building, the one that existed within his soul.

He sat up closely to looked around.

He found Nieve and Tensa standing not far from them. Neither of them were looking at him. They were staring off in the distance, their brows furrowed.

“Can't you hear, Ichigo?” Tensa asked, his voice far away. Ichigo stood up and went to stand between them. He touched both of their shoulders and strained to hear whatever it was that had their attention. His hair stood on end.

“Don’t you hear it, King?”

“Can't you hear, Ichigo?” Tensa asked again.

“I hear your voice,” he offered. “And his.”  

“No, not my voice. Not his.”

“I don't hear anything. What are you talking about?” Something very, very weird was happening here. Ichigo didn’t like it.

Tensa and Nieve finally looked at him. Nieve was scowling and Tensa looked troubled.

“Then forget it.”

Ichigo bristled. “No, I won't.”

Tensa tilted his head to him. His eyes were wide and still far away. Something very, very bad was happening here. Ichigo grabbed his arm.

“Tensa! Hey... We said no more secrets.”

Tensa shook his head. He was starting to come out of whatever had been holding onto him.

“It's not a secret. It's only something that I can't place. Nieve, perhaps you should go deeper?”

“Huh?” Nieve blinked at him and shook metaphorical cobwebs off of himself. “No way. King needs me where he can use me.”

“Tensa,” Ichigo said with a frown. “What’s wrong? Can’t you be more specific?”

“...It’s something on the wind. I can’t place it. Something dangerous is approaching us.”

“I’m the instincts around here,” Nieve grumbled. “And if something dangerous is coming for King we’ll just fight it.”

“No. Not for Ichigo. For us, you and I.”

Nieve stiffened. Ichigo pressed his lips into a thin line.

“You wanna use Nieve as a trump card?”

“Yes. I think that would be best.”

“Why shoudln’t you be the one who goes in deeper? You’re the one who’s not a real Zanpakutou!”

Tensa look irritated. “Yes, but as much as it pains me to admit it you have more direct power than I do.”

Nieve paused.

“Did you just say I’m stronger?”

Tensa glowered at him.

“No. Our abilities are just useful in different situa-”

“You admitted I’m stronger!” Nieve laughed aloud, grinning. He crossed his arms over his chest. “Fine. I’ll go deeper and wait for a while. But ya owe me, Tensa.”

Tensa rolled his eyes at Nieve, who laughed and slowly sunk through the windows of one of the buildings.

Ichigo shook his head at the pair. He wasn’t quite as worried as he should have been. Whatever came, they would deal with it. After all, it wasn’t like they were alone.

* *

Ichigo was starting to feel hollow in his bones. He’s used too much Mana fighting Tesla and then Artoria, yet another distorted version of her. How many different ‘King Arthur’s were there?

He was leaning on a shattered stone when cold washed over him. His head snapped upwards. A ghost, a blond man dressed in black, had been watching their fight and he’d followed them back into the bowels of Babages’ engine. Now he watched the conglomeration of fighters skulk through the remnants.

Romani’s voice came through Ichigo’s watch suddenly. Loud and worried. Something was coming. Again. Something big.

Mash broke into shivers next to Ichigo, her violet eyes huge. She looked terrified.

“The space is opening! Something is coming through!”

Ichigo squinted at the shadow that formed. The power that rolled off of him in waves threatened to crush Ichigo to the ground.

“Demon Marshal Gilles de Rais. Imperial Founder Romulus. Hero Spy Jason. And Divine Scholar Nikola Tesla. I thought they would be somewhat useful,” he said slowly. “But they spoiled my fun as they couldn't even clean house. Stupidity. Such stupidity. Humans really do degrade with the passage of time.”

Romani was still yelling. SHEBA was destabalizing, he was losing communications. Ichigo barely heard him over the low thrum of this monsters voice and his own heart beating a drum in his ears.

He walked towards them, one step at a time. The servants around Ichigo drew closer. From young casters to near-goddesses, from heroes to villains, they closed ranks.

“What is this insane magical energy?” Mordred bared his teeth. “It's a hell of a lot bigger than a dragon. It's like-”

“One of the demons or angels in the ancient stories. No, perhaps even greater. I was not born a mage, but as a petty Caster I can understand,” even Shakespeare wasn’t making light of it. “This magical energy is infinite. This domination crushes its surroundings merely by existing. Truly, truly a created being worthy of being called God! No, perhaps it is even God itself! Am I wrong, my friend Andersen? I think it's time for us to be going!”

Maybe they should have run. But Ichigo’s legs wouldn’t let him. If they ran now what would happen? This was-

The ‘god’ looked over them. His gaze stopped on Ichigo’s wrist, where Romani’s voice was still coming through frantically.

“I see. Like me, only your voice reaches them. Chaldea is isolated from the temporal axis, and so it's become a base that no one can find. My eyes see everything—and all possible futures, but even they have trouble perceiving Chaldea. That's why you survive. Pathetically, shamelessly, and uselessly. Intolerant of a history of destruction already decided, a pitiful boat still adrift in the sea of void. That is what you are, Chaldea, and what you are, Ichigo. A stain upon the scorched ashes of human history. The name of the only fools left who would defy my deeds.”

“So you’re him. The ‘King’ that Lev talked about.” Ichigo met Solomons gaze head on.

“I am the final destination you seek. The one who commands the 72 Demon Gods. The one who will destroy humanity from his throne. My name is Solomon. Among the Heroic Spirits, I stand above them all as one of the Grand Seven.”

Grand ?

“No… Is it really Solomon? But… But that's impossible.”

Ichigo couldn't look at his watch while Romani freaked out.

“I am a Heroic Spirit, and also a living being. Thus, no Master commands me. I started this matter of my own will. In order to eliminate all you humans- Trash who's continuing along its foolish history. You are the sole and greatest waste of this universe.”

Ichigo bristled furiously. His anger beat back his fear. “Fuck off! You can't destroy the world!”

Solomon smiled patronizingly at him. “I can. I have the means, the will, and the reality. Your eras have been swept away already, by my 72 Demon Gods that cross over time, and through them and my third nobel phantasm I will burn away humanity with the strength of a million holy swords. If you could barely hold yourself up against King Arthur, what chance do you have again me?”

He spread his hand grandly and four demon gods formed behind him.

It was only bitterness and stubborness that kept Ichigo standing. He lifted his hand. He was down to just one command seal, and his mystic codes were still recharging. Fuck. They were all exhausted, and Ichigo barely had the capacity to sustain them. How much Mana could he draw from the dying world before his body broke down?

They fell one by one, and Ichigo was helpless to do more than watch. Kintoki, Tamamo, and Shakespeare. Anderson.

They barely remained at the end. Mordred spit fury at him.

“Is this it? You must be scared, since Ichigo already took four grails from you!”

Solomon scoffed at him.

“Are you the greatest fool in history? I've lost four Grails? No. It will only matter if I lose them all. One Grail, or six, it makes no difference to me. Ichigo is no threat. It's time for me to go. I wasted more time than I thought.”

“Huh!? You're leaving? Why did you even come here!?”

“It was nothing more than a whim. Why? Sometimes after finishing a book, you go to the bathroom before picking up the next, right? That's all this was.”

“What? You're saying you came to piss on us!?”

Solomon threw his head back and laughed.

“That's right! That's exactly right! But you're worth less than piss! I don't care about you. I could kill you here, or not, and not care at all. Do you understand? I'm not letting you go. You weren't worth looking at in the first place. But, I suppose if you can remove all seven Singularities then I will consider you a matter I must deal with.”

Ichigo stormed towards him, ignoring everyone around him. Mash had to grab him around his middle to keep him from grabbing Solomon by his stupid fucking poldrons.

“Fuck you! You think this fun? I’m not letting you kill everyone!”

Solomon’s face twisted into a demonic mask and he laughed even harder.

“Of course! It's the greatest fun in the world! If it wasn't fun, would I take my time killing each one of you? I'm having fun. Your deaths make me happy. Your end pleases me. Your final gasps bring me more joy than anything! And this is the greatest salvation you could find. Because only I alone can make good use of every single human being!”

“And you!” He motioned towards Ichigo. The force of just his waving hand nearly knocked Ichigo to the ground.

“What have you done for the last 2,000 years? You've continuously died, and continuously done nothing. You are sentient creatures who failed to conquer death. And yet you retain your fear of it? If you cannot conquer death, you should have abandoned your fear of it. If you understand death to be a shameful, terrifying thing, then you should throw away your sentience! It's pathetic. Simply pathetic. You're no different either, Master of Chaldea.”

Ichigo startled. Solomon had been talking to Mash? Why would she be afraid? Death, sure, but-

“Why do you fight? Knowing your life will end. Knowing it has ended.Why do you cling to life, when you know that your future holds no salvation? You are so young, human. Ichigo.  Humanity's Final Master. This is my one warning to you. Know that giving up on everything here is the easiest way for you to live. Burn, and leave not even ash. That is your future.”

He vanished in a flash of white light while Ichigo roared after him in fury.

Mash had to drag him back to the street. The blond ghost trailed after them. He was gripping a sword like his after-life depended on it. Ichigo had never seen a dead man look shell shocked.

Even Mordred was pale and withdrawn.

“I haven't been this down since my Father's spear-”Mordred grimaced. “No, never mind. Never mind.”

“ Honestly, I wanted to go with you guys… But I'm at my limit, as you can see,” he motioned to himself. He was steadily dissolving into golden light. “With the Singularity gone, there's no place for me. I was summoned here by the Grail's fog. Without a Master, I have to disappear. “

“I hate to say it, but he's right. We can't fight unless we're summoned. That's the limit of a Heroic Spirit, and a Servant. In every era, the ones who build things...are always people living on the cutting edge of the future.”

“Mordred,” Ichigo reached out and grabbed his hand. “Wait.”

Mordred shot him a crooked smile. “You're going to get there, Ichigo. You'll reach the place we can't go. You'll cross over the seven Grails and reach the end of time. And then you'll corner that bastard Grand Caster. It's something only you can do. I’ll help you if I can.”

Mordred vanished in a shower of sparks. Ichigo’s hand closed on air.

The familiar pull of a rayshift tugged at Ichigo’s spine. He hissed. He’d wanted to say goodbye to Jekkyl, at least.  

Ichigo opened his eyes in his own body. The fourth singularity was over. It still felt like they’d lost.

* * *

Somehow, things always came back to the river.

Ichigo shot across the rooftops. He could feel the shift in the air that signalled an opening between worlds, and more he could feel a familiar person coming through it.

He skidded into the grass just in time to catch Rukia when she fell through the light.

“Rukia!” He held her carefully. Blood was seeping out of a wound on her shoulder. “Shit.”

He had barely laid her in the grass when the familiar light of a senkaimon flashed. Frost crawled across the grass and stretched towards him. It steamed into the warm night air.

A familiar woman came through. She was pale, dressed in a formal kimono with her silver blue hair pulled partially away. Ichigo knew her.

“This reitsu. She's no hollow”. She was familiar, too.

“Who are you?!”

She waved her hand and ice shot at him in a sudden wave. Ichigo understood suddenly. He snatched Rukia back into his arms and lunged out of the way.

The woman drew a pale white sword.

“Hand her over.” The voice was smooth and soft. Ichigo had heard it before.

“What?” Rukia groaned softly. The blood from her shoulder wound spread out. “I don't know what's going on, but that's not happening.”

“I see. So you're the substitute. Some no mai. Tsukishiro!”

Ichigo barely dodged the pillar of ice, and the wave that followed after. IT felt wrong, but he wasn’t about to roll over and let her stab him. He attacked swiftly, swinging zangetsu at her. It cut through and shattered an ice sculpture of her.

Could Rukia do that?

This was her zanpakutou, after all.

If that was the case, why didn’t she recognize Ichigo?

Just as quickly as she’d come, as abruptly as their fight began, she vanished back through the senkaimon.

Ichigo stood still, watching her go.

“Rider,” he said. Lightning flashed and Achilles appeared before him with his chariot. “Let’s get her to Urahara. He can patch her up, and we’ll see what’s happening. Are Medusa and Cu still with the Visord?”

The three had slowly started to hang out with people other than Ichigo. Mostly his friends and family. Medusa in particular had been stalking his sisters.

“Yep. They’ll meet us there, I’m sure.”

Achilles helped him load Rukia into the chariot, and the three of them took off into the sky. Ichigo held Rukia carefully to his chest. He fed his reitsu into her, hoping to at least keep her stable. He’d barely started his lessons with Unohana when he’d had to return to Karakura.

He was reluctant to hand her over, but when they landed he let Urahara and Tessai take her inside to be treated.

Orihime was still in the seireitei.

Ichigo sat in one of the small rooms in the shop back room. The two kids were sleeping this late, so he’d helped himself to green tea. Achilles, and later Medusa, Cu and Shinji of all people, joined him before Urahara did the same. He left the sliding door open so they could see Rukia sleeping from where they sat.

“Since when can Zanpakutou manifest themselves outside of a shinigami?” Ichigo asked. Urahara seemed to know everything. Yet, now he shook his head. Shiniji looked troubled.

“I don’t know. Yoruichi is checking things out in the seireitei. The rest of us can't enter, and even if we could it would be dangerous with our zanpakutou. All of us were captains at one point or another…”

Shifting cloth made Ichigo looked to where Rukia had tilted her head towards them. She was exhausted, but awake.

“It was a nightmare.”

She recounted the tale of Muramasa, a zanpakutou who sought to free Zanpaktou from their shinigami. He turned their own power against them. Only Orihime could really fight back. everyone else had lost their abiltiies outside of kido.

“Is everyone alright?” Ichigo asked the doorway. Yoruichi appeared half a second later. She huffed at him. He’d discovered she hated it when he caught her trying to sneak up on him.

“Everyone was okay. There were low casualties at least. It was mostly property destruction, and smaller injuries. The worst of it was squad one. But the medic center made it through. Soi Fon and the rest of the stealth force went after them. The Head Captain is also missing. Kyoraku has taken the reigns for now,” she tilted her head towards Ichigo. “Has anything changed with your zanpakutou?”

Ichigo frowned. “Sort of. They were acting strangely the other day, but nothing like this.:”

“ So the enemies power can't reach us here,” Urahara surmised. “At least not for the time being.”

“When dawn breaks, I'll go back,” Yoruichi decided. “Little Byakuya is the only captain still missing. But he's a strong person. I wouldn't worry too much,” she added when Rukia looked panicked.

“Byakuya won't die,” Ichigo added. He shot Rukia a smile. “He's too damn stubborn. He's like you that way.”

Rukia was apparently strong enough to hit Ichigo in the face with a pillow.  

* * * *

Yuzu peered through the window into the training room inside the hospital. It was too big to fit inside the building, but she was getting used to weird things these days.

Laying the middle of it was Uryu, one of Ichigo’s friends and Ryuken’s son.

“Is he going to be okay?” she asked, peering up at Ryuken.

“He’ll be fine,” he said with certainty. “It’s important to his training. He’s determined to put himself in danger. I can’t let him do that without being able to defend himself. Your brother is an awful influence.”

Yuzu smiled sweets up at him. “Yeah, he definitely is.”

“You should really leave these things to them,” Ryuken said for the millionth time.

Yuzu ignored him, and took out her glasses.

Ryuken had made them for her. They had the faintest blue tinge to them, and when she put them on she could finally see things clearly. Before if she saw anything it would be blurry, like heat on cement in the summer, but with the glasses on it was clear as day.

They entered the training room and Ryuken took her past the passed out Uryu to a shooting range on the opposite end. The cross hanging from Yuzu’s wrist pulsed faintly. The room felt like it was full of energy.

It was that same energy that Yuzu pulled into her hand. It took her long minutes, and it had taken her weeks to get this far. She pulled strand by strand of power into her palm and let it stretch slowly into the shape of small, compact crossbow.

She couldn’t place the expression on Ryuken’s face.

“You don’t need to aim,” he told her quietly. “It’s just like pointing. Your body will know what to do. Just focus on where you want to hit and shoot.”

Yuzu nodded. The pale blue light of her crossbow flickered brighter, nearly white, and she stared hard at the ring hung on a wall.

She shot and clipped the outside edge.

Ryuken nodded beside her. His arms crossed over his chest.

“Again.”

She obeyed.  

* * * * *

Ichigo stood beside Yoruichi in the wide field in the seireitei. Behind them the senkaimon clicked shut.

“We should go sou- what are you doing?” Yoruichi looked down at Ichigo, who was crouched on the ground and drawing intently. The array was both familiar and foreign. He’d had to make a lot of adjustments to it to get it work like this.

From inside his sleeve he pulled out a serpents eye pendant. The feeling of running water came across his palm and he lay the pendant in the middle of the array. It flickered faintly with violet light.

“I had to promise the others I’d bring them along this time. If we don’t do it this way as soon as they enter the afterlife they’ll get dragged back to the Throne of Heroes. So we’re kind of improvising now,” he admitted. “We set up an anchor point back in Karakura that would link them to me with the pendant. A serpents eye. It’s a sort of mystic material.”

Ichigo pulled Zangetsu off his back and planted the blade in the ground. He pressed his palm to the blade and let it cut through his skin. Red ran across the blade and flowed to the ground. The array lit up, blue and red.

“Let silver and steel be the essence. Let stone and the archduke of contracts be the foundation. Fill, fill, fill, fill, fill. Repeat five times and after each is filled, destroy it,” The blue light turned red and lashed upwards. Yoruichi watched him with wide, golden eyes.  

“I shall become all the goodness of the heaven’s. I shall embody all evils of hell. My will creates your body, and your sword cleaves my destiny. If you obey this will and reason, heed my call! Let shut the four cardinal gates and open the three-forked road winding to the Root. Appear now, thou Guardian of the Scales.”  

The light crawled higher and higher until it made the silhouette of three people. It flashed once, brilliant enough Ichigo had to close his eyes.

When he opened them again, Achilles, Medusa, and Cu stood in front of him.

Ichigo grinned slowly.  

It worked.

The three peered around them curiously.

“So this is it?” Medusa asked, turning around in a slow circle.

“I was expecting more river's,” Achilles admitted. Cu snorted at him.

“This is it,” Ichigo cracked his neck from side to side. “It’s time to get to work.”

* * * * * * 

Some of you may notice that I’ve used both feminine and masculine pronouns for Mordred at this point. I also know. My personal headcanon is that Mordred is gender fluid

#ichigo kurosaki #BAMF!Ichigo Kurosaki #Bleach #bleach fanfiction #Fate Grand Order #achilles fate #medusa fate grand order #Cu Chulainn #Mash Kyrielight #fate mordred #yuzu kurosaki #Rukia Kuchiki #Ichigo Kurosaki is Ritsuka Fujimaru

[thesorcerersapprentice]

LOCATION: Cromwell House

Address: 133 6th Ave, New Londinum, GC, 10001

About the Address: Cromwell House is a mansion that sits on the very edge of a university campus in the vibrant, cosmopolitan city of New Londinum. It is the oldest building in the area, constructed from local golden stone, with a gated entrance and expansive wooded grounds (these are said to equal Meridian Park in size). Much of the surrounding university buildings were built to match the style of the great house, incorporating cobble pathways, vaulted ceilings, carved columns featuring native plants, birds and animals and endless gothic spires and turrets into their architecture. Beyond the main gate, a gravel path lined with oaks leads up to the mansion itself which boasts of at least 50 rooms. Rooms are organized enfilade so that one can see down the entire length of the house if all the doors are open, and are littered with paintings, gilded mirrors and velvet cushions.

History of Address: Legend has it that the Cromwell family was one of the first to inhabit the shores of New Londinum. They - by which I mean he, Alfred Cromwell, a cantankerous Pirate in his 70′s and a Cromwell through marriage - purchased the land upon which Cromwell House now sits from the indigenous peoples. Though at the time it was nothing but a fetid marsh of no conceivable value, Alfred took a liking to it and decided that he and his family would settle there. He spent a season erecting a small, unassuming shack on the land before setting sail to retrieve his young wife and infant daughters from Old Londinum. The pirate’s dreams of retiring to his newly minted estate were quickly dashed when his ship encountered a storm and subsequently sunk, taking him down with it. For two hundred years, the shack he built remained untouched.

Politics: New Londinum is the capital city of The Republic of Great Columbia. The city has its own mayor and democratic council, which answers to the Government of The Republic of Great Columbia, led by the elected High Minister. Though Angharad’s Great Aunt, Morwenna, does not serve on the council, she is in close contact with many of its members and often dines with them. She is revered in Great Columbia for her work and respected both as a member of the aristocracy and as a social figure in New Londinum. Among a select community, she is also known as ‘The Witch Queen’, an inherited title she hopes to pass on to her niece.

#Location aesthetic #aesthetic #dark aesthetic #location #london #new york #mansion #house #manor house #manor #velvet #interior design #park #garden #english garden #autumn #gold #amber #fantasy #writers of tumblr #writers #authors #original fiction #fiction

[vintagesimstress]

Roman Palla (Zeussim's Desi Gita Redux)

TSR's latest collection prompted me to finally finish a thing which was sitting in my WIPs' folder for months. I'd been hoping to make some more add-ons for it, but let's face it: I lost my steam halfway through, it's not happening, so the best I can do is to release it as is. Still pretty good, I hope!

As my GBSC playthrough is slowly but steadily approaching the Roman Britain era, I found myself in need for some outfits for my sim ladies. There's a bunch of stuff out there, but rather on the 'what we'd like Romans to have dressed like' side, not necessarily what history tells us about how they really dressed. Tbh I thought it was a hopeless endeavour, but then dear Buzzard directed me towards this amazing post by Zeussim - more specifically, the Desi Gita dress, which with a bit of imagination could work for a Roman palla. So I set off to work and romanised it even further. Big thank you to @buzzardly28 for the tip and to @zeussim for her generous ToU!

The mesh is slightly edited (cutouts on shoulders, adjusted headscarf position to accommodate a wider variety of hairstyles) and recoloured in my Iron Age palette, in two versions: 'silk' (or just any smooth textile, really)* or 'wool' (or anything rather on the coarse side). AND it comes with overlays - for both versions! Which means you can mix and match not only different colours, but different textiles as well. You're a well-off lady who just arrived in Londinum and is now freezing her butt off in the cold northern climate? No worries, put a wool palla over your pretty silk dress! Or you by some miracle managed to get your hands on one piece of silk? Wear it with you wool dress to a party to show off!

Many of the wool swatches, especially in combination with different pale/greenish overlays, work quite well for common folk:

There's also an accessory fibula - pretty and golden (or silver), for the richer ones. Found somewhere on Sketchfab. (That's exactly where I got stuck - I wanted to make a variety of different ones, so that the poorer women would also have something to choose from... Alas).

As always, all packages come in HQ (default) or non-HQ versions (for those of you who want to save some HDD space). Download only one per package!

If there are any other Roman era players out there: hope you enjoy :)

DOWNLOAD (free on Patreon, no ads or EA)

*OK, I feel like I have to add a little note: my quick research revealed that silk was insanely expensive for the majority of the Roman era. Like, 'only for the emperor and fams' level of expensive. Only at the end it became... emmm... 'cheap' enough to be accessible also to the aristocracy. So just pretend it is whatever the heck you want it to be, not necessarily real silk

#ts4cc #adultfemale #ts4 roman cc #ts4 classical

[hojasdeoctubre]

Rey Arturo (2017) - Quien mucho abarca...

Siguiendo en la línea de películas con potencial que no llegaron a triunfar, voy a hablar de Rey Arturo, la Leyenda de la Espada (2017).

Guy Ritchie es un director muy competente. Vamos a empezar admitiendo que la película tiene momentos que visualmente son muy buenos. Hay planos con una combinación de colores y composición que, junto con la acción que tiene lugar en la pantalla, hacen que sea interesante ver esas partes de la película. Yo no soy cinematógrafa. No sé mucho de fotografía ni de dirección. Yo me dedico a escribir. Este blog está dedicado a cómo contar una historia y ahí, por desgracia, es donde la película, en mi opinión, falla.

Para los que no lo sepáis, esta película estaba pensada como la primera parte de una saga de películas dedicada a las leyendas artúricas (de las cuales yo no sé tanto como me gustaría. De ahí mi interés en que esta pequeña empresa saliese bien). Como no tengo ni idea de la leyenda del Rey Arturo, no pienso hablar de esta película en esos términos ni analizar su fidelidad a los poemas y los libros. Yo estoy aquí para hablar de una película y de por qué creo que su guión no funcionó.

[ALERTA SPOILERS]

Un problema con los principios

La película empieza con un prólogo que escenifica el mayor dilema de todos los escritores a la hora de escribir un prólogo: ¿es realmente necesario? y la respuesta es no. Un rotundo no.

Para comprender la trama no necesitamos saber nada de Mordred, ni de la guerra entre magos y humanos. No necesitamos una explicación detallada de por qué los magos son proscritos porque los motivos para que esto sea así no son el foco de la película. ¿Necesitamos saber que los magos son proscritos? Probablemente, para entender por qué Melín no está. Pero para esto no necesitamos un cuarto de hora de prólogo; solo necesitamos una línea de diálogo que viene más tarde en la película cuando Arturo le dice a la Maga “creí que los magos erais todos unos proscritos”. Ya está, no hace falta más por ahora.

Quitándonos este prólogo de en medio seguimos teniendo un argumento perfectamente comprensible.

Salto forzado al segundo acto

Cuando escribimos una novela tenemos más libertad para controlar la duración de cada acto siempre que la historia nos deje buena sensación. Pero en Hollywood cada minuto es dinero. Cada decorado, cada línea de diálogo, cada cambio de cámara hace el mismo sonido que el de una caja registradora al abrirse (cha clin!). Es por eso que la estructura de una película es mucho más rígida y calculada que la de cualquier otro medio.

El primer acto acaba exactamente en la marca del 25% de duración. Luego el segundo acto se divide en dos con el punto medio justo en el 50% y acaba en la marca del 75%. A partir de aquí empieza el tercer acto. Esta película dura dos horas, lo cual es muy conveniente para mí en este momento porque eso significa que no tengo que sacar la calculadora para deciros que el primer acto se acaba exactamente cuando han transcurrido 30 minutos. 

Bien, pues si vamos a los 30 minutos de película nos encontramos con este momento:

Arturo sacando la espada de la piedra. Todo genial, ¿no? Es un momento significativo en la trama, incluso nos lo dan a cámara lenta. Solo hay un problema con todo esto: Arturo no lo ha elegido. No es un salto al segundo acto porque Arturo no está saltando, lo están empujando mientras él se resiste. 

Parece una tontería, pero cuando se trata del salto al segundo acto es importante que ese salto sea una decisión. No tiene que ser una decisión inteligente, ni siquiera tiene que ser una decisión bien informada, pero tiene que salir del protagonista. No es bueno que nuestro protagonista esté aquí a la fuerza, que le estén obligando a tirar de la espada. No lo está eligiendo él y por lo tanto no puede ser un salto al segundo acto. 

Este momento nos vale como Evento Detonante, pero no como salto al segundo acto. [Evento Detonante es aquel que sucede sin que los personajes lo puedan predecir o cambiar y le da un empujón a la trama. El problema es que esta película ha utilizado su Evento Detonante al bajar el nivel del agua que rodea el castillo y revelar la espada ensartada en la piedra]

Podéis decir “pero Claudia, más adelante hay un salto literal que podría ser el salto al segundo acto. Seguro que te has hecho un lío y los has confundido”. No creáis que no he contado con ello. El problema es que este salto:

Ocurre a menos de diez minutos del punto medio. Si a estas alturas de la película seguimos en el primer acto es que tenemos un problema de proporciones Batman vs Superman.

Si no fuera por este pequeño detalle, este sería un cambio de acto genial (más o menos. Yo personalmente le haría renunciar a algo de forma consciente al saltar. Que se note el dolor).

Falta de eficiencia

Como he dicho antes, la película dura 2 horas. Si cortamos los 15 minutos de prólogo, el montaje de los vikingos al principio que dura 5 minutos y que no sirve para nada, otro montaje pasado el punto medio en el que hablan de reclutar aliados pero al final no lo hacen que dura otros 5 minutos, el montaje de las tierras oscuras en el que se supone que Arturo debe aceptar la espada pero no lo hace porque “aparta la mirada” y que dura otros 5 minutos (hay un total de 6 montajes en esta película. Guy Ritchie había aprendido a hacerlos ese jueves y decidió poner sus nuevos conocimientos en uso, al parecer) y la persecución por Londinum en la que Meñique mata al guardia pero no al rey y la trama no sufre ningún cambio en absoluto que dura 20 minutos (y podría hablar de lo inútil que es esta parte durante horas, pero tranquilos, no lo haré), le quitamos a la película ¡50 minutos en los que no pasa nada! ¿entendéis el problema?

El personaje de Maggie también es otro personaje que no contribuye para nada a la trama. Todo lo que hace es decirles que Vortigern va a estar en Londinum, y ya sabemos a dónde lleva esa subtrama.

Si en lugar de poner tantos montajes chulos empleamos ese tiempo en construir otras cosas, la película no dejaría con esa sensación de relleno. 

Vortigern tiene una hija a la que tiene que sacrificar para la última batalla. Eso se supone que le duele mucho, pero nunca llegaremos a saber cuánto porque en toda la película sólo se han dicho una frase y ni siquiera estaban uno al lado del otro. Si empleamos parte de esos 50 minutos en mostrar cómo Vortigern es bueno con su hija, cómo se preocupa por ella, cómo le enseña algo, cómo pasa tiempo con ella y se siente orgulloso de ella no solo tendríamos un villano un poco más complejo, que no es Doctor Villano McVil Von Malo, sino que cuando llega el momento de sacrificarla a cambio de poder vemos que de verdad es un sacrificio. En la película la hija de Vortigern es como un gato, está por allí pero no hace mucho ruido.

Otra parte de esos 50 minutos que podrían haberse empleado mejor es si realmente mostramos la lenta transición de Arturo de “no quiero la espada y no quiero ser rey” a “voy a luchar por algo más grande que yo mismo”.

No podemos estar a las puertas de la gran batalla del tercer acto y que Arturo todavía no haya decidido si quiere la espada o no.

Conclusión

Sinceramente creo que los problemas de esta película se reducen a uno solo: empezar una saga.

El motivo de que haya tantas tramas que no llevan a ningún lado y que la película pierda tanto tiempo en cosas que no explora viene de las ansias de poner los cimientos para lo que querían que fuera una serie de seis o siete películas. Pusieron tantos cimientos que al final no quedó tiempo para nada más y nos quedamos con una película que nos da pistas de lo que vendría en el futuro pero nos deja con las ganas de resolver lo que tenemos delante.

Cuando queremos crear una saga es importante recordar que todo empieza con un solo libro o una sola película. Debemos ocuparnos de lo que tenemos delante, resolverlo y hacerlo lo mejor que podamos. Y si lo hacemos bien, lo demás vendrá con paciencia.

Tal como está, Rey Arturo es la prueba de que quien mucho abarca, poco aprieta.

#escritura #escriblr #king arthur #king arthur legend of the sword #escribir #escritura creativa #recursos de escritura #recursos literarios #recursos #consejos de escritura #consejos #writeblr #writblr #película #aprender de las películas #películas #rey arturo #rey arturo la leyenda de la espada #la leyenda de la espada

[x-i-l-verify]

Birthday present for @arthurpenhaligons, of two of our old crossover OCs. I’d sketched this pic ages ago but had never done anything with it, so I thought it was high time I inked and slapped some color on it. Hope you like it, hon. <3 It’s always a treat to revisit our babies from time to time. :>

#XI Arts #My OCs #I have discovered that I really really like working with Sihnon #it's nice to occasionally get to draw pretty characters with good fashion sense #I love Londinum too don't get me wrong but his sense of style usually leaves something to be desired XD

[vannibespoke]

Vanni's new line : 'Londinium'

We made a new suit line, name is Londinium. It based on London's suit style, the cradle of suit. Vanni takes Londinium with a contemporary perspective, inspired by 20th century's dress.

1920's suits are looks like very masculine, even elegant. We realized the important thing is 'shoulder shape'. So this Londinum's suit is more highlighted shoulders with concaved shoulder. And inverse V-zone is more linear than vanni's house cut. Lapel's gorge and line is higher than 30~40's. Because it is more match with nowdays.

Vanni Bespoke located in Myundong and Gangnam, Seoul, Korea. Please contact us : [email protected]

Vanni Bespoke official homepage : www.vanni.co.kr/ Vanni instagram : vanni_official

#vannibespoke #menswear #tailorshop #bespoke #seoul #suit #sartorial #men in suit #style #tailorin #suiting #londinium #handmade #for men