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feietouhuo · 3 years

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︱︱︱ 𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐑𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐐𝐔𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍𝐍𝐀𝐈𝐑𝐄.

——— GENERAL

NAME: mu qing ( 慕情 ) — it translates to “to yearn for affection”. while it is a simplistic representation overall, it describes mu qing’s greatest desire. but it’s a lot less about a need for affection & more about wanting something he didn’t have. it defines his entire life: one where he constantly served & helped ( albeit out of duty at times ) without ever receiving thanks or kindness in return. but “wanting” is a dangerous thing for him, so he never expresses it ALIAS: general xuan zhen // sweeping general AGE: 800+ years in canon // 23-25 years old elsewhere PLACE OF BIRTH: born in an alley in the royal capital of xianle SPOKEN LANGUAGES: mandarin GENDER: male SEXUAL ORIENTATION: asexual // demiromantic OCCUPATION: martial god of the southwest // fashion student & designer in modern verses

——— APPEARANCE

EYE COLOUR: black .... though i will say i have considered making it gold to match the donghua..... maybe HAIR COLOUR: black HEIGHT: 188 cm // 6′2″ SCARS: he has one on his arm, where cuocuo bit him hundreds of years ago ( thanks i guess feng xin :/ )

——— FAVORITE

COLOUR: black, but usually in combination with silver or red HAIR COLOUR: dark hair ( brown, black ) EYE COLOUR: no preference ENTERTAINMENT: sword fighting // bickering with feng xin // poking fun at anyone he sees with his eyes PASTIME: sewing // meditation in the garden & landscape he has in his palace // math FOOD: contrary to popular belief, he prefers the simple things!!! he loves fruit & vegetables because they’ve always been home to him. even if home was the slums of xianle. but his favorite thing to have is dumplings. they’re customizable with their fillings & also weren’t too much of a luxury where he couldn’t get the ingredients once every few months. he just wished he spent more time making them with his mother. DRINK: tea, generally on the weaker side BOOKS: no preference. but he does enjoy reading & will read anything as long as it’s not shameless.

——— HAVE THEY

PASSED UNIVERSITY: yes. in modern verses, he grew up poor. his mother used to tell him about the importance of getting an education. that she wants to see her son graduate. while skilled labor is a perfectly viable option, mu qing knows his mother would rather have all options available to him. he graduated from shandong university of art & design in jinan, china in my modern verse. HAD SEX: no HAD SEX IN PUBLIC: no GOTTEN SOMEONE PREGNANT: no KISSED A MAN: depends on the verse. in canon, no. but otherwise, he kissed feng xin / xie lian in most of my other verses cause i am xianle trio poly garbage :) KISSED A WOMAN: no GOTTEN TATTOOS: no GOTTEN PIERCINGS: not in canon. in modern verse, he did get his ears pierced, but mostly as a complement to outfits when he feels it is necessary. mu qing doesn’t usually wear them, but wears them often enough so they don’t reseal. HAD A BROKEN HEART: yes BEEN IN LOVE: yes, both in the form of pure admiration in canon & romantic love outside canon STAYED UP FOR MORE THAN 24 HOURS: yes

——— ARE THEY

A VIRGIN: yes A CUDDLER: yes A KISSER: yes, but only when comfortable enough A SMOKER: no SCARED EASILY: no JEALOUS EASILY: y e s. jealous of things he can’t have, jealous of things he can’t be. TRUSTWORTHY: depends on the situation. mu qing is extremely trustworthy in a way most people aren’t used to. he speaks in truths & has never broken his word. if he does something “wrong”, he’ll be sure to tell or admit it. however, more often than not, he will choose himself over others. if his needs aren’t satisfied, he likely will not lend a helping hand. DOMINANT: it’s complicated. he’s less dominant & more prefers the idea of control. if he feels unsafe or unable to stop at any time, mu qing gets really aggressive. SUBMISSIVE: also complicated? i will say he is more submissive than dominant, though, in the arms of someone he loves platonically & romantically. back to his name thing, he can’t fight against the idea of being loved & gifted affection for once. but as a whole, mu qing is neither dominant nor submissive. SINGLE: verse dependent

——— RANDOM QUESTIONS

WANTED TO KILL SOMEONE: yes RIDDEN A BEAST: no. he’s wielded a zhanmadao / sabre for as long as he’s been a soldier & a heavenly official. it’s impractical to use it while riding something, so mu qing never does it. HAVE ANY FEARS: his greatest is to lose his godhood & power. you can apply this to any verse. before ascension, he was not outspoken. he was living in a constant state of fear because his & his mother’s lives depended on the jobs he had. no matter what happened to him, no matter what abuse/bullying he faced, mu qing couldn’t speak up. couldn’t do anything. couldn’t let his emotions take over or else he’d lose everything. he was the only source of income in his family, the only source of anything. if he lost his godhood, he’d be rendered speechless again. he loves his life because he can decide now. it isn’t under the jurisdiction of someone else. he’s finally capable of being himself. even the idea of losing it all, to death or to banishment, makes him quiver.

——— FAMILY

SIBLINGS: n/a PARENTS: he grew up with his mother only. his father died when he was very young at a public execution. his mother dies later in his life ( in his late twenties ). CHILDREN: i feel like giving the children in the slums food all the time is considered a form of adoption.

tagged by: @fuyao thank you so much for tagging me!!!! this was so fun to explore please

tagging: @woxingwoshu ( you can do any of your muses <3 ), @bodiesburnd ( any muse you like :0 ), & anyone who wants to do this!!

#『 headcanon 』#『 ooc 』#mu qing!!!! my son!!!!#these memes are so fun like afdsklfj character analysis???? dumb character details? that's my shit

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mingethemerciless-blog · 4 years

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The trials and tribulations of minge.

I’m a very scruffy person, when I was 13 I went through the usual teenage trial of having my teeth straightened, they had to take 4 molars out because they were pushing the others into such bizarre states of wonk that the orthodontist barely knew where to start.

I wore those badges of adolescent awkwardness for near enough two years. My friends all came out with american style smiles. Mine, although slightly straighter, remained resolutely, stereotypically british and scruffy.

Twenty years later I was walking at a smart pace down the track to the bus stop. I had washed and styled my hair, picked out an outfit which I hope said “responsible” and “in full control of her mental faculties” By necessity it included a slightly impractical maxi skirt, but I had learned over the years, that this was the best uniform for my current endeavour.

On the bus my reflection in the window told me that my luxuriant shiney bob had inexplicably flattened in places where I needed volume and frizzed up at the points where I had taken hours to smooth it out, the former gelam now looked distinctly greasy.

I fiddled nervously with my hair and the collar of my shirt until I arrived at the hospital.

This hospital is where I was born. Sitting at the top of a hill, it has one of the best views over the city that I have ever seen. I stared out of the window and almost calmed myself down, this might be the last chance I got to convince these people to help me...

My name was called, I shook the doctors hand.

“I hear you’ve been having some trouble with your periods” he understated.

Since the age of 23 I have been winning awards, if only in my own mind, for “worlds longest period” and “most blood lost without fatality.”

I launched into my unflinching and well practised description of the ping pong ball sized blood clots. The time one fell out of me in the shower and was so huge and heavy I was convinced I’d just given birth to an alien, I picked it up to check if it had a face, bits of it fell off and clogged the drain. I calmly recounted the years and years of seeping dread, the fact that I hadn’t gone swimming, worn white or finished a meal without a sickly slug of feroglobin in years.

I wasn’t scared any more, Cancer had suggested itself in my mind on and off for several years, but, as a nurse once blandly put it: “If it was cancer you’d be dead by now.”

My mind was throwing out tendrils of thought about my other dread. Pregnancy. When I was 18 I calmly accepted what I was told when I said I didn’t want children:

“You’ll change your mind” they would say in a funny sing-song way.

I’d probably want them when I was a proper adult, say, 25 years old.

25 came around, I was in no way a proper adult nor did I yet want children. No problem, there was plenty of time for me to want them, I’d just think about it a whole lot and then I’d want them.

30 came around, and I could no longer deny, the thought of pregnancy repulsed me. To be a host body to a parasitic bundle of flesh, to have my blood drawn away from me and into this other being. The idea of my cunt tearing open, a living thing coming out of me. A living thing with my weak jawline? With my scruffy hair? What if I didn’t love it? What if it turned out to be as intolerable a little shit as most of the children I’d ever met were? What if it grew up and went on being an intolerable little shit...come to think of it like most of the adults I’d ever met were? What if, instead of doing something which changed the world for the better, it just became another consumer. Oh god what if it voted for Rees-Mogg? What if that apocalypse we’ve been promised actually happened and I had to raise an intolerable little shit in a cave whilst fighting off mutant tories and puerperal fever?

A more realistic and terrifying thought was never far from my conscious mind: What if I was raped? What if an abortion was too traumatic or, in the sadly likely event of an NHS sell off, too expensive? What if the current trends continue even further and an abortion was simply unavailable? Would I find someone clean and steady handed enough to do it on the kitchen table? Could I find the right hedgerow ingredients? Would I survive that?

“Do you want children?”

I was very glad that this came up.

“Definitely not, in fact I’d like to ask for a tubal ligation.”

“That won’t help with the bleeding”

“I know, it’s a separate issue, but I think it’s relevant…”

On the young man's face I saw faint hint of the bemused horror I’d seen on my GPs face when I had first asked, almost the beginning of a nervous laugh, although none had gone so far as to laugh at me yet…

My GP had looked at me the way teachers would look at me when I told them I’d lost my library card or forgotten my essay. Faux shock, the kindly-meant disappointment of a grandparent seeing you make a youthful blunder. His voice had come out with just the merest subtle hint of a condescending laugh in it when he told me he could refer me to a specialist but it was unlikely they’d give “someone like you” such a “drastic” operation.

Someone like me? Scruffy? Irresponsible? Disorganised?

And how was maintaining my personal status quo drastic? Surely having to fire a fully dependant, sapient life out of my pelvis was far more drastic than just...carrying on as I was?

In any event, none of the appointments that GP had made had referenced my desire to get the snip, almost as if he didn’t even write it on the request he sent...

The current gynaecologist shook off the uncanny look he had given me for asking the forbidden question and asked if he could “scan me” Oh great, another date with the dildo-cam…

I’ve had this scan done so many times, my cervix is directly connected to the pain centers of the brain, one mere prod and all hell breaks loose in my nerves, it’s no good telling doctors this, they adhere rigidly to the “some women experience discomfort” school of thought.

The young nurse was wonderful, allowing me to squeeze her hand when the probe swept over my diva of a cervix and white stars of agony danced on the ceiling above me.

“You have a very large ectropion on your cervix, it’s probably causing a lot of the bleeding”

“Yes, I’ve been told that many times…”

“Hmm, we could get rid of this ectropion with silver nitrate, it might help stop the bleeding?”

Holy shit, you mean there was a way to get rid of that thing all along?!

I consented as calmly as I could.

The next thing I knew he was jabbing my insides with chemical soaked lollipop sticks, but I was more than willing for this to happen after 10 years of inaction and casual shrugs at my wayward cervix.

I was told to brace myself for “gritty discharge” as bits of burnt cervix dropped out of me along with all the other nonsense going on down there.

Later, pants back on, veins blossoming with green bruising from the “hormone level” blood tests, my innards were laid out in bland yet descriptive medical descriptions.

My womb had a “septum” which immediately made me think that it had a face, a scornful, angry face I would dearly love to punch for the years of ruined underwear, bedsheets and dates.

My right ovary was polycystic,

“This can lead to diabetes and heart disease later in life so you’ll have to be wary of gaining weight…”

My body type is made up of circles, I have rounded hips, boobs, thighs and face, when I was younger I worried briefly that I was chubby, but I was active and I ate well, I could still see my ribs and I could power walk up the hill to my house without so much as a sweat. I gave the doctor a blank look, he still hadn’t discussed my tubal options yet...

The doctor now took on a slightly lower, more cautious tone, evidently more scared of upsetting me with this next information than he had been by talking about my weight.

“You may find it slightly harder to get pregnant...but it’s by no means impossible”

I did a double take.

“...That’s really not a problem for me...what with the tubal ligation request and all…” I hinted cheerfully.

He made a neutral sound and moved on with a list of my uterine shortcomings.

My left ovary was “very mobile” (my mind gave it a beard and a bindle stick) and showed some evidence of endometriosis.

“I’ve never had any symptoms of that…”

“Again this can lead to some minor complications in conception and pregnancy…”

Was I speaking klingon? Was I mispronouncing “tubal ligation”? Was IVF so much cheaper than the lady snip that they’d rather I reproduced despite my clear desire not to do so and regret an actual living human?

“You have some signs that there may be polyps in your uterus, that’s not harmful but they may be contributing to the bleeding, in which case, we can remove them.”

I was booked in for a hysteroscopy, which sounded painful in spite of the “some women experience discomfort” platitude, and a review in 3 months time.

“Do you have any questions?”

I took a deep breath, I knew this was a separate issue but I had to bring this up whenever I could because there was no obvious way to request it otherwise.

“How do I go about getting the tubal ligation?”

The look of horror came back, much stronger this time, the poor sod had run out of things to distract me with, his face turned to a look of utter defeat.

“I wouldn’t even consider doing that until you had exhausted all other contraceptive options and had fertility counselling, have you considered the mirena coil? It’s progesterone only and most women find it very good…”

My mind flashed back to the last “progesterone only” treatment I’d had: Migraines had hidden the worst of the symptoms for the best part of 6 months, by the time they were under control again the real problem became tragically apparent. My sex drive was so low that I could barely tolerate a hug, in desperation I had the little plastic rod dug out of my arm with a scalpel, but my libido never fully recovered, don’t try telling me the effects aren’t permanent…

A further flashback to the copper coil. The way it dug itself into the side of my womb, the way it hurt, exactly how much and how long it hurt for, How there had been no one in my local GP surgery willing to remove it for me (grab the string and pull, I refuse to believe that this requires a specialist qualification on top of medical training.) The serious thought I gave to yanking it out myself, only stopping when the prospect of a torn cervix put me off.

A rich history of contraceptive pills danced through my brain, mood swings, swollen boobs and most memorably a migraine so bad that I called NHS Direct and was told to monitor myself for signs of a potentially fatal brain haemorrhage...

The time they’d tried to stop the bleeding with anti-inflammatories and discovered my allergy to this group of medications when I broke out in a measles style rash.

Those memories don’t blur with time, at least they haven’t yet.

“Statistics show that you would regret being sterilized, you don’t have a family”

For a brief second my imagination took me to an episode of The Twilight Zone. I don’t have a family? Shit! What happened to them? My siblings? My partner? My parents? My friends?

The anger when I realised what he really meant seeped through my mind like a blood clot through a pad.

“You don’t share DNA with anyone who came out of you therefore you have no family”

“You haven’t had to push your family with your pelvic floor therefore they don’t count”

“If you eventually decide to adopt that won’t count either”

“Everyone you currently live with, love and rely on will reject and abandon you because you didn’t give birth to them.”

Blood clots, along with anger of that magnitude tend to flood the sanitary pad or mind.

Luckily, I have had years of practise at crossing my legs and trying to discreetly aim my crotch at the driest part of the pad. This, in effect, was how I ordered my mind at that moment.

“Don’t yell at NHS people, they have enough problems. The poor man was just working off a script, of course they have to be careful, one litigious malcontent could set these heroes back years…”

I left, with no clearer an idea of how to get my tubes tied and no idea why this was the first time, cysts, polyps and septums had been discovered after so many tests over so many years.

Back home I attempted to find out how much private hospitals charged for tubal ligation. “Anywhere between $700 and $10,000 depending on your insurance provider” ecosia informed me in very american and somewhat unhelpful terms.

An inquiry to Spire healthcare yielded an unapologetic result of £3000, that’s a lot of minimum wage hours and late rent payments, besides £200 of that was for a consultation in which they might refuse me anyway.

I wondered if those places in Turkey where they do cheap facelifts might consider my case...Would having scalpels jabbed into me in a country where I couldn’t speak the language followed by a cramped and cheap flight be more or less unbearable than a kitchen table abortion? Either way the word “botched” was never far from my mind.

When the day came for my hysteroscopy I steeled myself for another try. The gynaecologist was a lovely, calm young woman with curly hair. She spent a long time reassuring me that I was in control and could stop the procedure at any time. She told me that she would take a biopsy from my womb lining in addition to shoving a camera up where no camera had gone before. She showed me the camera. I wish she hadn’t.

“See, it’s very small.”

It was slightly smaller than a pencil. Small compared to a baby maybe. But I knew exactly how big that thing was going to feel in my stupid nervy cervix. Turns out I was wrong.

It was far bigger and far sharper and far more white hot than I thought possible.

The nurses squeezed my hand and told me it would be over soon.

I never stopped her, I wanted this done, I wanted to know what the hell was wrong with me. I wanted to show what a good patient I was, how in control of my mind and body I was, how I would take the responsibility of dealing with sterilization without regret...

I learned just how exponential pain can be.

When someone said “This will take another five seconds” I discovered how long five seconds can feel.

I found out, to my displeasure, that passing out does not necessarily stop you feeling pain, it simply stops you moving. I learned just how wonderful the overworked and underpaid folks of the NHS really are when they brought me water and later tea and let me sit in a comfy chair and shake without telling me that they needed me to get a grip and move on because they had a full waiting room…

The results were discussed with me. There were no polyps, there was no septum, what's more, my womb was perfectly shaped to receive a mirena coil…

Sterilization wouldn’t stop the bleeding, it was a separate issue. The mirena would stop the bleeding and stop any pregnancy. Sure I’d have to have it ripped out of the most sensitive, nerve rich part of me and then stuffed back in broadside first every three years, assuming I hadn’t emigrated and the NHS was still there that is. And the progesterone might...exacerbate certain things, but that would probably settle down...

I sighed, drained my tea and smoothed down my faithful maxi skirt.

Alright uterus, you don’t like me and I don’t like you, but it looks like we’re in this together. Here’s another burning hoop for us to jump through, lets give these folks the show they’ve been waiting for...

#mybodystory #feminism #reproductive choice #woman

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poppun-chan · 7 years

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The Year of Keroro Challenge Update 4 (Yes Sir)

Goodness, even though I mentioned looking forward to this one it took quite a while to write it (this has been a difficult week)in terms of watching I’m almost finished with the first season, actually, one strange thing I noticed was that the valentines episode actually lines up with valentines day. But before we get started Jlucy pointed out to me that the scene from episode 21 with the car is specifically a nod to “Castle of Caliostro” with the drivers being based on two of the main characters and the car being a nod to the Fiat from the movie. Actually I wonder if the writers for the dub had this in mind when they were writing; in the English version the driver mentions he was renting a car because he didn’t want to use his Fiat.

Either way I had planned to wait until there weren’t any text pieces to translate, but I have at least one more of these non-episode specific notes to do before we reach episode 65, so a bit on name origins (The ones for the Human characters will probably be less familiar, but still....)

Keroro-Kero, the noise a frog makes (I’ve always suspected this is actually a really common name)

Tamama-Otamajakushi, meaning tadpole (I really find myself wondering about his family background that his parents gave him a name that assumes he’s going to look like a child for a long time)

Giroro-Giro, the onomatopoeia for glaring at someone/something

Kururu-Kuru, it’s used as an onomatopoeia, a noun, and a verb, either way it refers to something twisting, spinning or turning (which is why his resonance creates a loop)

Dororo-It’s best known as a reference to the Osamu Tezuka manga Dororo, which takes place in the feudal era, it also works as a play on Doro-Doro which is the sound of something dripping

And the plan count:

Serious Plans: K66:16 D66:1 MMK:1 TMM:1

Funding Plans: K66:1

It’s a plan, I Swear!: K66:5 (I’m throwing the sports day mission in here too)

Oh look! Progress!: K66:3

And the marker board from episode 27:

Episode 22: Now first of all I’ve always enjoyed this episode, the absurdity, the cute break down Tamama has at the end, the completely impractical but still fun plan (actually I think Tamama only comes up with three plans over the course of the entire show and they’re all more or less the same basic concept). Plus the little stealth pun when Natsumi gets angry about the shower; she shouts “Kora!” which is an interjection that can be used as a reprimand, but it’s pronounced similarly to Cola.

Actually, speaking of this part I have to admit I sort of agree with Tamama’s point that Fuyuki could just serve that cake in the fridge instead of making dinner....Actually even the bit about accounting for nutritional balance could sort of be refuted; Baked goods often contain grains and eggs, not always dairy but ice cream and cheese cake covers that, his plan allowed tuna as an exception so that’s meat covered, plus many desserts are made with fruit and there are some made with vegetables (carrot cake, anything with pumpkin in it, corn cake), sure most people would probably either stop eating before this point or simply die trying, but theoretically it IS possible to get normal nutrients that way....Yes I’ve seriously thought about this; there are quite a few characters that can be explained this way.

Finally no discussion of this episode would be complete without bringing up the infamous letter, so I’m going to try and cover this in more depth since I have the luxury of making this a separate note. First of all, it’s written really oddly; everything except the word “leader” is written in katakana which you normally wouldn’t do (hiragana only is a different matter, but in modern times it’s considered a bit childish). One big issue with not using kanji is that it’s much harder to tell what you’re trying to say, plus katakana itself is a bit sticky since some of them strongly resemble each other or other kanji (one relevant to this is katakana ni resembling the kanji for two which is often pronounced the same way). The revealed part admittedly seems phrased a bit simply, but it says “Taichou wa Tamama ni” or “Tamama’s Leader” while the full message is “Taichou wa Keroro ni Makasetamama ni” or “Keroro will be left as the leader” I suppose the closest thing in English would be if the letters were a bit more spaced apart instead of grouped together

And fun fact; Etsuko Kozakura, the woman who provides Tamama’s voice, also did the voice of Puppetmon/Pinocchimon from the original Digimon series. I just thought I’d mention this since I noticed a few....similarities between their management styles (Though Tamama just imprisoned people who crossed him instead of....deleting them)....actually watching the episode and knowing this made me look into Digimon again, did you know one of the newer series has a Puppetmon who is one of the friend Digimon that shows up every now and then? Really. They have his nose grow when he lies (including to himself) and give him some really charming moments....and he shares his English voice with Keroro, hm.

Episode 23: And it’s the clone episode! I have to confess, the bit about the clones not having a star always makes me wish there was a video of the original Keroro singing the song from the Sneetches, the one where the starred Sneetches are roasting marshmallows....I know it’s a strange association to make, but....Come to think of it, I don’t think this was a manga chapter, I’m not completely sure and I know most of the season one episodes were based on the manga, but I know a few stories were anime exclusive and I believe this was the first one, either way it’s hilarious to see Keroro being the responsible one and getting annoyed by the behaviour of his own clones (still, at least there was an easily visible way of telling them apart, which is better than what happened with Pinkie Pie, some people still theorise that they kept the wrong Pinkie).

Now for a bit of a sticky area, especially since I’ve been putting up with my grandfather’s preoccupation with this particular time for most of my life, but I noticed something a bit odd. Even now, a lot of people seem to be weirded out by the “clone salute”, but they actually switched two of the syllables in the Aliens’ name for Earth because the original term from the manga was associated with the Sino-Japanese wars (I’m not sure which, there’s two major ones and a bunch of smaller conflicts, but the second big one was during the world war) and was banned from television. I’d be curious to find out what it is that makes one war reference more acceptable than another (maybe because calling Earth “Pokopen” alludes to much longer standing conflict with a specific country? I have to admit I always wondered if the best way of handling “touchy terms” would be to find a positive, unrelated use for them so they take on a new meaning and the old one eventually falls out of use; you often hear about the power of words, but it’s actually their meanings that have effect rather than the words themselves)

Episode 24: Oh dear it’s 556, I have to admit I’ve never liked this guy (though I will admit, I like the instrumental version of his song on the Christmas album) I know for a lot of people felt the same way with Joriri eventually replacing him, but it didn’t work the same way for me.

Actually, one thing I love about this episode is how when Keroro wonders about the emotions he’s feeling watching 556 fighting “monsters” they immediately cut to Tamama; it’s almost as if the cinematography is saying “Let’s ask your resident expert, shall we?”

Actually I recently looked at the Japanese version of the full character page again, I think there’s one surprising one on there; I know 556 and Labbie are references to Space Sheriff Gaven and a character named Annie from Space Sheriff Shaider, but the character page lists their relationship as Gukyou-Kenmai or “Goofy Older Brother, Wise Younger Sister” which was the original title for a T.V. series called “Otoko wa Tsurai yo” or “It’s tough to be a man” which later became a huge film series of the same title (Often called “Tora-san” after the main character, Torajirou), spanning 48 installments and nearly three decades (only ending when the actor playing Torajiro died). The films followed a similar formula of Torajirou the traveling salesman going home to his sister’s family, walking out after getting into an argument and meeting a distressed young woman in the next town he goes to and offering to let her stay at the family’s sweet shop if she needs it. Eventually this happens and he falls in love with her, but in trying to win her over indavertantly ends up setting her up with another man and ending up disappointed, but putting on a brave face and wishing her the best before journeying to another town in hopes of getting over her and eventually becoming somebody his family can be proud of.

The first movie was actually made to please fans of the original show who were upset that Torajirou died of a snakebite in the final episode, it also took quite a bit of convincing from the director to get the first movie made. Incidentally, the working title for the original show came from the final caption in another piece Torajiro’s actor played in

Episode 25: And here we have a Nishizawa family quarrel....which is appearently not considered complete unless enough money is spent that you could buy a small town and heavy weapons are nearly used (that’s the second time Keroro’s nearly let to Earth be destroyed only to be stopped at the last moment by the realisation that Earth is the official “Gunpla Planet”). Still there are some nice little moments (though I wonder if they ever did make that video, as long as they cut out the bits where they start to lose it could work)

Episode 26: Sports Day fun times ♪ Actually, has anyone ever noticed that whenever a show wants to slow down a sports day they usually target the scavenger hunt? Though now that I think about it, the cruel irony of all this is if they hadn’t tried to help, Aki probably would have made it in time to run in the race (or at least, the combined effect of accidentally speeding up the 100 meter dash and ruining some of the manuscripts). Though I do admit that I miss the parts from the manga where Momoka is running a race and the newspaper article at the end “Freak in tights crashes sports fest” I find it strangely hilarious the way they worded it. Also it’s amazing the things that become relevant later on, let’s see who remembers what I’m talking about.

Episode 27: First of all, I love the way Keroro offhandedly compares renewing interest in the invasion to reviving the dead (He already knows it’s a lost cause), it’s especially interesting considering they come across the remnants of a failed invasion later on. Actually I sort of want to see a spin off about those past invaders; not necessarily a big, dramatic, action-y thing mind you, honestly I expect it would be more or less the same thing as with Keroro but in ancient times, perhaps with the human characters being the ancestors of the current ones.

Also they use the pun of kaeru meaning both “frog” and “to return” quite a lot in the series. Though I have to admit I can relate to Keroro’s feelings a bit here; all of the women in my family have been quite formidable, especially for their time, and my mother is crusading to change the child welfare system in Canada (even though she’s never been in it) and doing all of these things for political change and I sometimes feel I can’t really measure up to that, even though I don’t plan on going into a related field. Plus because of her work I’m a bit burnt out on people issues, I focus more on environmental ones.

Episode 28: This one was a bit tricky, though I always thought the effect of the cold weather on the Keronians sounded more like windburn than all out frostbite. As for the second part this officially marked the beginning of the odd sort of dynamic of Mois & Kururu, I don’t remember how much it was explored in the show apart from her sometimes being who they went with when they needed a girl to associate with Kururu, though I remember a few moments from the manga that built on it, such as the “Angol Stone” chapter.

#keroro gunso #sgt frog #Year of Keroro Challenge

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smoothshift · 6 years

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Bought a Lotus Exige S - road trip home from Seattle to Phoenix via /r/cars

Bought a Lotus Exige S - road trip home from Seattle to Phoenix

A few months ago I decided I had my GT4 long enough and it was time for something new. I had some criteria for the new car:

Something the same size as the Cayman or smaller.

Something manual with a mid engine and RWD.

Something that is old enough that it probably won't depreciate a ton.

I'd always wanted a Lotus and realized it ticked all the boxes so I decided that's what I'm getting. I had a local broker who deals with luxury sports cars looking, was running searches on cars.com, autotrader, and dupontregistry almost daily. I saw a car come up at Park Place LTD in Bellevue, WA that looked pretty mint so I called them about it. The oil cooler lines had been done, the software update had been done, there was no evidence of this being a track rat car. It just worked for me. I loved the color, the condition, and the mileage - something that had been driven but not a ton - as super low mileage cars scare me. Hunter, the SA at Park Place, was great in the process. They picked up the GT4 a few days later and I booked my plane tickets and some hotels and told my gf to take a week off work. Off we go.

We packed extremely light, just one shared gym bag with five days of clothing, all our toiletries, and a back pack with sweat shirts and phone charger. As it turned out this was perfect because Kaitlyn kept putting her purse in the trunk and we collected some items along the way. There was no room left.

The day they took the Cayman away, a tear was shed: https://imgur.com/a/EVZNO7P

I joked with my girlfriend that this was the car I bought. She knows very little about cars and I guess for a split second believed me https://imgur.com/a/Ks2Oy8T

I said "KAITLYN, LOOK! THE GIRL WHO WORKS HERE HAS A PET SKUNK!" so we stopped to play for a bit. This was a unique experience. https://imgur.com/a/EFzZdzt

Day one was the longest day. 9.5 hours of driving from Seattle to Klamath Falls, OR. I had to stop near Mt. Hood to take this photo: https://imgur.com/a/ZYdHXmT and then we continued on. I let Kaitlyn drive for a bit, if she looks terrified it's because she was but she got over it quickly https://imgur.com/a/hsDzHlv The rest of the day was frightening. We stopped in Bend at Deschutes and bought a few great beers to go and had some dinner, after that it was pitch black on a recently paved two lane road with areas of no lane markings. It also didn't help that I saw no fewer than 6 live deer on the side of the road and countless dead ones and blood splatters for a few hours. I was white-knuckled the whole time. Finally we arrived in Klamath Falls and stayed at the Shilo Inn. worst breakfast I've ever had.

Day two we drove from Klamath Falls to Truckee. This day I was fairly excited for, I knew it would start to get more scenic. Lassen Volcanic National Park did not disappoint. It happened to be free National Park day which was the luckiest thing ever! https://imgur.com/a/rmm4GSq https://imgur.com/a/5YYWPQp This photo was taken at Lake Helen near the top of Lassen Peak https://imgur.com/a/phCN6Mq The roads through the park and on the way in to Truckee were very windy. Before coming into the windy mountain roads we had been feeling the effects of such an intimate car on boring highways. Immediately when things got interesting I started giggling like a child and K was forgetting how low, bumpy, and loud the car was. When we got to Truckee Donner Lodge, I left the car and we took an Uber to Mellow Fellow so we could have a beer and dinner - my Hazy IPA did not disappoint https://imgur.com/a/GgseBiq What a cool town that was. EXPENSIVE - but cool.

On the third day I was excited - very excited. We are driving from Truckee to Mammoth. 3:30 of planned drive time will leave us plenty of time to screw around and look at the sights. We just wanted to be at Mammoth by 3pm so we could ride the gondola - made it in time. We also had time to see Devil's Postpile. We got into a fight but ultimately the beauty of the area outweighed the stress from driving such a small and impractical car so many miles. Emerald Bay is beautiful!! https://imgur.com/a/XpxIxg1 I really wanted to see Mono Lake based on the photos of rock formations I'd seen, on the way there we stopped at a neat lookout https://imgur.com/a/jNTNwVu This stretch of road was the most fun. I don't even know what road or where we were but it was near Lake Mono. Somehow K was able to sleep through this twisty section of road, I have no idea how she did it but it meant the car was getting more comfortable, I guess. Finally, Mammoth: https://imgur.com/a/HgD7Xgj That night's brew was delicious! https://imgur.com/a/irPd5WE The Village Lodge Mammoth was really great. We got a one bedroom with a fireplace, very relaxing. the only drawback was having to park in a garage. This was the second parking garage of the trip, the first one being in Bellevue to visit Din Tai Fung for dumplings. Garages are NOT fun in this car. It's hard to reach the ticket and some angles and grades are tough.

Third day we drove to Palm Springs, I did not understand how bad this leg was going to be. The car started to be come annoying and uncomfortable again. There was a nice view of Mt. Whitney: https://imgur.com/a/zgKPogY and then a lot of views of NOTHING. Fact: the Mohave Desert is the ugliest desert. https://imgur.com/a/76VqTTx Our dead bug collection was really growing https://imgur.com/a/64kZf9Y The hotel was fantastic! https://imgur.com/a/x9UV58P That night's beer was an Even Par 7.0% from La Quinta Brewery. Pretty boring, to be quite honest.

Today, yes today, we drove home from Palm Springs. Easy cheesy. 3.5 hours only stopping for gas and for beef jerky in Quartzsite. I decided since we got home early morning I would register the car and transfer title, this was also simple even with having to do emissions first. Funny that the car was only $300 for two years! The GT4 was about $1,200 for one year. Welcome to Arizona: https://imgur.com/a/1IL0zhl Somehow I still had energy left so I gave her a bath: https://imgur.com/a/YkwbdRK

Some notes:

This car really rips. The power to weight ratio is amazing and the steering feel is unparalleled, very direct and when you really dig into a corner you have to work. It's such a rewarding experience.

If someone asked me "would you like to drive 1,700 miles in a Lotus Exige?" I'd say no. I've done it. It's not a good road trip car. It's uncomfortable.

This car makes you feel like you're breaking it just by driving it. We encountered some bad road sections and I'm convinced something is loose in the steering or suspension. I'm going to have a local shop go over every bolt with blue loctite.

The air conditioner is not as bad as people say. Everyone told me it's like someone blowing through a straw, we were comfortable when the outside temp was 100f coming into Phoenix. Would I rather be colder? yes. Was I fine? yes.

I averaged 28.4 mpg for the trip. That's excellent. The new set of Yokohama A048s also performed well. I'm sure I just went through a quarter of their life.

The amount of attention this thing attracts is amazing. People waving at me, gas station attendants ditching their post at the register to come and talk about the car, motorcyclists asking about what it's like to drive. Even my next door neighbors came over when I was washing the car asking if they can take pictures of it and the grandma (who doesn't speak english) was telling me how much she loves it, they never bat an eyelash at the GT4. I don't know what it is about this car but I'd think a Porsche would have been 100x more eye-catching to most people. Not so. I'm sure this will get old after the honeymoon phase with the car is over.

At the end of today looking back asking "would I do it again?" yes. If I had the car shipped I would not have had such a wonderful experience getting to know my new car and seeing some gorgeous parts of the country. When I have a complaint I just remind myself of the board at the coffee shop in Palm Springs: https://imgur.com/a/88qL8t8

Thanks for reading!

#reddit #autonews #auto #cars

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