#so instead you get this poem i'm very attached to

[silverwhittlingknife]

poem: "accident report in the tall, tall weeds" by ada limón

#when i started fussing with this it was going to be a pitch for that never-made comic series where tim moves to blüdhaven #when dick is injured and helps out as nightwing for a while #but then it felt weird having visuals and no text #so instead you get this poem i'm very attached to #it's like mmm okay it's reductive bc this is not actually just the way that men love but the poem is so good <3 #dick grayson #tim drake #dick & tim #my comic art but we are using the term ''art'' loosely #since it's just copy-pasted pictures from the comics + unsplash photos + layering to add outlines/lighting #all the comic book art here is by marcus to + patrick zircher because they are my favorites <3 #so red robin + zircher's run on nightwing

[silverskye13]

Cursed/turned into an animal Tanguish, make him actually a cat

"How do these things happen to you?" Helsknight asked, crouching down on the balls of his feet so he was closer to Tanguish's level. Closer, but not on his level, as Tanguish, by some clever, terrible miracle, had been transformed into a cat. He was a handsome enough little creature, all blue-black, with a handful of sparse white hairs that salted his back and shoulders. But there was a large difference between handsome little cat and the full helsmet he was supposed to be, and Tanguish was, understandably, he thought, upset about his current circumstances. Even more upset now, given Helsknight seemed incapable of taking it seriously. "No really, I'd like to know. If I make an offering to whatever god or saint you pissed off, they might pass me over."

Oh haha, very funny, Tanguish said. Or he tried to say. What actually came out of his cat-shaped mouth, which made itself unavailable to forming human words, was a string of yowls that conveyed vague allusions to indignation. His fur spiked up his back for good measure, and he flattened his ears, just in case Helsknight needed the extra hint.

"I don't speak cat," Helsknight informed him helpfully, crossing his arms on his knees and raising his eyebrows in an amused expression. "You know, I've always been more of a dog person. Matches my aesthetic better. Do you think you could shape shift into something a little more intimidating? Even a large cat would do. You're a bit too scrawny and gangled, if I'm being honest."

Tanguish rumbled back a growl that he hoped would sound fierce and insulted.

"I'm terrified, truly," Helsknight informed him patronizingly. "Would a sardine help soothe your temper, O Mighty Feline? Maybe some cream?"

Tanguish swatted at him, tiny, impotent claws raking across Helsknight's boot.

"Hey now, be grateful," Helsknight tsked disdainfully. "Cream and sardines are an expensive find in hels. Probably worth your tiny cat weight in diamonds."

Tanguish huffed a sigh out of his nose, and then sneezed when the sensation tickled his whiskers. He was still getting used to whiskers. A tail and claws he was used to. The eyes weren't so good as his sculk sight, but not so different that it took a lot of adjusting. No, it was the whiskers that made his body feel the most awkward, little strings attached to his face that made him feel like he was constantly in danger of getting stuck somewhere, only to realize no, he'd just walked a little too close to a wall. It was his whiskers that told him, while he pawed miserably at his nose, that Helsknight had reached for him. Before he could jump away, Helsknight had picked him up by the scruff and tossed him on a pauldroned shoulder like he was nothing.

"So I guess we'll start with a quick prayer to my Saint," Helsknight sighed, "and then we'll start visiting alters until some priest comes up with a solution. Have you tried respawning yet? No, don't hiss at me. I don't know what that means. Just meow once for yes and do that weird growl-thing for no. So have you tried-- no, didn't think so. Put the claws back Tanguish, I'm not going to kill you. Killing cats is bad luck."

Tanguish snorted indignantly again, and then sneezed again, and at least got some satisfaction at the disgusted look Helsknight flashed in his direction.

"Sneeze somewhere other than my ear next time please."

Tanguish growled.

"I'm sorry, was that a no?"

He meowed brightly.

"You know, you've got at least nine lives. I'm sure my Saint will forgive me if I wring one out of you."

Tanguish swatted him on the side of the face. If Helsknight was bothered, he didn't show it. Instead he walked off down the street, clearly intent on his plan that Tanguish was sure wouldn't work, but they might as well try. Under his breath Helsknight hummed:

"There's an old poem about cats and monks. Can't really remember the lyrics. Something like... Pangur, white Pangur."

Helsknight chuckled.

"Tanguish, O Tanguish, how happy we are. Alone together, warrior and cat."

Tanguish settled down on the knight's shoulder, tail held out stubbornly for balance as he strolled down the street. He had to dig his claws in to Helsknight's cape to keep from falling off, but at least if was warm place to sit.

"Each has his own work to do daily; For you it is hunting, for me, slaying. Your shining eye watches the wall; My fair eye is fixed on a blade. You rejoice when your claws entrap a mouse; I rejoice when my mind fathoms a problem. Pleased with his own art neither hinders the other; Thus we live ever without tedium and envy. Tanguish, O Tanguish, how happy we are, alone together, warrior and-- are you purring? That's hilarious."

Tanguish, who hadn't realized he was purring, stopped abruptly, feeling vaguely betrayed by his own contentment. He swatted Helsknight's face, careful to keep his claws sheathed.

"What? It's not my fault you can't keep your little cat noises to yourself -- stop swatting at me! That's rude. Do it again and you can run your little paws off through town all on your own."

#Situations Asks #lindentree #this was adorable ahaha #rns ficlet

[kneelingshadowsalome]

So~ Arab!Reader has been living in my head and heart for a while now so I wanna share some Reader-isms that are closer to my own cultural experience (ignore this if it's annoying btw no hard feelings whatsoever)

-Her love language is arguing, has not met a hill she wouldn't die on. will sometimes get on the table or ask him to crouch down so they can look eye to eye as she fights tooth and nail over something she stopped caring about like 10 minutes ago but she's having too much fun. calls him "your majesty" or Sultan/Sheikh sarcastically in every argument.

-He told her to just buy candles instead of burning incense that produces so much smoke since "they do the same job anyway", she reacted like he just insulted her ancestors.

-Not a drinker but has a minor coffee/tea addiction, knows every cafe nearby by heart and has a whole set up at home, loves making him try new drinks she found online or from her childhood.

-Will take a million pictures of everything and especially him, doesn't matter what's happening, it must be recorded "for our grandbabies, habibi🥺"

-Desert camping trips!! König can start the fire while she's in charge of preparing tea and coffee. she's mostly excited about finding a dune buggy to rent for a day that's actually comfortable for his size, they ride until sunset when both of them are a sand covered giggling mess. finally they get to cuddle and star gaze, keeping each other safe from the cold desert nights.

-if they ever get married this is an inevitable conversation:

"Liebe, you said we are having a small wedding"

"Mhm"

"the guest list is 600 people minimum..?"

"...yes?"

poor guy, his saving grace is that men have a very small role in weddings here, just sit, take pictures, cut cake, then leave with your bride. no need to write vows, dance, or even kiss in front of people.

-NO PDA!! hand holding is the most they do in public and even that's scandalous sometimes. he tried to kiss her hand in a shop once and she pulled it back so fast he was pouty for like two days after the fact. He learns to appreciate this though because he can clearly tell when she's feeling possessive in public when she clings to his side, loves to tease her about it; "a hand on my lower back, schatz? how indecent of you"

-Cat-calls him as he's going out of the shower but only in Arabic, so he doesn't know how to respond to the wolf-whistles and enthusiastic yelling, the only reason he's sure it's positive is that he gets his face squished soon after, he can at least make out the stretched out word 'Habiiiibiiiiiiii~" Cue flustered mess König

-calls him her Antara, one of the most famous and celebrated warriors in Arabian history, who was also a great romantic and wrote so many poems about his beloved Abla. (Antara Ibn Shaddad, if anyone is curious)

Oh god I'm going feral I’m not even kidding ❤️‍🔥💀

The arguing thing would get soooo interesting because I think that König has an anxious/disorganized attachment style so he’d try to avoid any kind of arguments and disagreements with his woman. If König can’t tame his darling, he’ll just let her have her way so that he doesn't have to suffer from the sudden tightness in his chest.

But... If she’s doing shit like climbing on the table to stare him down, König wouldn't be able to keep a straight face. He'd soon relax into the situation and then start to tease her about her temper. Corrects his posture so that he's still taller than her, and gives her a warm, knowing smile :) His Liebling is so cute when she's angry.

And lol König would be suspicious about the incense, he’s not used to that kind of stuff at all, but he’ll be damned before he says anything. Discreetly tries to open the window sometimes but closes it immediately if darling walks into the room (no use, she already saw him and he's going to get an earful).

But omg no pda??? Very hard for König but he will respect your wishes in this. You can see it in his eyes that he’s being a bit of a sad sulking puppy about it, of course it all dissipates if you put that hand on his lower back... This will be like foreplay to him, you're a forbidden fruit until you two are behind closed doors, and if you “break the rules” while he’s playing nice then whoo. Prepare to get your guts rearranged when you get home!

Still, if König can’t kiss his bride at the wedding he’ll start a war. 600 guests is negotiable, as long as he can kiss her in front of everyone and declare her as his own.

#oh and the Antara part and the desert camping trip have me howling at the moon #longingly #I'M YEARNING #answered

[yamameta-inc]

hi hi i hope you are still doing essay commentary because WOAG this latest oboro visual poem meta thing. messed me UP. predictably your mention of third person perspective is my favourite part of the whole post. im wondering why you chose those specific oboro and gintoki Eye Moments for example. but anything else or anything more on the rainbow body segment that you want to talk about would be wonderful! aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

(— groupofcrows main)

yesss thank you for the question! i love talking about this stuff.

So the rainbow body is a phenomenon and concept from Dzogchen, a tradition within Tibetan Buddhism. Essentially, when a master attains full knowledge, their body changes. I'm not going to go into the details here because it's not too relevant, but upon death the master's body will dissolve into light instead of leaving a corpse behind, and then their spirit can go wherever in the world to aid others. (Very much like how I think of Shouyou's final death in the final arc where he The World arcana's himself into sublimation.)

I was originally going to go in a different direction with the collage, but it didn't work with the flow as well, and it was difficult to get suitable quotes. You haven't seen the end of the rainbow body quotes though, I have a bunch more I'm saving for another collage. lol.

Anyway, what's meant by "third person perspective" in the actual definition of the rainbow body is just that this is what's observable to the people around the master. Buddhism is largely concerned with the internal, which is probably why it's phrased this way. I took it and ran though! The first screenshot in that section is of Gintoki's iconic PTSD moment when he sees Utsuro's face for the first time, perfectly coincidentally in the arc where Utsuro is depicted with a LGBT pride aura as he moves for no reason (except, I presume, hilarity). What more significant moment of "knowledge" attainment is there for him? For Oboro, though, that moment of horrified realization is when he "realizes" he's been replaced, that Shouyou getting to live means that he will actually, you know, live his life and move on.

I juxtaposed these moments because, in a way, Gintoki and Oboro are already "third person perspectives" of each other. I've already talked about how Oboro is a retroactively created echo of Gintoki. What's fun in the wording of the quote is that it's the third-person perspective of someone else attaining knowledge, right? Oboro and Gintoki are "at the scene" of their respective deepest horror, with Oboro's image being second because it implicitly frames him as potentially looking at Gintoki. Because that's indeed what happened. Oboro is also always looking at Gintoki, but not at all in the same way as Takasugi.

In the execution pic, he's simply watching the execution--Gintoki is just the guillotine, and despite how terrible this moment is for everyone involved, Oboro isn't haunted by this. Some part of him knows that the worst is yet to come--that Gintoki will survive because of this choice, so one day he may come to the truly horrible realization, Utsuro. And so the images also imply that Oboro is looking at Gintoki's realization with horror. Oboro in the present had already come to this realization long ago, and so he's become empty of all (or almost all...) desires, attachments, resentments and lets himself be dressed by the narrative in priestly attire without protest.

What about Gintoki? He's not watching anything in this moment except his own memories flying past, but we, the viewer, are watching him have this realization. Just as we watch Oboro have his realization, and understand the catalyst for the entire underlying tragedy of Gintama. Which was Gintoki, or rather Oboro seeing Gintoki. In this situation we are also literally the third person. Gintoki finding out about Utsuro is just the sound of a pebble hitting water a very, very long time after Oboro first dropped it into a well over 10 years ago.

But also, Gintoki meeting Utsuro is quite literally why Utsuro has that LGBT pride aura going on. Because Utsuro needs a very dramatic entrance scene, because this is a very tense moment the narrative can't not gas up. So that we can enjoy it as viewers.

#asks

[littlesparklight]

What frustrates me a lot is that it certainly feels like basically any other character (and their relationships) attached to the Trojan war cycle can be interpreted positively. Can be woobified or excused, have their questionable to awful actions explained away, softened, or downright ignored.

Except for Paris.

When it comes to Paris it's like the only thing acceptable [here on Tumblr] is the most ungenerous, flat and negative of interpretations of his character, of his actions, of his relationships.

But whatever, I guess. Forget Paris for a moment; let's talk about Helen.

Because like---

Obviously, it's a valid angle to go with "she was kidnapped". It's certainly a specter present in some texts, and in later versions the absolute route taken, even when Helen also is attracted to Paris. But it's certainly not the absolute only possible and somehow the most reasonable and correct interpretation. Not when a large chunk of the oldest sources is clearly leaning into "Helen did something blameworthy", and it's blameworthy because she had the agency to do something that would be considered blameworthy.

And again, obviously, in a lot of these sources "Helen did/was able to do something blameworthy" (and thus equally able to refrain, which is why it's blameworthy), is used for misogynistic and sexist views.

But not always, and not in all of them. There's a whole world of difference between the inferred character and actions of Helen in, say, Alcaeus' Thetis poem, and Sappho 16. Both, however, lean into "Helen acted".

And the Iliad itself has Helen blame herself.

There's really only two possibilities to get out of the Iliad's situation. Either she did do something/had the agency to do something that she now regrets, and thus has cause to blame herself, or she did not do anything/didn't have the agency to do anything and had it done to her instead, and is blaming herself for literally no reason.

(She blames herself even to those who do not care, and to whom it gives her no social advantage to put herself down in front of, like Aphrodite.)

I'm just not ever going to prefer a version where Helen's potential or actual agency is taken away, especially when that isn't actually the only version that exists. Particularly not when 'she was kidnapped' usually means she's turned into an acted-upon victim who is passively suffering for twenty years. Is it truly such an unconscionable crime to being attracted to someone else than her spouse? Sleeping with said someone else, willingly?

Something which basically any male character in Greek myth either has done or will certainly not catch social opprobrium for doing if he decided to do so, because they are a man.

Of course, Helen doesn't just potentially sleep with Paris - leaving Sparta is a lot more than that. But there's a world of possibilities in how you have Helen leave, if she's indeed attracted to Paris. A flighty ~lol I don't care about the consequences~ is one of the most simple and boring ones, for example. (But again, the language used in, say, Proclus' summary of the Kypria or the Bibliotheke, to take two works at opposite end of the spectrum, is not really "forceful abduction".)

Further, "Aphrodite LITERALLY tricked her/sex-brainwashed her and she stopped being attracted to Paris basically upon arrival in Troy" and similar sentiments isn't really what is meant when "trickery" is mentioned in the text. It's all about how seduction and sex in itself is at some level viewed as "trickery".

It's just deeply fucking frustrating that it's apparently preferable to stick Helen in literal captivity for ten-twenty years and be sexually assaulted for that length of time than applying some nuance and complexity to the situation. Even if - maybe especially if - at the end of the war, while Helen is still attracted to Paris (because she is), she doesn't like him very much - those are different things, after all.

#helen and paris

[virtue-and-beneviolence]

Hiii, I saw your self-ship ask event and omg, it's so cute! Anyway, I wanted to ramble about me and none other than Ran Haitani (doing so makes me really happy and warm) Thank you so much for doing this event :")

I'm allergic to showing the people I like/love that I like/love them. So this means I can be kinda "tsundere" in a way as a panic response when someone notices that I like them? It goes a little like this:

Person: "Aww, you did [favor] for me! Are you going soft for me?"

Me: "I only did it because I had nothing else to do." (lying)

You can already see how that'll go with Ran lmao. I feel like he'd just smile and say "If you say so~" because he can see right through me.

I'm the type to do something drastic when I get really angry. While me and Ran are both generally calm people, he's the calmer one of the two of us. I'm all rational and reasonable until I get angry which is why it's Ran who has to hold me back.

I don't know what to do with myself when someone shows romantic interest in me. If someone is trying to hint that they like me in that way, I will act like the most dense motherfucker ever. Giggling at the thought of Ran being entertained at first and then getting frustrated the longer it goes on.

I'm likely to write/make art about the people I love. (I may or may not have written poems and created concept playlists about Ran) That's one of my love languages along with Quality Time and Acts of Service, I guess. I never show the poems and artworks to my muses, though. I would die before I ever do that lol. I think Ran would have a knack for finding my work and knowing when it's about him. I'll never hear the end of it.

I'm down for just sitting in silence or napping together which I bet Ran would be very happy to do. I feel like we can both stop caring about being interesting when together alone and just exist.

I don't have a playlist but the songs that give me the most Ran feels are:

Don't Delete the Kisses - Wolf Alice

Tokyo Love Hotel - Rina Sawayama

R.E.M. - Ariana Grande

That's all, thank you!

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◇─◇──◇── @tenjikubaby  x Ran! ──◇──◇─◇

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A second birthday special! Happy birthday!

□ Ran adores your playlists and lets you curate the music on every drive you take together. Sometimes he listens closely to the lyrics and will tease you if there's a chance you're playing it because it reminds you of him.

□ Ran doesn't snoop. He doesn't! But sometimes he does drop a sketchbook/notebook and he happens to notice a doodle of a person that looks suspiciously like him. And sometimes he likes to pull poem books off the shelf to take a peek at any loose leaf sheets poking out.

□ He wishes sometimes that he could express his feelings that way for you, but he opts instead for tugging you to bed to cuddle and nap. You can usually guess he's found something when he gets EXTRA physically clingy <3.

□ Ran also loves quality time, I think it might be one of his top two love languages. You know, he's such a gossip lol. I think he loves to spend chatty time before naps, arms wrapped around your back, tugging you to half lay on him,,,

□ I feel like Ran loves PDA and doing silly grand gestures that he knows fluster you. Eventually he gets a feel for the lines he cannot cross, but honestly, here and there, his antics (a little slap to your ass in front of the guys or a big dramatic sign and flowers to pick you up at any public transport or event.

□ He will scoop you up and leave kisses up and down your face and you'll be blushing FURIOUSLY and you probably pull him by his hand to leave as quickly as possible because such histrionics are probably uncomfortable for you (same tho)

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Consider Ran (before you're together) having a week where he get's frustrated with the chase. And you part on rocky terms. But through it all, my god he's really genuinely grown so attached to you and he needs to find a way to fix stuff. For ease, lets assume he has some myspace/discord portal to see what you're listening to and he finds you listening to don't delete the kisses on repeat. He leaves a note in you bag the next time you see him, he leaves a note in his weirdly neat handwriting:

"Get over it and take me out.

It's meant for you.

-r"

It's the most romantic this he's done and that he may ever do but shit. Maybe it won't be too hard to hit him up at least....casually...right?

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Come make my day, tell me about your self ship, and get some hcs of your own.

#SelfVi's Event #normally i ask something! #but i got too excited! #so feel free to interact a lil hehe #i try to build that in but oops #i hope you liked it! #happy birthday! #another meatier for the birthday hehehe #ill try to get more out soon!

[maeve-is-annoying-about-books]

House of Leaves, Miscellany

Who made the dark?

This book is consistently the dark, and it constantly teases you as to who is its maker. Navidson, Zampanò, Johnny... There are endless scraps of poetry, quotes, and pictures here, and all are quite interesting. I'm sure they hold tons of clues about who the author is, promising answers if only you'd dive a little deeper into it.

I choose, however, to exit the maze. I have zero doubt that the inclusion of all these fragments at the end, over 100 pages worth, is really good food for the people who want more. But ultimately my feeling of House of Leaves is that you must, eventually, draw your own conclusion on what reality is. Bearing your light in the darkness of infinite possibility.

So all of these pages. Fragments, poems, letters, pictures, quotes... All of the get folded into this one review at the end. Am I a poor reader if I said I get the same feeling out of them all? It's...

Have you ever seen a leveled house? There are floorboards and shards of a door and a fragment of what might be the sink all around you. Nails poke out everywhere and you could never hope to tell what its little job was in the structure that was. That's the feeling I get reading through these passages and bits. It's all fragments and leftovers of a whole that'll never really be that. It's that big sadness when you find a scrap of cloth, and you wonder if it were the child's dress, the kitchen curtain, or a doll's Sunday best. Or maybe it was just a bit of a lost handkerchief covered in sneezes. Bereft of their context, the only meaning we have is the one we can pull out of the aether and attach it to.

Karen was right, the house really did dissolve. And became this.

At least we know where Johnny gets his purple prose, and maybe his madness, from. It's... heartbreaking to see someone lose touch with reality. I say that from experience but won't relate that experience here. Pelafina, Johnny's mother, clearly adores her son. Vastly so. Almost scarily so, he can do no wrong but the crime of not coming to see her. There is more... I feel something potentially terrible being insinuated here behind it all. But I have to admit to skipping through these a bit.

I'd rather not revisit this difficulty, just yet, please excuse me.

What I will say, though, concerns that fairness I talked about last time. The Navidson Record is alluring because it is fair, it has cadence. Then this is the opposite. This bill for cremation, but with very special offers for just 3000 or 1000 dollars more. Way to go, capitalism, you've done it again. You've cheapened death down to what you can sell to the aggrieved in need. It is an abrupt, pale end. It's not a grand sendoff in a mahogany room with fine carpet and beautiful music playing. It's the county morgue with its buzzing florescent lights that reeks of industrial cleaner.

And with that, as I close the last cover, I find I have to do it with some mindfulness. that I have to choose to let go of the scraps and mysteries. That I have my conclusions and have to hold to them. The house will always be here for me to revisit, after all. It really was the incredible experience my dear friends recommended to me. I'd love to see more like it, this amount of passion and deliberate choice, all to say something you can just barely get a grasp on.

I'm glad I read this book. What more could I say about it? What did I take away from it?

I think my answer is creativity. I think it's a story about facing infinite choice and carrying on. Putting faith in what you mean to do rather than get lost wandering.

But, as Zampanò said, this story has a way of slipping the bounds of any label or answer you put to it. Rather than say that I have the ultimate solution to it, I think instead I'll say...

I got the photos I want, finally.

#live reading #house of leaves #maeve's house of leaves readalong

[sakebytheriver]

If you got a chance to make your dream film with an unlimited budget/resources what would it be?

Oh God what a question, I have so many big ideas for stuff I'd want to make, most of which are not movies/films but TV shows instead, like the crazy complicated high concept sitcom dissection series I've been drafting, or the numerous ideas for reboots or continuations for already existing properties I have like a queer poc lead reboot of Firefly that I've only created character bios for, or the original prequel TV series I have a pilot outlined for Vala Mal Doran from Stargate SG1 about her time before she joins the team but after she's no longer the host of a Goa'uld, or the live action reboot of American Dragon Jake Long that exists purely in my head, and I have an idea for a Joker style stand alone tragic romance movie for Mr. Freeze and Nora, that I've completely outlined and have started writing a screenplay for

But I think if someone were to approach me today with this offer, there's one movie I'd make in a heartbeat. I have finished screenplay about two high school seniors, a second generation Chinese boy named Jin and a darkskin black girl who just moved to the area named Shirley, falling in love in the 1960s in that liminal space where school integration had just started, but interracial marriage was still illegal federally in San Fransisco Chinatown. It's a period piece romance filled with all the tropes of the genre with many lingering shots on their hands with their fingers almost touching but not quite, a scene with their own version of prom and another scene on a ferris wheel where they talk about running away together, a bubbly lesbian best friend character that acts as their wingman, the forbidden/secret romance they develop etc etc.

I love the characters in that script so much, I have such an emotional attachment to them and to their story, it's a bittersweet story that I personally think the phrase "two ships passing in the night" was invented for (do not judge me but the song The One by Taylor Swift was literally such a big inspo for their romance, there were days while I was writing this screenplay that I just put that song on repeat to get me in the zone because that song was literally written for these characters and if I was to make this movie that song would HAVE to be included it is literally their song I'd make it into their theme song).

I wrote the screenplay after being inspired by this tweet

And I even incorporated those pictures into the story, having Shirley and Jin take pictures in a photobooth at a fair and then the end of the movie has a closeup on their pictures that fades into the real life pictures of couples from that time as the last frame of the movie.

Now, I'm going to talk about Jin and Shirley as characters because they are my babies and you should know about them.

Jin is the second son of Chinese immigrant parents who own a laundromat. His older brother is the disowned family disappointment whose failures loom over Jin's every action. Jin's parents want him to become a doctor, but he's the loner character archetypr that always has a book in his hand and he even has a journal always on him that he writes quotes down into that touch him in some emotional kind of way. Jin is Shirley's manic pixie dream girl and he is very happy being so. Shirley tells him he should be a writer one day and he laughs her off thinking it's an absolutely ridiculous idea because he'd always been told by his parents that he was going to be a doctor and that he had to make money and that he could never end up like his brother, but she doubles down basically telling him it's obvious that writing would make him happy and the first thing Jin ever wrote was a sonnet for Shirley. And throughout their relationship he is always writing her poems and notes and little things that he slips in her locker or her books or into her hands at the end of the day after he's walked her home, because he always walks her home, because he always asks her at the end of the day if he can walk her home and at the end of their story he promises that for her, he will never stop writing.

And Shirley, my sweet, soft-spoken Shirley, she's the oldest child and about to be the first in her family to go to college. She's a math genius that I may or may not have taken some inspiration from the West Computers of NASA to write her character. She's the logical left-brained counterpart to Jin's manic pixie dream girl energy, she even tells Jin outright that it would be a bad idea for them to be together, but then she's the one to kiss him first after he saves her from a group of bullies. There are a lot of references to princesses and damsels in distress and princes and knights in shining armor, with Shirley telling Jin he is not her prince or her savior and she absolutely doesn't need him to be and him saying of course he isn't but if there's a time when he can take a punch for her he will every time. Shirley starts the film shutting out her emotions and focusing instead on the logical side of things, but as she slowly starts to fall in love with Jin she opens herself up to her feelings and emotions, and just as she inspired him to become a writer he inspires her to use her mathematical genius to become a programmer, (since at the time it was a relatively new career that seemed to be the career that the female computers were starting to move towards instead). Also Shirley has a very strong relationship with her family, it's a lot more loving and supportive than Jin's, but she still keeps their relationship a secret from them out of fear that this could be the thing that takes all of that away. She has a scene with her little brother when he walks in on her and Jin kissing, that is like the biggest turning point in terms of her journey with her emotions. In the end, she's the one to walk away first, but she's also the one that makes sure the two of them will never let go of each other in some way or another.

Anyways, I've probably rambled on about this movie for long enough and I doubt this film will ever be made and if it is it'll be years before that ever happens. I really wrote this script because I have always wanted to write a movie where an East Asian man is the handsome charming love interest and a darkskin black woman is the soft instantly loved beautiful main character in a romance movie, because these two groups of people almost never see themselves in those roles and they have never both been in those roles in the same movie which I personally think is a crime. This film will probably be my Magnum Opus if one day I have the money and ability to make it, because I love it so much and I would make sure that that love is in every single frame. The genre and the story itself is kind of cliche and played out and it's nothing like EEAAO or the big Blockbuster superhero movies with big effects and high concept sequences and storylines, but it's something soft and sweet and meant for people to see something new and different in a genre so familiar and done to death that is meant to make you feel like you've just been given a tiny glimpse at this one moment in the lives of two people who could have existed in the past with an emotional journey that I ultimately want to leave the audience with a sense of bittersweet longing and maybe one day it will

#ignore me #personal #ask #answered #esevik #my writing #film #movies #tv #long post

[azuresins]

I thought your "celtic origin" ideas were a crock of shit but after reading your theory and pouring through your tags I'm convinced he has to be Irish. A Question for you. Besides Finnian are there any other names you think might fit? Do you ever think about what name they would have given them, if they changed their minds?

Th...ank you. To be honest, not especially. It could be Fionn, but it wouldn't have the same 'all the relatives grimaced' and tried to get Rachel and Vincent to change their minds. It wouldn't have the same implication because Finnian also has political weight. It's a name that any irish person or more common person would be familiar with, to them it would be a very grand name (Joker), but to nobility... not so much. Fionn the Warrior was also ... a very revenge-seeking figure, and some of the more popular stories about him painted him in a very wrathful light. I am paraphrasing terribly, but there's a point in time in one of the legends about him where he has an opportunity to save the life of man with special water (basically, a remedy), and instead of offering the man a drink he lets the water slip through his fingers before it touches his lips, watching him die because of a grudge. He's remorseful later, but it's too late. There's a poem in the Fenian Cycle called "Finn and the Phantoms" where he's also described riding a special black horse, and even the phantoms (he kicked their asses) called him, "Finn with the great/grand name!" And remember, Vincent read this book to his children. Encouraged it. Our!Ciel is seen with it more than a few times and is attached to these stories. More than god or santa, anyway. Edit Tumblr ate this: 'Fionn' the warrior was influential but it made more sense to name him after the whole book, because it's not just a book. It's a mythos, hope for a lot of people, an idea. As far as what they MIGHT have named him, that's anyone's guess. There's a few popular contenders out there. I've heard of a few that "match" up better with a name like 'Ciel' and I'm leaning toward a name that is also french. This is just a ... headcanon, but: I could see Auntie Ann politely suggesting "Anatole" to get paired with "Ciel" because for one, it sounds like the male equivalent of her own name Ann (oh ho HO!), and for another, it matches a bit better, it's a fine and noble name, very elegant and acceptable, they're both French. Anatole means sunrise which is very similar to Finnian in raw meaning. I could see Vincent and Rachel almost sold.......... but, They don't do that they're dead set on the scary forbidden name 😩💔 Sad. No wonder Ciel is the favorite. ...Kidding, lol. Anyway...////

#Fenian name theory #Finnian name theory #headcanon also #Our!Ciel

[fiercely-raging-writer]

Happy STS, Jai!

For any 5 characters: What are their fatal flaws? Bonus: are they aware of it? (LIST)

Describe 20 seconds left in 5 words or less.

Do any of your WIPs have a theme song? If so, what is it?

What is your favorite part of writing? Least favorite?

For the WIP that best fits: Why did you decide to tell this story? Are there any special meanings behind it?

What type of scenes are the hardest to write?

Which of your OC's is your favorite to write?

Share an image (or several) that remind you of your story. (For WMITTO)

Share a line you're really proud of!! (Bonus: why do you like it?)

Have fun!

~Morri 🗡(@memento-morri-writes)

hey morri, happy sts!! thank you for all the questions, i love and adore you <333

under the cut because it got. really long.

listing out alex [wmitto], iza [tkqg], anusha [20sl], suraj [20sl] and amber!! [elemental]

alex: would save his friends over the world. he. he Becomes Aware of it.

iza: prideful. will never bow down, or stop fighting. this, ironically, also happens to be one of her best qualities. half aware of it.

anusha: timid. she's only truly Herself while acting, and she's afraid to step up and into the light. not aware.

suraj: thinks he's better than EVERYONE. so arrogant and also a selfish dick. he's majorly flawed also i love him. he is VERY aware of his flaws.

amber: will carry the weight of the world on her shoulders. very unaware of this. my baby girl <3

2. ooh, okay, five words: 'girl accidentally becomes a spy', alternatively, 'kids try stopping bomb explosion'.

3. 20 SECONDS LEFT. it's got the mission impossible theme song and also this fallout one and this other mi3 one AND this james bond one and also this final spy one. i have a tiny mission impossible obsession. and a tiny james bond one. i'm so sorry.

4. favourite part: getting to create characters and put them in situations and have them experience crazy things that make them grow as people. and also getting to work through your problems as you write and also writing things i love to read. least favourite part: the planning, + the little filling up bits where you have to transition between a scene and the next and you're just. blank. and also when you WANT to write but No Words.

5. for 20sl, because i am Attached, i made up this story ages ago, and it was based off this one scene i really wanted to write with cool spy gadgets. as a kid i was OBSESSED with cool spy gadgets. i wanted to fly, but i couldn't, so i made my characters fly instead. anyways, the books i grew up reading didn't really have any indian protagonists. i have one [1] book in my collection with an indian cast, and i wanted to write something for myself, something 12 year old me needed, something cheesy and silly and something kids in india could read and love. and yeah, the idea of gadgets and spies was adjusted a little and BOOM! i just want to tell the story of a Normal 12 Year Old Schoolgirl who now has to save the world.

6. transition scenes. i don't even know why. i jsut. find them difficult. also, action scenes, if i'm not Feeling The Mood.

7. alex and amber!! i project onto them so much hhh and also i find writing the pov character in true colours really easy and comfortable as well!!

8.

stuff like this yeah. all images from pinterest!!

9. hmm, going with this:

her hands still reach out, grab my heart, and she whispers: 'did you even love me?' i did. i did. i do.

it's from a poem i wrote!! i like it because it's. i do not know actually. i just kind of do kjdjkfhs.

thank you again for the ask!!

#sts #asks #wip: wmitto #wip: 20sl #morri <3

[darl1ngd3ar3st]

norton, victor, mike, andrew, luca, aesop, and emiles love languages

gender neutral reader <3

norton (prospector)

- physical touch, 100%

- he just likes to hold you and know that you're there

- if that makes you uncomfy, he totally understands! just let him know and he'll make sure to respect your boundaries.

- if you don't like physical touch norton shows his love for you through little acts of affection, such as leaving stupid little notes around with cute little messages on them

victor (postman)

- notes and love letters without a doubt

- also some gift giving! victor attaches little bags of candy and stuff to the letters he sends you sometimes <3333

- he's best at expressing himself through writing, so he writes poems and stuff for you

- his poetry is a little rusty but it's still very well made especially considering he pours his heart into every word

mike (acrobat)

- physical touch

- there's no way you could ever be touch starved with this dude constantly hanging off of you

- mike's almost always touching you in some way or another, whether that be holding your hand or full on clinging to you like a lost child

- if you don't like physical affection he might be a bit bummed at first, but he gets it

- so instead of that he'll give you small gifts like star candy and such

- he might forget if you don't like to be touched so please forgive him if he messes up! he really tries I promise :(

- I'm self projecting a little bit sorry

andrew (gravekeeper)

- he has a hard time showing affection but that doesn't mean he doesn't try!

- I'd say his love language would probably be quality time??

- he just doesn't wanna make you uncomfortable or anything so he thinks the best way to show his affection is through spending time together

- maybe he'll ask if you want to go for a walk or if you want to hang out in his room or something

- he's definitely touch starved but also a bit touch aversed if that makes sense??

- idk be patient with him tho, once he gets more comfortable he'll let you kiss him and stuff

luca ("prisoner")

- hard to say actually

- idk maybe physical touch and lighthearted teasing??

- idk that felt fitting

- he'll tease you a lot tho that's for sure

- physical touch is a bit tricky for him but he's gotten more comfortable with it

- he'll tease you for your height regardless of who's taller

- he likes when you play with his hair and vise versa

aesop (embalmer)

- he's good at expressing himself through gift giving and acts of service

- aesop has a very keen memory so if you mention something you want/need or like he will see to it that it's in your hands by the end of the week

- he makes you coffee in the morning, and he knows how to make it to your liking

- he's good with being touched! specifically hand holding, that's his favorite thing ever

emile (patient)

- idk about this one

- he's not really sure how to give you affection properly so maybe small gestures of affection??

- emile knows what you like, he's just new to this sort of thing.

- he mostly compliments how you look, how patient you are, etc

- he also likes receiving physical affection sometimes. not all the time, tho, so make sure you ask before you touch him

- if he wants you to stop, he'll let you know through body language.

#identity v #idv #norton campbell #victor grantz #mike morton #andrew kreiss #luca balsa #aesop carl #emile mesmer #idv x reader

[pub-lius]

what do you know about Hamliza?

OH YOU MEAN MY PARENTS?????

I know too much, in fact.

Well so they met briefly in 1777 probably, and everyone talks about that, but it doesn't really matter, the REALLY important thing was their meeting in 1780. They like immediately started talking to each other and were basically attached at the hip (this is kind of a pattern with Hamilton). Hamilton started visiting Eliza where she was staying and one time he forgot the password into headquarters bc he was so in love and i CRY EVERYTIME

But live laugh love they get married and James McHenry writes thEM A POEM and usually Hamilton makes fun of his poems bUT THIS ONE IS HIS FAVORITE 😭😭

But they live very happily married for a very long time. After their first child was born, Hamilton wrote to Richard Kidder Meade, saying:

"You cannot imagine how entirely domestic I am growing. I lose all taste for the pursuits of ambition, I sigh for nothing but the company of my wife and my baby. The ties of duty alone or imagined duty keep me from renouncing public life altogether." -Hamilton to Meade, March 1782

When he established his law practice, it is theorized that Eliza helped him with his cases, or at least organization. Same thing with his notes for the Constitutional Convention. They were extremely close, and they expressed very dear love for one another.

The 1790s was the rough period in their relationship. They were apart for long periods at a time, Hamilton was publicly disgraced, they both got yellow fever, and Hamilton committed adultry. I'm not entirely sure if this is when Eliza burned the letters between them, but I'm pretty sure she did that after his death, for the sake of privacy, as many people did, ie Martha Washington. But we can assume they did have marital issues during this time, obviously.

But something happened, and their relationship grew stronger in Hamilton's final years. Perhaps it was Phillip's death, but that happened several years after the affair, and I would have to put together a more in-depth timeline to say whether it was a direct causation in the change in their relationship, but it did have a strong effect on them nonetheless. Hamilton became a much more dedicated Christian, which was something that was very important to Eliza. This is also when he started calling her Eliza instead of Betsey.

We're not going to talk about the duel, bc its 9 am and i have shit to do, and i don't want to cry, but I'll link his final letter here; go down your own rabbit hole.

After he died, Eliza still remained dedicated and faithful to him. She became a philanthropist, and dedicated much of her time to Hamilton's, and several other founding fathers', legacies (although her conclusions weren't the most accurate, but it's the thought that counts). And then, uh, she died 😬

Seeing as they had a very long relationship, there are a lot of details I left out, but hopefully I will cover the important ones in the future. I hope this helps, and thanks for the ask!!

#alexander hamilton #elizabeth hamilton #historical hamliza #hamliza #my hEART BLEEDS FOR THEM #idk who I'd rather have adopt me #them or the Washingtons #its a very hard decision #all ik is that i need a loving mother figure in my life 😭😭😭

[thisstableground]

I'll probably ask more questions when I'm more awake (hope I can remember) but 3, 4, 9 and 10? :o)

3. How would you describe your writing style?

aggressive whiplash between this is a humour fic and this is an angst fic with an occasional sprinkle of hey everyone did you know i've written poems before

4. Do you have any OCs? Do you have a story for them?

i wrote some original characters for pieces i did during my masters but i never got attached to any of them because i lack that kind of confidence in my own character creation abilities. unless we're counting usnavi's parents as OCs! in which case yes i have two and they're wonderful and i love them and every time i write them i'm like "wow!!! you are such a cute and loving lil family wouldn't it be awful if canon dictated that your kid ends up an orphan 🥺"

9. Thoughts on cliffhangers.

i love them! i don't get to use them very often because most of my stories are emotion focused rather than having any kind of plot whatsoever, but i'm not averse to an emotional cliffhanger either. i do feel like with emotional ones you have to have earned a certain level of trust with a reader though - as a reader it can make me super anxious (which is why generally i prefer reading from writers who i'm friends with because then i can just ask for spoilers), but for my own stuff i try and cultivate a "the end goal is for them to get better and happier even if there are ups and downs" atmosphere that hopefully makes it stay at intriguing rather than anxiety-inducing for any readers who might have a similar issue

10. Top three favourite fic tropes.

character has panic attack/nightmare/flashback in front of people, revealing the depth of their pain and leading to a sense of healing and greater understanding between them (very excited about being able to switch up this formula and use a flashforward instead of a flashback now i'm writing someone with future sight, i have Ideas)

local dumbasses incapable of recognising that their romantic feelings for each other are mutual despite the universe throwing them into so many Read The Goddamn Signs situations (i honestly still have more of these i want to write for vansnavi)

found family, especially when they are caring about That One Person Who Doesn’t Feel Like They Deserve Love (it still counts as found family even when they're your real family if youve been living in the walls for ten years and have to repair all your relationships with them)

thank you for asking :) :) <3

[themelancholyhill]

Thank you for sharing such a personal story regarding your illness. I think almost everyone could relate, regardless if our depression actually gives us physical symptoms. I know that for me, when I am in a depressive state, my entire body feels it. It doesn't feel numb, but it feels like all of my life source has been sucked out of me, and I am unable to do minor day to day tasks. Even without the advice of a healthcare professional, it is always a good idea to step away from something that causes you so much stress. I am saying all this to show solidarity, not to invalidate how you feel. I know we've only been talking like this for a while, but I do care about how you're doing. I hope you take good care of yourself, knowing what your triggers are is half the battle. There are definitely people that are only meant to be in our lives for a little while. I've come to terms with the fact that people come and go, and that as attached as I am with some of them, it doesn't mean the outcome would change. And that what's important is the enjoyment of knowing them when they still know you. I agree with your friend, that not everything in life can be explained. I also believe that not everything has a word complex enough to explain it. Just because you can't explain it doesn't disprove how you feel, or the fact that something happened, and in your case, a deep connection. I think I am a lot like you with friendships, us water signs feel things very intensely, and not everyone can meet us at our emotional level. I can imagine how you must be feeling right now, and I am aching right alongside you. I carry you in my thoughts, always.

Is your friend Aries too? So is mine. What is with these Aries men? Today, he wanted me to do a drawing for him for his social media account. I told him drawing is not my strong suit and that I'm much better with words and asked if he would like a poem instead. He said that the last time I wrote a poem for him I told him I never wanted to do it again. I explained that last time was a commission and that I don't consider this time to be a commission. He then said, jokingly, that he won't talk to me until I draw him a picture. My gut reaction was that two can play this game, but I am 100% serious. I do not like playing mind games with people, I consider it a waste of my time. Mind games are for people who want to mess around with other people, like how a cat messes with a mouse before it kills it. I do not play around and I do not like to be played. And even though he said it as a joke, and I am reacting to it as a joke too, a part of me is frustrated and annoyed. I replied to him after what he said with a joke and all he sent back was 🤫. I feel like we just patched things up recently, I really don't want to deal with more headaches with him. He knows I am not a good graphic artist, and him withholding friendship in order to gain something for his social media account leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I will actually enjoy this break from him. I don't like playing mind games, because I always win. ✖️

"My life source has been sucked out of me," I chose to open this reply by what you said because I can 100% relate to it. I've been feeling downright terrible these past couple of weeks and it feels like my body is about to collapse at any given moment. I haven't had a relapse in years, but I know that it'll pass as I stay away from what triggers my anxiety and stress. I'm not saying that he's causing me stress, but it's best to just let him go, and he's helping me with this by being this distant—I swear, he never stops to amaze me in a way.

Temporary people are part of life, but it hits hard when you meet wonderful people whom you think they'll stay for the long run, but they'll end up being just temporary. I just have to get used to his absence the same way I got used to having him around. It'll will take time, but part of healing is admitting that you need to move on, right?

As of now, I feel empty due to the feeling that something is missing, but it'll lessen with time. I guess this is what it takes to be a water sign—we feel things too much and too deeply.

Let's open a bracket for a sec. I have a friend, let's call her Ava to make it easier. Ava got dumped by her boyfriend because she told him that she suffers from chronic depression. But what baffles me is the way he went around to dump her. He went to Ava's friend and told her that he's dumping Ava just because he didn't want to hurt her! She's also a water sign btw. All that to say that some guys nowadays are not mature enough to face certain relationship situations—be it romantic or platonic. I sense that this is what happened with my friend, but I'm not sure and I don't wanna jump to conclusions.

Which brings me, he's Taurus and so an earth sign. I don't know much about it, but from what I gathered, based on our interactions, he's rather confusing and complicated. He seems like an introvert because he's shy and sensitive, but he also likes to hang out with his friends. His reactions are unpredictable and they never failed to confuse me.

As for your friend, I see that he's not that mature himself as least when it comes to his approach to certain situations. Distancing yourself is a good idea, and I think that this is what I had to do with my friend. But again, I guess we have to take things with a grain of salt, including people we deal with, while making sure that we're not taking advantage of. Sounds sad, but oh well 🤷🏻‍♀️

I can't thank you enough for all the support; it makes me feel less lonely.

#asks #V✖

[sleevesareforlosers]

i read your pony/cola little fic and the vibes are astronomical, so i, humble goblin, have come to you, to request a little more of that wonder (pls I'm gay and starving)

SORRY THIS TOOK SO LONG I was,,, burnt out on dying is easy tbh

On Ao3!

Cherri Cola finished reading and leaned back in his chair with a quiet sigh. He let the moment hang in the air a second longer before clearing his throat and starting to talk again.

“That one went out to our zones’ very own Ultra Violet and her family. For those who have yet to hear, the convoy welcomed a new motorbaby to their ranks the sunset before last. May the Witch watch over them as they grow and find themselves and others.” Birth announcements were rare, but Cherri’s favourite part of his nightly broadcast. His words carried a smile through the static as he continued. “All parents are resting with their new sandpup and-”

The door to the broadcast room cracked open. Cherri’s heart jumped as he spun around in his chair, whatever words he had been about to say forgotten. But it was just Show Pony. Ae did aer best impression of tiptoeing on aer rollerskates and pressed one finger to aer lips. It took Cherri a moment to get his heart rate under control, never the biggest fan of being snuck up on. As Pony closed the door behind aerself, Cherri turned back to the mixing board and cleared his throat again.

“Apologies. Our resident zonerunner still hasn’t mastered the art of knocking before entering a room-”

From behind him, Pony snorted quietly but, for once, didn’t argue. Instead, ae skated towards him, dropping onto Cherri’s lap and wrapping an arm around his shoulders. Ae reached forward to fiddle with some of the knobs on the board and Cherri smacked aer hand away gently.

“As the sun and moon move on in their endless dance, so too do we move through our broadcast-”

“Oh, read this one next!” Interrupted Pony, pointing at the open page of Cherri’s notebook.

Resigned to the fact that his listeners heard Pony’s voice on Cherri’s show about as often as they heard his own, Cherri assured aer that he was planning on it, pressing a kiss to aer cheek as he did so.

“Give me a hand?” Cherri asked.

Pony leaned over and grabbed Cherri’s prosthetic from where he had set it on the table. Ae began to fasten it to Cherri’s arm while he murmured into the microphone.

“As my own personal pony express has so eagerly requested, this next poem is another original.” Pony finished attaching Cherri’s prosthetic and settled back onto his lap. Cherri slowly dragged his hand up and down Pony’s back while he introduced his poem, “Hold the ones close to you a little tighter and take a moment to close your eyes and breathe while you listen. Whatever you believe in will surely grant you a few minutes of calm and if they don’t, everyone that doesn’t tune in to me can pick up the slack.”

The poem was short, a piece about warmth and belonging that Cherri had written just after he and Pony had gotten together. Cherri half wondered if Pony had actually read it before ae pointed it out. Whether or not ae had, ae melted into Cherri’s lap while he read and was practically boneless by the time he finished.

“Now even I can get tired of my own voice sometimes, and I’m sure you can too.” Pony perked up slightly and picked up the album that Cherri pointed out on the edge of the table. “So we’re going to take a break and relax in the Kiln House. I’ll be with you again soon.” Cherri switched the input over to the turntable and started it up, turning the volume in the broadcast room down until the opening song was just a murmur.

“Was that one about me?” Joked Pony lightly.

“I think all art is open to interpretation,” Cherri replied in a mock lofty tone.

Pony laughed, burying aer forehead in Cherri’s shoulder. “I’m takin’ that as a yes, darlin’.”

“That’s your interp-” Cherri cut off as Pony pressed a kiss to his lips.

When ae pulled back, Cherri sighed and chased the kiss as far as he could with Pony’s solid weight holding him down in the chair. Ae leaned forward again, stopping a breath short of actually kissing Cherri and ae smiled.

“It was sweet, thank you.”

Cherri leaned up the last few millimetres and connected their lips again. Not that the poet didn’t like using his words to show how he felt, but sometimes there were better alternatives.

#danger days #true lives of the fabulous killjoys #tlotfk #ttlotfk #tlfk: california #show pony #cherri cola #Anonymous

[wearejapanese]

I don't know if you take history questions or not...but do you know of any good resources on the Asuka Period of Japanese history? I ask because earlier this year I started editing a novel I wrote about Princess Nukata, a poet from that era. I encountered a poem of hers in college and was intrigued enough to look into her more. I did do research when planning the novel, but exhausted what I could find pretty quickly - partly because there aren't many primary sources (the Nihon Shoki and Kojiki are the closest I could find, as well as poems from the Manyôshû), and also I can't read Japanese. (I'm white, but very interested in Japanese culture - genuinely, not in a geek way, though I will admit anime & manga got me into it initially). I consulted a friend who has a degree in Japanese on the matter, and even she didn't think there'd be much.

I don't know where to look, because most of the things we consider "traditional Japanese culture" today didn't come about till later, so I feel for accuracy I can't include those (though I bent the rules to include tea drinking, which I hadn't realized beforehand came later). But I want to portray the culture too. I remember one thing that came up when I consulted people on the Japan region forum for NaNoWriMo about this novel was that I shouldn't use modern-day Shinto wedding practices as a basis for Nukata's wedding, but instead try to find sources about how they were done then. Except, as I said, sources of any kind seem scarce.

I also worry, given the concerns about cultural appropriation (and about white interpretation of Asian stories prompted by Disney's Mulan remake), whether it's even ok for a white person to write such a novel. I just found Nukata to be a very interesting person, and someone in history that no one really knows about (in America anyway; I don't know how well she is known in Japan, though I know the Takarazuka play Akane Sasu Murasaki no Hana is about her, and she was briefly referenced in Chihayafuru) so I wanted to make people more aware of her.

I don’t mean to be flippant, but have you considered the sources in the reference sections for the wikipedia articles on the Asuka period and Princess Nukata?

Obviously, if you want primary sources, your best options are all in Japanese. However, I skimmed the wiki articles and noticed several publications through University of Hawai’i, Stanford University, Columbia University and Cambridge University. I’d also recommend consulting publications from University of California and University of Michigan for pre-modern Japanese literature and history as both universities are known for the high quality of their scholarship in this field. 

It’s not uncommon for non-Japanese people to be first introduced to our culture via anime. In fact, the Japanese government soft power machine has worked very hard to use popular media to package our culture for your consumption. There’s no need for you to be apologetic about how you became interested in Japan. What matters is how you continue to channel that interest, and whether you are interested in hearing perspectives that don’t come with a price-tag attached.

Speaking bluntly, without fluency in Japanese, you are likely not the best candidate to conduct primary source research on this topic. I have friends who get PhDs on this sort of topic. The issue is not that you are white. I happen to know that quite a few of the academics active in this field are white. The issue is whether or not you have the appropriate linguistic and cultural competencies to write a compelling, respectful story on your subject.

If you wish to have an anachronistic approach to Japanese historical fiction, I’m not enthusiastic, but you wouldn’t be the first non-Japanese writer to favor anachronistic depictions of our history for the aesthetics. Frankly, I’m generally supportive of people writing about whatever topic they want, but something about the way that you’ve phrased this reminds me of outsiders who claim a desire to study a language or dialect out of a desire to “save it.” In my personal opinion, if you want to learn more about a Japanese historical figure, I don’t think you need to couch you interest in caveats like trying to spread awareness.  I assure you that poets who show up in Man’yoshu are pretty well known both in Japan and by people who cover the field. 

-Saito

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