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symphonyofsilence · 8 months

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Do you ever think about Immortal ghosts and gods, being traumatized sons of long-gone fathers still?

Do you ever think about Qi Rong, the son of an abusive man seeing a child mistreated by his father and deciding to adopt the child? Qi Rong who was born and for some time raised in a Doghouse-like Shack and his life was turned around when his mother ran away from his father and took him to the palace promising his son that he was going to take him to live in big, beautiful mansions? Qi Rong who was looked down upon by everyone, even by the person he considered a god in the heavens before he even ascended, who was the only one who was kind to him and stood up for him when everyone else was bullying him and his mother in his first exposure to the outside world, Qi Rong who got little respect even as a ghost king, Qi Rong who was insecure as someone who was looked down upon by upper-class children because of his commoner Yan'An-born father, who called Feng Xin & Mu Qing shitty low-lives, who had no regards for commoners and abused the poor lower-class child that was Honhong-er, THAT Qi Rong adopting a commoner child and doing his best to look the best and the mightiest and the most respected in the eyes of his son, not caring if everyone else didn't respect him? And succeeding (in something that the King of Xianle didn't succeed in) as one of the last things we hear of Gu Zi is that he says that his dad can't die because he's told him that he has cultivated to be the king of the three realms or something. Because even if Gu Zi didn't know what the king of the three realms was, it was something that his father was. So it must have been quite a powerful, mighty thing to be? Do you ever think about Qi Rong whose last words, when being asked "What do you have to be held in high regard?" was "SO WHAT IF YOU ALL LOOK DOWN ON ME? THIS ANCESTOR...THIS ANCESTOR...THIS ANCESTOR HAS A SON!"

Do you ever think about Mu Qing, whose earliest experience of law and Justice was his father being beheaded, and then his teacher who wouldn't even accept him as his disciple due to Mu Qing being poor and the son of an executed man, never lifting a finger to stop the relentless bullying he got by rich kids but being more than willing to kick him out if he stood up for himself, and in one memorable occasion accused Mu Qing of "intentionally withholding communication" without even hearing him out first while "his [Mei Nianqing's] words and expression showed he already firmly believed Mu Qing to be sabotaging the affair purposely", (And then didn't apologize to him when his accusations turned out to be false. And while MNQ was so quick to accuse him, apparently hours of nimbly & skillfully carrying a 9 ft Zhanmaodo that a group of people together couldn't pull out of a wall wasn't impressive enough for him to give Mu Qing so much as a nod of approval. He couldn't even just not disagree when the queen praised Mu Qing and compared him to Feng Xin who at 14 was already good enough at martial art to be selected as the bodyguard of the crown prince while MQ only started cultivating at 14 but caught up to FX in 3 years.) still, even as the Martial God of the Southwest with seven thousand temples dedicated to him fully believing that unless he takes matters into his own hands he won't receive any justice? (And note how he thinks if he stays and waits for trial he will face "death" even though as far as we know there's no mention of any god being sentenced to death, at worst even with a kill count as impressive as Pei Su they get sentenced to banishment)? And of how his story constantly revolves around him being accused of crimes he didn't commit from start to finish? As he's introduced to the audience as someone who left Xie Lian behind as soon as Xie Lian got banished and treats Xie Lian with contempt even though he owed everything to him, as he's accused of intentionally withholding communication to sabotage the Shangyuan festival as a 17-year-old, as he's thought to have left Xie Lian & Feng Xin behind and teamed up with the other junior officials against Xie Lian, as Xie Lian second-guesses his intentions when Mu Qing brings him medicine, as he's first suspected of being the father of Cuo Cuo and then the culprit behind Jian Lan's forced abortion, as he's accused of trying to murder Feng Xin when everyone was evacuating the Heavenly Capital, as he's accused of conspiring with Jun Wu against Xie Lian. Despite how he was the only Heavenly official with a totally clean record with nothing to be used against him by Jun Wu and every time anyone suspects him of anything he has actually been doing good because he's a good, kind-hearted person. Do you ever think about how in the end he did end up with cursed shackles but got them voluntarily? Of how Mu Qing who was so sensitive to being accused that he would break a broom and run away when hearing Feng Xin's comment on how they couldn't invite too many people to search for the coral earring, and valued his hard-earned cultivation and statues so much, and his good deeds would always backfire in his face so bad that he believed "truly, there is no point in being a good person" but would still continue to try to do good without expecting anything in return, knowing that Jun Wu would try to frame him and paint him as a traitor every step of the way, and believing what Jun Wu had said about his friends being unwilling to believe him because they hated him, still decided to go to Mt. Tonglu to search for Feng Xin and stayed true to himself and his friends and did the right thing? and in the end, a hand reached out to him just before his fall. Because Xie Lian believed in him all along and sometimes just one person believing in you is enough. because as Xie Lian once said "I don't believe that good will brings bad returns." in the end the cursed shackles broke once and for all.

DO YOU EVER THINK ABOUT IMMORTAL GHOSTS AND GODS BEING THE TRAUMATISED SONS OF LONG-GONE FATHERS STILL?!

#I NEED TO KNOW THAT QI RONG GOT HIS CORPOREAL FORM BACK WHILE GU ZI WAS STILL A YOUNG CHILD SO HE CAN RAISE HIM AND WATCH HIS KID GROW UP #AND LIL PRECIOUS GU ZI WILL HAVE HIS DAD WITH HIM!#also everybody owes Mu Qing an apology. especially Mei Nianqing & Feng Xin.#tgcf #heaven official's blessing #hob #tian guan ci fu #mxtx #qi rong #mu qing #xuan zhen #gu zi #xie lian #feng xin #my two cents #tgcf meta

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lotusunset · 1 year

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Far too many pics of the Palais Garnier (Part Three!)

In October of 2022, I had the extraordinary experience of getting to complete an 15+ year old dream of mine to visit the Palais Garnier. I took a metric fuckton of pictures and now I want to share them with you all, the PotO community!

Before I start dumping, a few things:

Please reblog this post. I usually don’t post a lot, therefore I don’t have a big following. I’d really appreciate people sharing these as much as they can. When I was a dumb kid in ye olden days of the internet, finding a post like this was the sort of thing I would have been hyped up on for weeks. Help spread that kind of joy!

Feel free to use these photos for any sorts of graphics, artistic reference or any other fandom related projects, as long as it’s not for profit. Please just credit me in some way. In fact, I'd love to be tagged to see whatever creations come from sharing all this!

This is part three, which is a continuation of pictures from the interior. I will continue to share information from the tour I took in this post as well. In fact, these are some of my personal favorites, as I never knew about some of these rooms as just some silly American girl on the internet. I hope you guys enjoy these even more than the last!

Part 1 (Exterior) | Part 2 (staircase) | Part 3 (HERE) | Part 4 (stage)

This is the grand foyer, an area that is pretty heavily photographed already. Standing in this room is almost as impressive as the massive staircase. The paintings on the walls and ceilings depict a lot of mythological scenes. In one of them, there is a hidden portrait of Garnier, along with the other artists that were involved in creating the paintings. The doors leading to the 2nd level balcony are located in the grand foyer.

Historically, only the gentlemen were allowed in the grand foyer, as it was seen as a place for them to converse and do business until one night, the Queen of Spain decided that she didn't care about such arbitrary rules. Ignoring it completely, she entered the room. The men all decided to leave, offended that even a queen would dare to encroach on their space. As word traveled around the Opera that night, all the other women soon joined the Queen in the foyer, wanting to see for themselves that she was there. Afterwards, men and women were begrudgingly allowed to mingle.

I found this to be a very interesting room. At the end of the grand foyer, this room was full of sunlight and comparatively simple decorations. The wealthy patrons themselves served as the real decorations of this room, as they would gather here for refreshments! The common folk, while not permitted to enter, would come to simply watch the rich people indulge in lots of expensive treats.

In fact, the menu still hangs on the wall in the form of all the portraits! All the women are holding items that symbolize various food items, tea, coffee, wine, game meat, fish, ice cream, citrus fruits and pastries.

I couldn't help but imagine Raoul taking various treats and sneaking them out to share with Christine.

We weren't allowed to go down this hallway but it just continued to make this place feel like a giant maze.

These two rooms were nearly identical, though on opposite ends of a hallway. A few mistakes were made during their construction. The top room is known as the Sun room, for its warmer ambiance. The bottom is the Moon room.

Firstly, the rooms were meant to be swapped locations. The Sun Room was supposed to lead into the gentlemen's smoking room, but the Moon room leads to it instead. On the ceiling of the Sun room, salamanders are painted. The little amphibians were believed to ward off the danger of fire and protect the building. By the time the mistake was caught, it was too late to change it.

The other mistake can be seen in the mirror illusion in the Sun room. Because of a fault in the construction of the mirrors, the glass is too curved and the error is magnified with the illusion. The light appears to bend around a corner, instead of repeating on into infinity.

I imagine Erik was quite cross with the workers when he realized these errors occurred. I certainly wouldn't have wanted to be on the receiving end of his temper that day!

Looking at the star motifs painted on both ceilings, I wonder if they could have inspired Christine's Star Princess costume in the musical.

PART 1 (exteriors) | PART 2 (staircase) | PART 3 (here!) | Part 4 (stage)

#phantom of the opera #poto #le fantome de l'opera #palais garnier #paris #opera garnier #christine daae #raoul de chagny #erik #photography #art reference #history #architecture

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rogueddie · 1 year

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oh my god season one steve defender, hello

am i glad to find you because i’ve ben rewatching stranger things and the fanon version of steve before the upside down seems on the harsh side now. and the way the show was comparing him to jonathan who was dealt a shitty hand in life made people a bit biased.

like, he was asshole, not refuting that! but also he was a moody teenager who didn’t know better and peer pressure is a bitch even without people making assumptions about you and your big empty house. (i think a big part of steve being so gone on nancy was because she didn’t treat him like he was an asshole. unlike others who made it seem given.)

also he tried to rectify his mistakes. didn’t try to run from that. went to jonathan to apologize, even when his face was still fucked up from the beating he got and not knowing what jonathan was doing with nancy, exactly. he trusted nancy. he was jealous and lashed out in the worst way possible but he chose to trust her—like she trusted him before he went and hurt her. didn’t want to disappoint her again.

also he made the right choice at the most important time. running back to nancy after she threatened him with a gun and a literal monster jumped out? most teenagers—hell, even adults—would not do that, not even the kind and mature ones.

he wasn’t involved with the interdimensional monster shit, unlike nancy and jonathan who each had a person they lost to it and were in deep. he chose to be involved. like. people seem to think that the upside down and its subsequent trauma was what made steve a good person. he was good to begin with, he just needed a push. the upside down didn’t happen to steve, it was the other way around. that’s a big part of why i love his character: his choice to be involved. a lot of people understate that. like.

steve isn’t connected to anyone in the party. he’s there for them all nonetheless. a rich kid just inserted himself into danger to save people, how come he catches so much heat from others?

he wasn’t bad, is what i’m getting at. he acted bad. he was innately good and just had to practice that goodness outside the influence of mouthbreathers.

Oh, people are definitely too harsh on Steve. But that's entirely the Duffers fault, I'm convinced. Most people won't have watched s1 for a while so things like Robin insisting that Steve used to be an asshole will be informing their perceptions of early Steve, or Steve telling Nancy that he really needed that knock to the head like he was the worst person before that.

He was definitely problematic, majorly so. It was his friends who were the assholes but he didn't try that hard to stop them- we see him trying to scold Tommy for going too far, but it's only after he implies that Jonathan is responsible. He initiates it too, even if his comment isn't necessarily that bad.

And trying to make up for his mistakes? That was almost immediately afterwards as well. With the implication of his father cheating, obviously he's going to be paranoid about that type of thing happening to him just like his mom. It makes sense that he'd overreact and went way too far. He was upset and a kid!

Plus, on the point of him choosing to go back- isn't he the only one who really chooses to keep getting involved in the Upside Down, even though he doesn't really have any personal stakes in it?

Like, s1 he's given an out. Nancy pointed a gun at him and Jonathan isn't exactly a friend, but he goes back anyway. And in s2, he could've told Dustin no. He didn't need to babysit or agree to help him, he had no real reason to and it's heavily implied that the two aren't close at all. Then in s3, he could've turned Dustin away too. Why would Steve want to waste time on translating Russian? He had a job! S4 is the only time he has any personal stakes bc at that point he's good friends with Dustin and it's a clearly dangerous situation.

He's always had a very clear pattern of behavior that is the same now as it was in s1. Considering he's a rich kid, it would make sense that hed get stuck in a certain crowd too and of course theyd be assholes.

#ask #I'm going to brainwash everyone into also loving season 1 steve

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ahappydnp · 9 months

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This might be controversial, I don't know. But I honestly don't like Dan's content post coming out nearly as much as pre-BIG. It used to be silly -yes- but relatable videos with one or two edgy jokes thrown in. Now it's ALL "I'm gay, horny and depressed and the world is ending but we also kind of deserve it" ... I know that last part has a lot to do with We're all doomed and Dystopia Daily - like the clue is in the names, I get it. But when it's all jokes like that... where is the lightheartedness? Where is the fun? Where is the relief from the problems of the world? Pre-BIG Dan at least had a better balance with that. Anyway, rant over. Hope it made sense.

mmm normally i'd ignore this kind of ask because it's nuanced and i don't want a dozen more hot takes in my inbox but i get that you're not just criticizing dan as a person but more his content shift so (many) thoughts under the cut:

i think first and foremost it's hard to gage dan as a content creators post BIG because the only content he's consistently made has been dystopia daily and wad (discounting gay & not proud because...you know...)

it's also hard to compare him to his content pre BIG since: 1) the video format is different- DD is a scripted persona heavy talk show format that's more commentary on culture than personal experiences 2) he's not supplementing DINOF with liveshows/regular social media posts + gaming channel videos that showed different (usually softer or more lighthearted) sides of dan and gave the audience a more well rounded perception of him as a person

which i think is one of the biggest ""issues"" people have with DD. it's not even necessarily the content itself (though i doubt anyone would say DD is their favorite content by any stretch), but the fact that the main source of perceiving dan is this heavily edited persona that's a bit too detached from real life daniel howell? because yeah like you said, we know he has a lighthearted side, we know he's actually very kind and thoughtful; however, dystopia daily is about the content, not dan as a person. the product isn't himself anymore which is a massive shift from old content. about dystopia daily as a concept- like i said, the reception from long time subscribers has been basically "i don't love this but i love you and am excited to see you again". it's not BAD it's just not what people watch dan for? it's definitely not something i would click on or enjoy from anyone else, but i love seeing dan in anything and supporting him. and some of it is good! there are some rewatches in there! but yeah if you didn't know him prior to DD you might assume this was just another ~generic angry rich white guy complaining about the world to be edgy~

i don't agree with you that it's ALL "i'm gay, horny, and depressed" and might even say it's not a crime if it was? dan spent the first decade of his career having to edit himself and if he needs a professional second puberty to feel better then go off! am i excited for him to explore more topics or stories or formats?? like absolutely!! but i'm not angry about this era of him getting his bearings. did i love him pretending he doesn't like/has never been around kids when we know for a fact he does? no it felt weird and forced but i get his thinking that he wants DD to be detached from dan. "where's the fun"?- i will say that this year in particular we've seen more of dan's personality online! like the silly little instastories and tweets, he's sharing more about his life (like seriously who would have bet he'd post anything about their japan trip????), him in phil's video + the hair clip. and it's just like the biggest breath of fresh air because that's our dan!!! that laugh!! i know that guy!!! and i do feel like he's ready to incorporate letting people see more sides of him again after giving himself the space and boundaries to readjust after a massive life change. but there have still been bits of him this whole time! the few liveshows he did on tour were fun, him at the tour preshows was PEAK classic dan and he was truly the sweetest during his m&gs (seriously i cannot recommend enough checking out the preshow compilations playlist on youtube or meetdnp on twitter because it's just....god it's so fucking nice to see him being so fucking nice and remembering why he really is special). check out the idb instastories playlists because there are so many gems from the past couple years people forget about!!

i know it hit harder because dan is such a LIGHT and it felt like we lost it for awhile. he didn't lose the kindness or silliness or creativity, he's still dan! he's older and not the same person he was in 2014, but also who is? i'm not the same person i was in my 20s which is a great thing!

change can feel scary, but dan's entire genetic makeup didn't change. i totally get if DD isn't your thing and that is perfectly fine! but i will say if you're mourning the other sides of him, you've got plenty of examples that aren't current main channel videos. i do believe we'll be let back in even more soon though :)

#anon ask

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the-ravenclaw-werewolf · 10 months

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Which of the four nations do you think each of the 40 (excluding Zuko and Korra) would be part of and which ones could bend?

Remember! List is subject to change!

Indented: Character

Bullet point: Explanation

When writing my answer, I had thought of a A:TLA AU with these characters, with the exception of Korra, but let me know if anyone is interested in hearing it!

MCS (WE): A:TLA Elements

I came up with this list back with the mind set of all of them to be benders, but if I had to chose some of them to be non-benders to would be:

Spike Spiegel

He isn't rich or socially powerful as some of the other characters from his anime, but he's always quick on his feet and has a few tricks up his sleeves.

Mako Mankanshoku

She's already weaker in a sense compared to the cast of her anime, but I can see her being supportive and learning chi-blocking, even if she executes in a weird way.

Chika Fujiwara

She is definitely the opposite of Spike when it comes to wealth and social standing, but I could imagine her more in a role of where she is a non-bender but is very manipulative, kind of playing mind games with her opponent.

Tohru Honda

She didn't need special powers in order to help the Sohma family, so a non-bender role would fit with her.

Izuku Midoriya

I don't think I need to say it.

Senku Ishigami

HE WILL USE SCIENCE TO DECIMATE ANY BENDERS WHO WISH HIM OR HIS LOVED ONES HARM! CHANGE MY MIND!

Iruma Suzuki

He's isn't a fighter, but we have seen him train and fight when faced against the odds, even though he is just a human in the Netherworld full of demons.

Nagisa Shiota

Naturally adaptable and can easily fool his opponents into dropping their guard because of his unassuming appearance.

Ciel Phantomhive

It's in a similar vain to Chika, but he would be pulling more strings in the background to combat any benders.

But regardless, here is my take on your question!

Fire:

Heine Wittgenstein

Earth would be a good element for him as he endured so much from both versions of his backstory. However, because he was a leader in both stories and he was driven to make changes to the kingdom/lives of those who lived in the lower class better, I put him with fire.

Satoru Gojo

He wants to change how the jujutsu system is and has an insane amount of drive, even if it seems he’s just kickback. Not to mention he already has such powerful and destructive technique, what could possibly go wrong? (Answer: Everything).

Kusuo Saiki

Even in the most ridiculous of situations, he has the drive and energy to achieve his goals and or a quiet life.

Rin Okumura

Driven, determined, stubborn, wants to be the best exorcist and defeat Satan, definitely a firebender.

Soma Yukihira

His biggest drive is to beat his father and to become the best chef in the world, making his perfect element fire.

Ciel Phantomhive

Ironic that he’s fire, but I chose this element as he is a leader who takes charge of his life, even if it means to make a contract with a demon. He knows what he wants and he doesn’t care what it takes to get it.

Killua Zoldyck

Fire, and not just for his lighting. He has the strength and determination to fight for what he believes, even if it means fighting against his family or powerful enemies. He will even use everything in his arsenal to see that Alluka, his friends, and Gon are safe and sound.

Emma

Definitely fire as she is driven to get the kids of the orphanage out of there and safe all the while doing everything in her power so they can get to the human world safely. I could see her as earth too, but she isn't afraid to challenge the system.

Earth:

Levi Ackerman

Is a firm leader who doesn't bend (ha!) to anyone and keeps marching forward even in the hardest of times.

Kobayashi

Blunt, stubborn, but determined and headstrong, I can see her as a powerful earthbender who knows how to keep others in line.

Edward Elric

Even though he has a short temper, he would make a perfect earthbender as he already works with so many elements from the earth and is stubborn to a fault.

Senku Ishigami

He has conviction and drive, but also when he sets his mind to a goal, there is no talking him out of it. For better or for worse, he take on any challenge he comes across and sweeps everyone else along for the ride.

(Plus I can imagine him using his bending and science to creating Octo-Arms just like Doc Ock.)

Air:

Saitama

While indifferent, he still has a heart and fights for the right thing. He can come off as rude or cynical, but that’s only because his indifference affects his social interactions. I first thought fire or earth would be his forte, but then I thought of how he usually fights in the defense of others. Sure he wants to find a fight that he can go all out in, but more often than not, get involved in a fight when civilians or an area is in danger. So I thought air would fit him.

Naegi Makoto

He tries to keep the peace and finds a resolution, and absolutely hates the idea of killing. But he brings a sense of community to the group he leads.

Legoshi

He is quite humble as he purely uses his strength for the sake of others and to protect them, so he would be a prefect airbender

Mako Mankanshoku

Full of life, cheer, and loves her family and friends to the very core, even through the hardest time, she has such high spirits that it’s hard to not get swept up in it.

Ryota Suzui

He doesn’t like to take risks, but is shown to pull through when the stakes are high. Smart, yet thoughtful. Careful, but determined. But above all else, he is grounded.

Tetsuya Kuroko

As you know, he works best in the shadows and as a support. And since air can be used to support the other elements, this is perfect for him.

Izuku Midoriya

He deeply cares for those he loves and stands up for what is right. While some go with fire, I see air bending as more of his style.

Shoyo Hinata

He doesn't like to be shackled by his own limitations, which is why he strives to break them so he can go higher.

Shigeo Kageyama

He can be naive at times, but he has a deep understanding of people and emotions, and plus his esper abilities already deals with spirits, so this is a good choice for him.

Iruma Suzuki

He doesn't have material desires, he just wants to live his life with his family and friends. He may be a gentle soul, but when push comes to shove, he can pull off amazing feats.

Hanako

Because of his playful nature and that he strives to protect the spirit world and those he cares deeply for.

Water:

Italy

One of his famous landmark is the Grand Canal, but I see that he is a peacekeeper, but also a fighter if need be, (i.e. Turkey). I considered him as an Airbender, but he has earthly attachments so water I found was a better fit as he also cares for his family and friends and can adapt pretty much everywhere, even in the wackiest of ways.

Spike Spiegel

Like his philosophy, he goes with the flow of life and adapts to anything life throws at him. He also has a heart, even if he doesn’t show it.

Satoru Fujinuma

When he has to constantly live through Revival, he has to adapt and be quick to find the oddity. And even if he doesn’t show it or says he doesn’t have the capacity to care about others, he constantly puts himself in harm's way for their sake.

L Lawliet

He is adaptable in so many ways that he always has a contingency plan. Even if one plan fails, he’s quick to come up with another and is always strategizing, like his mind games with Light.

Yuuri Katsuki

He has a deep love for his family, friends, and later on Victor. His entire program centers around the concept of love and during his training he learns how to adapt both physically and mentally.

U-1146

Definitely determined and hardworking, for his ultimate goal is to protect the body and the cells that live in it, making him the perfect waterbender.

Haruka Nanase

Do I even need to say it?

Kae Serinuma

Throughout the changes of her life, she adapts and finds ways to conquer through them. And she wishes for the others to get along, even if she’s oblivious to their feelings for her.

Langa Hasegawa

Adapts from snowboarding to skateboarding in a matter of seconds and deeply cares towards his new found family.

Chika Fujiwara

As a politician's daughter, she needs to be ready for anything. With all her skill sets and to be able to switch the situation to her advantage, this is her element. (But now I’m terrified that she will try to learn blood bending.)

Mafuyu Sato

Despite being soft spoken and most of the time expressionless, he has a big heart and cares for those he loves, especially when he is afraid of saying the wrong thing. He found a place within the band and could definitely call it home.

Tohru Honda

Gentle, thoughtful, sometimes stubborn, has adapted to the worse, and a healer to all, this is her element.

Haruhi Fujioka

Often blunt and lacking tack at times, she has shown to be understanding and quite motherly at times, which makes her caring but brings about a tough love.

Tanjiro Kamado

He is entirely devoted to his family and those he cares about and strives not only to find a cure for his sister, but to rid Muzan from the world so that innocent people can live out their lives in peace.

Nagisa Shiota

He mostly puts others in front of himself, but he is ready to fight for his classmates and teachers, as they all become this weird, but wonderful family.

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ruki--mukami · 1 year

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"Happy birthday... Ruki... We've made you... a cake and... gotten you all gifts... I got you those new... books you were wanting the... last time we went to... the bookstore together... And you couldn't decide which... books you wanted..."

"So... Here you go..."

"Oh, books are boring~! I got you some new chokers! The one you got on makes you look like someone just cut up a piece of yarn and you decided to wear it, Ruki! It's not fashionable! So I got you some new ones that actually look good! And we made your favorite cake!"

"And no, I didn't burn it this time!"

"I didn't put salt in the cake this time instead of sugar either... How am I s'pposed to know they're two different things? They look the same."

"I made ya somethin'. It's one of the wooden talismans I talked 'bout. Ya know the ones I made all the time on the streets as a kid for good luck? Well... I made one for ya. Ya need it after all the bad luck ya've had. So... Here."

"All of you truly went out of your way for the sake of my birthday. It's wonderful, I will admit, but why? You have my thanks, but going to such great lengths to appease me amidst the endless, immortal cycle that we'll continue to live as Vampires really isn't necessary. Especially when I'm content just being with the three of you, living as peacefully as we can. Still though," he began, voice slightly tinged with appreciation towards his family, "I appreciate it."

First, he started with Azusa's thoughtful gift from an encounter that the eldest nearly forgot about until the book he sought after emerged from the gift wrap like a pleasant stroke of fate, written by one of his favorite authors over recent years.

"Even I have difficulty deciding which novel I should ultimately add to my vast collection, but I'm surprised you remembered that trivial dilemma of mine. Thank you, Azusa. It's because of you that I know exactly how I shall spend my free time in the upcoming days," a subtle smile crept upon his lips before he heard the idol's impertinent remark, and suddenly he soured again. "Books are anything but boring. Perhaps if you weren't easily overwhelmed after a mere paragraph, Kou, then you'd see the joys of reading—but I digress."

After the snide retort, the smirk crawled onto his visage again as Ruki took the rather stylish chokers Kou selected for him. While it fell outside his comfort zone by a hair, the eldest couldn't deny that their intricate designs still complemented his current attire nonetheless. With agile hands, he swiftly removed the signature webbed choker he always wore and replaced it with one of the new accessories to try on.

"Hmm, not bad. How does it look? Is it better than my 'cut up piece of yarn'? What a rich statement coming from the one who always compares our prey to feline mammals," he scoffed. "In all seriousness, I don't mind how these chokers appear in the slightest. I'll spare you the fashion debate for later. You have my gratitude as well, Kou."

Last but certainly not least, the fresh aroma of the cake—correctly baked this year—filled the manor. The dark chocolate and coffee notes immediately caught his attention, earning the hint of a satisfied grin.

"Yuma, for future reference, you can easily tell the difference between the two by tasting them beforehand. In case you get confused again: Salt is the salty-tasting one. And I believe you have become more than acquainted with the taste of sugar from those cubes you own."

Sarcasm dissipating, Ruki finally reached for the nearest fork and ate a moderate mouthful of the cake they dedicated their time to baking for him on his special day. The exquisite flavor stimulated his taste buds in comparison to previous celebrations, genuinely impressing him with their evident improvement as each layer of cake melted in his mouth.

"This is much more edible than I first anticipated," he joked. "Kidding. In truth, you've shown how even us Vampires are capable of honing our skills, even if it is a culinary endeavor. I'm more than pleased."

Turning his attention to the tallest of the family, the talisman Yuma carefully crafted undoubtedly rekindled memories of the past once Ruki laid his sight on it. The words to follow stung as he recalled the suffering from the orphanage, the descent of his human family, and the famished days wandering as a child. Hesitance exuded in each step before he finally accepted the gift, protectively curling his long, slender fingers around its fine wooden texture.

"How considerate of you, Yuma. We've all had our unfortunate circumstances as children, but even so, can you truly call it 'bad luck' if it brought all of us together like this? I'll treasure the talisman always, but just know that the memories we share today eclipse those we would prefer not to dwell on. Although I would never expect any extravagant plans or celebrations for my birthday, I'm elated that I could spend these precious moments with you in light of a new dawn. The kindness you have shown me will never go unnoticed."

#diabolik lovers #ruki mukami #mukami ruki #ask #rp #diabolik lovers rp #birthday event 2023 #diabolik-boys #azusa mukami #kou mukami #yuma mukami #(( idk why ruki was extra snarky in this one but i think he was still somewhat wholesome in the end AHAHHAHAHA ))

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kdval · 1 year

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Let's talk about villains

And their connection with protagonists. And some related topics.

I finally finished it. This would be a loooong post. I'll provide reddit link below just in case.

Spoilers ahead!

A little preface

I've played Requiem 3 times – 3rd playthrough was mostly for hunting for good screenshots and finding anything I've overlooked in the first two. And it turned out it was good idea – at least bc some interesting details, especially about side characters, are simply "hidden" in the most dynamic scenes. Like, you're in a middle of a fight and characters start talking about the past while trying beat the shit out of each other. Given the fact that everyone wants you dead, it's a bit difficult to focus on dialogue (or subtitles). Or you can accidently interrupt character's line while approaching certain area too quick (I ran into it when Sophia was explaining that big tree prayer and then place for people who can't have children – I just didn't hear the whole 1st line and she switched to the next; sure, I could stay there for a while and then proceed, but still, I didn't expect new encounter so soon).

So, my main idea is: Asobo improved their character development compared to the previous game, especially ofc I mean antagonists. At the same time this little problem with dialogues and some plot decisions leaved me in, well, frustration? I love this game, but it broke my heart.

About Innocence

Innocence's antagonists look much more plain and simple imho. For me the rats were more terrifying – every time you meet them you feel desperate. Though they never were real villains, just mindless power. Like Lucas said – Macula cares neither for good or evil. Same for rats.

So you basically bump into horrors of war, decease, human cruelty and somewhere on the background the Inquisition looms. Vitalis and Nicholas are just another human beings driven by greed.

We know that Vitalis is grand inquisitor who tries to hunt down De Rune family and take the boy, use his blood in his own experiments with rats. A bit weird how he can send dozens of people to take down just one family and then just two kids (Hugo didn't even have "powers" back then) – and fail. Ofc it's for game's sake – otherwise it could end in the first chapter, but still. What do we know about him except that he's old (maybe even unnaturally old), rich and powerful enough for heaving the full stuff of alchemists working on Macula for him and soldiers hunting people he orders to hunt? I can't recall any specific details.

Same for Nicholas. He has really cool outfit and voice, can't argue with that. He's extremely loyal to Vitalis, he's ruthless fanatic and terrifying warrior. Maybe he has unnatural powers too? Like, Vitalis almost certainly experimented on something other than just rats. Arthur throws at Nicholas bunch of big-ass rocks – and he didn't die! Rats tried to devour him twice – he didn't die! He lit his sword and then whole armor – like not a big deal. Maybe he was alchemist too? We don't really know. Nothing about his or Vitalis' background.

So I personally didn't feel anything about Nicholas' death. Same for Vitalis. Both boss fights are bit annoying, but ok-ish. I was much more worried about the main characters relationship, I loved Hugo from the very beginning and was ready to kill anyone for this precious boy. Amicia grows as a character throughout the game, she becomes strong and carrying, real big sis for Hugo, and still has her own doubts.

Anyway, Asobo did a great job with Innocence and they really improved in storytelling in Requiem.

About Requiem

So, in this chapter we have antagonists who has quite good, interesting backstory. I wouldn't assume the Count and the Countess as main villains though – first, we confront with Vaudin (who's not really remarkable character, but I loved his voice and design anyway), then with Arnaud, then with the Count and his wife, and eventually… with ourselves. And the biggest power here is actually Macula. We can see at some point that Macula has some kind of… its own will? Especially when Amicia shout in a rat's nest that she won't give Hugo up – and shit immediately happens, we run from thousands of rats once again.

In this sense Requiem's more complex than previous game.

So, we hear little details about the Count here and there from almost very beginning. It's very easy to miss these details, but when I approach La Cuna, I remembered that little talks and thought "Ah, this is the Count everyone were talking about, alright".

In Innocence we meet the Inquisition in 1st chapter, they're after us the whole game. Here – whole districts are shutdown, plague's everywhere, some local conflicts happen here and there (wtf was all that mess with beekeepers anyway?). Everything feels more global than us. As soon as our - world's and Amicia and Hugo's – paths cross – boom, some shit happens.

Would eventually the Count and the Countess know about our existence if not for Arnaud's dumb revenge plan? Maybe not. Well, would we have ever met our antagonists, if we hadn’t gone to the island, to start with? Damn, our little family was surviving for half-year somehow, if not for that castle and beekeepers, they still could live peacefully as they wanted to. But the game constantly remind us: we can't live among people and be free from them, their vices, their greed, etc.

Returning to our antagonists.

We know the Count is very rich and powerful man. With one hand he can grant favors to people, with other – close districts, leaving people there to rot and die from a disease. Ofc when Amicia asks Arnaud if they should worry about count's army here, on the island, he says – different captain, different land. And we hear how soldiers speak about new captain – the Beast – so I guess arbitrariness is definitely possible. But again, the Count lives on the island and seems not very concerned about the rats and everything else… If we listen closely to his and Arnaud's dialogue during their duel, we can learn that leaving people behind is quite normal for the Count. Costs of war, so to speak. We can learn his "war veteran philosophy" from that "duel" with Amicia as well. Asobo scattered a lot of details everywhere actually.

At the same time the Count loves his wife so much that he found a whole goddamn cult just to fill her head with this Child of Embers legend, so she wouldn't try to hurt herself mentally and physically again.

We know the Countess can't bare the child, she had conflict with her parents (because of that?) and tried to commit suicide (if I understood correctly). Though she's quite charismatic cult leader, not gonna lie. And she has great influence over her husband. "She showed him another way" as he says himself.

So I fell into a trap. I actually felt sorry for our villains. Or pity. When we arrived to La Cuna, I hoped, like Hugo, that everything will be fine. More or less. Even though it was obvious that everything will go to hell.

What I personally didn't like about 12 chapter – villains turned to typical dumbass villains again. Instead of finish everything quick they start that pretentious bla-bla-bla and guess what? Shit happened. It reminds me Innocence, when Arthur should check out if Nicholas was dead. Wtf he was doing all that time? Right – nothing. And got wrecked because of it. Wtf the Count was doing while Hugo was killing his men? Well...

It feels like some plot events were made that way to lead us to finale we got. Though I wouldn't argue with this finale, it's sad and heartbreaking, but very meaningful. But some characters simply suffered for plot's sake. Like Beatrice, for example. I feel like she was more of an instrument for plot than a character. Firstly – to confront Amicia, secondly – to push Hugo into Macula. Even though they all reconciled, she actually understood her daughter, supported her, and then we almost immediately lose her. Well, thanks.

About parallels

But what else I like about the Count and the Countess backstory – aside from details Asobo added to these characters – is connection with protagonists.

Just think about it. We have two mentally ill people. They can't cure each other obviously, but they care for one another and prefer to live in a "wonderful dream", being delusional and deceived. And until they live there, on that island, disconnected from other world... well, they handle just fine.

Same for Amicia and Hugo. They can't find any cure for Hugo. Except for very fragile hope for calm life. But Amicia clung to Hugo's dream, even though it's a lie. Even Hugo in 9 chapter says that they (the Count and the Countess) are so wrong – "just like me". Like making a parallel. But when our siblings stay out of trouble, when the war, the plague, the slavers, the marauders don't concern them – they're fine.

And as soon as Amicia/Hugo and the Count/the Countess run into each other – they start annihilating everything around them. And eventually annihilate each other.

The only difference is the Count's fully aware of his own lies, while Amicia truly believes in her dream.

In Innocence Amicia comes a long way from "leave me alone, you little…" to "I'm going to kill everything and everyone for my brother". In Requiem she gets angry several times, but she stops herself from being rude with Hugo. Like when they wanted to change a bandage, and Hugo asks what color she wants: she clearly wants to say "I don't care", but immediately corrects herself. With Hugo she becomes more patient, calm, reasonable and protective. At the same time Amicia is quite obsessed with Hugo's dream and the whole idea of saving him, which causes harm not only to Hugo, but to all people around.

Same for Emilie. She's a calming presence for the Count, he becomes peaceful and nice, when she's around. As a composer, Olivier Deriviere, says in his walkthrough, she contains his anger and madness. And you can say the Count is obsessed with his wife as well: "everything in this world is rotten except for her" line, his wish for destroying the world after she's gone, all that.

They both – Amicia and the Count – are convinced that what they're doing for their loved ones is for good. But Hugo constantly sees bad things around him, fall more into Macula, become more frustrated during their journey. And Emilie's just falling into madness. She doesn't try to hurt herself anymore, yes, but now she's whole into that crazy idea of becoming a Mother for a God…

I can't find much parallels between Emilie and Hugo … except, maybe, for their way of dealing with things. When Hugo's angry, he calls the rats and tries to "eat them all". And he believes that's the right way to deal with cruelty he sees (even though Amicia tells he can't just kill people like this, but honestly, not that a 6yo kid can defend himself in any other way). Emilie's doing whatever she's doing and she's sure that's the right way.

(Only we keep in mind that Hugo's just a little innocent boy, and Emilie is in her early 30's (I believe?) and her psyche is broken).

And I noticed one interesting thing. When we play that hide-and-seek game with the Count, and he speaks his lines about Emilie and all that, Amicia says that he's lived in this lie for so long, that he can't tell it from the truth. The irony is it's exactly what she's doing – living in a dream, a lie she created.

Hugo's going to die? No, it can't be, we will find a solution. Hugo doesn't want to go to the tomb? No, you must, it's for your own good. Hugo thinks he's responsible for all deaths? No, it's rats/Macula/the Count/whatever.

Another topic I constantly see in the game is revenge. And how an obsession with revenge gets people into big trouble.

Amicia. I would assume this as a kind of revenge, when she starts killing soldiers at herbalist's hut. Like, "the world hurts", and she wants to respond to it the same way. But the most important moment is Beatrice's death and following Hugo's anger. Amicia wants to "spoil their blood", she wants revenge so badly, that she basically pushes Hugo into more anger. As a result, we have:

Hugo's almost dead (even though he "wakes up" later, that massacre certainly affected him badly);

Emilie's dead which causes the Count's fall into complete madness followed by events of 15-16 chapters;

Arnaud. He wants the Count dead, so he will do whatever it takes to reach his goal. He doesn't care if lots of people will die once Hugo release the rats. And eventually he got our siblings into trouble along with himself.

The Count. Thinks he can take control over the boy with such disastrous powers and make the whole world burn.

Conclusion

In one of his walkthroughs Olivier Deriviere said they didn't want to make villains plainly bad. Like, bad people are bad in every aspect. But instead they developed more complex characters, and I believe, they did an excellent job. You may hate these characters, you may care little for their motifs or background, but the devs created amazing story.

And main characters' problems, conflict aren't based only on confrontation with villains, but on their decisions and mistakes.

So, as you understand – it's just my interpretation (maybe a bit chaotic, and my English is complete disaster, sorry for that), but I'm open for any discussion.

#a plague tale #a plague tale requiem #aptr #amicia #hugo #count victor de arles #countess emilie de arles #just thoughts

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hazbincalifornia · 7 months

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Whoah if we could see that. Stella doesn’t know cash personally, doesn’t have memories or probably even knows what he looks like, or experiences like her dad had raised by him. But if she saw him, a bit jarring as she sees him who resembles her dad a lot but worse, haggard and old, husk of a man. A dismissive statement about oh, you’re his grandkid, huh? What’d your dad have to do, or who’d he have to spread his legs for to get someone funny looking like you

She took him in with just a glance. Nice clothes that had been long since worn with time, and hanging off a thin frame with a head he could barely seem to hold up from the weight of his horns and the stink of cheap, heavy booze that oozed through the pores of the skin and colored his tongue.

"A prince."

"Hmm?"

"I have two dads. One of them is a prince of the Ars Goetia."

It took him a moment to process that, voice crackling with age and alcohol as he did. "You're shittin' me."

She spread her arms as if about to take a bow, flicking the feathered end of her tail. "Look at me. The fuck else would I come from, old man? Sinners can't have kids, and nobody else looks like birds."

"…Son of a bitch." He squinted at her, and she watched him back. It was almost wild, how he looked like Dad but thrown through three layers of funhouse mirror, with everything she cared about suctioned away and twisted into broken glass. Shrunken, compared to her. Small. "Sold himself, did he?"

"Nope. Papa just liked him." She blinked. "He lives in the palace now. I've got two sisters and a little brother." Pause. "He never told me much about you."

His face wrinkled at that before he shook it off. "Ungrateful little shit. He ruined everything for everybody, and then didn't even bother coming back when he caught some rich titty to suck off of? It'd be the least he could do."

"My papa was…." Blitz crossed his arms, bouncing his foot as he figured out how to phrase it. She was young, too young to get details even though she'd heard him sometimes when he was drunk and curled up against Papa when she was supposed to be in bed. His fingers tightened ever-so-slightly on his biceps, so subtly she was pretty sure she wasn't supposed to notice, but she was real good at noticing little things like that. "Not great. Nothing I did was good enough for him, even when I tried my best." He dropped down to one knee, setting a hand on her shoulder. "I don't ever want you feeling like I don't care, alright, sweetie?"

"Yeah, well." She tilted her head. "He did it all by himself. He runs a business now."

He raised an eyebrow, tail cracking like a whip. "What kind?"

"He kills people. He taught me how to do it too." She spread her fingers, pulling her favorite gun from nothingness with a few sparkles and a rip in the fabric of space. "A lot of people tried to kill me when I was little, so I had to learn fast." She spun the gun around on the edge of a slender finger, watching as the blood flooded his face as it fell into place in her hand like it belonged there.

"Now, sweetie-"

"I like my Daddy a lot." She aimed the gun, and he took a step back. "And I know he doesn't like you."

"C'mon, I'm your grandpa-"

She fired. It went right between his horns, and his eyes darted up as the smoke curled before jolting back to her.

"Sometimes when he drinks too much, he talks about you. It makes him sad, and I don't like that. If you ever get close to him and make him feel bad again, I'll put the next one between your fucking eyes. I'm good at finding people too, even when they try to hide. Got it?"

From the way his head bounced like a bobblehead, he got it.

Good.

#shadow writes stuff #daddy blitzo #asks #anonymous

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celiaelise · 2 years

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My thoughts after watching The Owl House for the first time! 😊 (muchos spoilers!!!)

(I watched with some good friends who had already seen it; they had strong opinions but were also determined not to spoil me.)

We yelled at the screen a LOT. The most common cries were, "It's The Fascism."/"Do you think maybe it could be the fascism?"/"yeah because you're a fucking FASCIST!" we also yelled at Lilith for her poor decision-making skills very frequently. Like, "yeah, you did this!! This is entirely your fault!!!!" Oh, and at Luz for not thinking things through, though we accepted it's a part of who she is.

I LOVE Willow soooo much!! She is so cool and fun and has great outfits; I would like to cosplay her! I started doing her little part with her during the theme sequence in s2. When they revealed her interest in derby, I was like, "she's SUCH a lesbian."

Probably the least satisfying arc to me was how quickly Eda and Lilith reconciled with their mother, but I'm 100% willing to admit that's probably bc I'm projecting my own Issues onto the situation.

My best friend couldn't help but express sympathy for Hunter and Darius the whole time, which led to a few arguments during our watch 😂 they kept saying, "he's a GOOD BOY!" about Hunter, and making excuses for Darius, and I was like, "yeah but he (Darius) could've not been a dick about it, though." But I did agree that Hunter was doing pretty well considering how abused and conditioned he was. We compared him to Lilith, who ended up in a much worse place, after being raised in a much better environment.

Obviously the Belos/Philip/Hunter/Caleb stuff is super compelling!!! My heart was breaking when Hunter ran into the woods at the end of Hollow Mind, both because of his emotional distress and because, "oh my god, he needs to get out of the open, where is he going, he is going to get himself killed." I don't remember when I first suspected Belos' true identity, but I was pretty sure by the middle of the time travel episode. The foreshadowing and reveal were masterfully done, especially with Luz clinging to the hope that Philip could help her get home.

Gus is literally the most powerful illusionist there is??? Also he's like a tiny bit unhinged, but what can you do. 🤷🏻‍♀️ My friend pointed out that all the copies he makes of himself seem to have some degree of sentience, and express fear, specifically fear of death/not existing, and thus, fear of Gus himself. Which is likely not something he's specifically doing on purpose? So that's interesting. But also he's Baby!!! Someone give him a hug!!!!! He just wants to do a good job and be accepted and appreciated!

KING!!! 🥺💕 His arc in s2 was also heartbreaking, oh my god. The episode where we saw his castle was probably the closest I got to crying during the whole show. He is also Baby.

I don't have a lot to say about Eda? Not in a bad way, though, I think I just don't relate to her much. I did really appreciate her curse as rep for people who are chronically ill and/or have to take maintenance meds just to exist every day. I'm not sure I've ever seen that treated so naturally onscreen before. wrt meds specifically, it's usually either a joke to show the character is "weak", or a Big Fucking Deal that is portrayed somewhat tragically. Obvs the curse is tragic, but Eda using the resources at her disposal to manage it isn't.

Similarly, I don't have much to say about Amity. You would think I'd relate to her more, with us both having emotionally abusive mothers, but I think her being a rich mean girl overrides that 😅 No hate, though!! I like that she's gay and a huge nerd, and that she puts up a front of being together but she's still very much Just A Kid.

Luz just being Latina and occasionally even speaking Spanish is so 🥰💕🥰💕🥰 Also no one mispronounces her name the whole show?! So nice. I am curious what her ethnicity is. I assume the creators have one in mind, but if it's hinted at in the show, I didn't notice. Though I get the feeling she isn't Mexican-American. (that's what I am) (One small downside is that I've always liked the name Luz, but I fear it will now forever be a "fandom name" in my brain 😅)

I've seen fan speculation about Hunter's clothing hiding a lot of scars, specifically his gloves. Which makes sense, but I had the thought that he could have some homunculus- or even automaton-looking shit going on under there, before I remembered that's something he probably would've noticed about his own body. Could still make for a cool AU, though!

I LOVE Kikimora! She's chaotic and kind of dumb and ADORABLE, what else can we ask of anyone?

I'm probably forgetting a lot of things. I kind of already want to rewatch it! But my attention span for this post is waning, so I'll wrap things up.

Despite the circumstances, I am very happy the kids all ended up in the human realm together!! I'm excited to see the witchlings be out of their element in our world, as that is my exact favorite flavor of hijinks! Also I'm so glad they're together and we get to see them be friends; it's refreshing what a loving and drama-free squad they are. Y'know, once they decide they're not mortal enemies, lol 😅

#the owl house #toh spoilers #willow park #philip wittebane #toh hunter #hunter whittebane #eda clawthorne #gus porter #augustus porter #king clawthorne #luz noceda #by elise

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flowerinyourcare · 1 year

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Reminiscence of the Unfinished Wine - Chapter 10

🍷 September seasonal permanent event; banner characters Shylock, Murr, Bradley; 2022/09/11 - 2022/09/19 JST 🍷

Nero: Ahh… It's fantastic… Since this one is so rich, it would pair well with a nice cut of meat.

Faust: It's good, but I usually prefer something a little lighter.

Bacchus: Oh, then I think I have just the thing. Here, a little bit before that year we had…

Shylock: Ah, yes. The wines from that period were delightfully refreshing - I'm quite a fan of them, myself.

Nero: Huh, really? Which one was it? I wanna try a glass too.

Shylock: Here, this is the one.

Nero: Heh. It's the one that's as old as Teach.

Faust: Do you have to keep bringing that up?

Nero: You're the one who said it first…

Shylock: If we look further back, there's most likely some wines that are the same age as Nero. Shall we have it later?

Faust: Oh, good. He won't be left out.

Akira: Drinking wine that's as old as they are… it seems like a nice way to have fun.

Arthur: I agree. I imagine that it's quite a moving experience to taste a wine that has aged alongside you.

Arthur: If it was possible, I would have liked to have found wine from around the time Oz was born…

Akira: (That would make the wine at least 2000 years old…)

Oz: …… This wine is from the year of your birth, Arthur.

Oz: You had asked me to pick out a bottle of wine for you. Even if you cannot drink it now, you can keep it as a souvenir for when the time comes.

Arthur: Yes…! And when that day arrives, I hope you will be there with me, Master Oz.

Murr: Hey, Sage, are you drinking too? I've sampled so many different kinds that I ran out of fingers to count 'em on!

Akira: Um, doesn't that mean you drank a lot? Are you going to be okay?

Murr: It's fiiine! Even if ya run out of fingers, you still have plenty of toes! But isn't the Sage having juice tonight?

Akira: That's right. It's really delicious, so I'm happy I get to have as much as I want. But your drink is wine, right? Which year is it?

Murr: This one! The barrel with the big cross slashed on it!

Akira: Ah.

Immediately, Mr. Bacchus came flying over.

Bacchus: Hey…! Did you drink that wine?! I told you it was a failure!

Murr: How exactly did you fail, though? You won't know until you try it!

Bacchus: Well, yeah, I suppose that's right, but still…!

Murr: Everybody! Have you tried this one yet?

Rutile: Huh? Which one does he have?

Nero: What, is it somethin' super good?

Bacchus: Hey!! Cut it out! Murr, you're unbelievable!!

True to the rumors, Bacchus's wines and juices were all extremely tasty. The wizards all drank heartily, refilling their glasses again and again.

It was fun to compare them and discuss the difference in taste and feeling - even if the opinions only ended up settling on "delicious" and "more delicious".

We were all talking, arguing, and bantering, and before long, the wine cellar had taken on the lively atmosphere of a bar.

Nero: Oi, Brad ...ley. I think you've prob'ly had enough to drink.

Bradley: Don't gimme that. If anythin', go nag at the Southern kid here instead.

Rutile: Bacchus wine is really the best! Every single one is so yummy…! Hey, isn't that right, Mr. Faust?

Arthur: Rutile, you're talking to Master Oz.

Maybe it was because they had been drinking plenty of Bacchus wine, but everyone seemed more cheerful than usual.

At one point, at Arthur's request, Murr and Mr. Bacchus kicked off their shoes and began to demonstrate grape-stomping on the spot.

The two began to sing as they stomped happily on the empty floor. Their voices didn't quite match, and they were making up lyrics on the spot, but just watching it made me feel exhilarated.

Akira: Ahaha, this is so much fun. I think everyone is more drunk than usual.

Shylock: I suppose they are all in the right mood to get pleasantly intoxicated. It must be due to the exceptional taste of today's wine.

As Shylock and I took in the peaceful scene, Bradley approached us with a bottle of wine in hand.

Bradley: Oi, pipe-guy. Yer glass is lookin' way too empty.

Without waiting for Shylock's approval, Bradley took the glass from his hand and poured him some wine.

Shylock: Are you going to serve me my drink? My, what an honor. …Oh, this wine.

A familiar bottle, with the label removed - Mr. Bacchus had only offered it as an afterthought. Calamity Wine.

Bradley: I still haven't heard your opinion on it.

To be honest, I was curious, too. What would Shylock do with such a troublesome thing - the wine that had fascinated the hearts of many people, and broken the heart of his friend Bacchus?

Shylock brought the glass to his lips and took a sip. Then, he took a few more sips, as though he wanted to be sure. Finally, he opened his mouth.

Shylock: ……It is certainly a beautiful drink.

Shylock: However, I don't think I would like to serve this wine at my own bar.

Akira: …Why not?

Shylock: Because it is too complete. There is no evolution, and no development.

Shylock: Regardless of the time that has passed, this wine may retain its exact taste.

Shylock: But…

Shylock looked up through the crowd, and watched Bacchus sing.

Shylock: Bacchus wines will change. Every year, without fail, the flavors and aromas will intricately, delicately transform.

Shylock: I love to unravel how his effort, ambition, and affection are reflected in these subtle changes. He doesn't have to say a word, for his wine will do it for him.

Shylock: To allow a life's drama to stain your tongue, though its source is absent… That, I believe, is what it means to taste wine.

Bradley: …I knew you'd say that.

Bradley didn't say anything else, and returned to the group, looking satisfied.

The glass in Shylock's hand was once again empty. This time, he filled it with some sort of Bacchus wine.

Shylock: This is the wine that Bacchus gifted to me earlier.

Shylock: He told me that this was the very first wine he made at this winery. It was one of the few that he stored with magic, preserving it indefinitely.

Akira: That must make it very precious…

Shylock: Indeed, it is a wine to treasure. Bacchus insisted, saying that since I had been willing to give up Bennett wine, he would give me this in return.

The color was rich and beautiful, like liquid rubies. It swirled leisurely against the rounded bottom of the glass.

The depth of its color was astonishing and vivid - although it should have been made a long time ago, it appeared fresh, as if it had just been born.

I could tell, now, that it harbored the single-minded and devoted passion that the creator had for his work.

Shylock: No matter how much time has passed, and how much the world around him has changed, he will continue to make wine. And I will continue to eagerly await it…

Shylock: I'm looking forward to finding out what it will taste like this year. Just the thought of it makes my heart dance.

Shylock lowered his arm, his voice barely a murmur. As if harboring a deep love for a yet-unseen future. As if soaking in the imagined flavor of a treasured fantasy.

After a moment, his long eyelashes fluttered, and he opened his eyes with a smile. He stared at me with eyes more deeply red than even the wine.

Shylock: Sage. Please, toast with me - to celebrate our continued fortune and happiness.

Akira: Yes, of course…!

What will the next wine produced by Mr. Bacchus taste like? What kind of dramatic tale will it tell?

We raised our glasses, each filled with new hope for the old wine.

That shared moment was warm and luxurious. Smiling at each other, we took a sip.

Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7 - Chapter 8 - Chapter 9 - Chapter 10

#mahoyaku #mhyktl #mahoyaku translation #mahoyaku tl #promise of wizard #// event #// shylock #// IT IS FINISHED !!! THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR PATIENCE #// IM LATE FOR CLASS NOW . LET ME KNOW IF U SEE ANY ERRORS #// also im gonna be coming back to add in navigation links and make sure all of these are on the masterpost lol #// but not now BECAUSE IM LATE FOR CLASS. ANYWAYS STAN SHYLOCK BENNETT

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yzeltia · 2 years

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Something Happened in Pelican Town

Chapter 1: The Back Way Home Characters: Acre Stanford(Farmer), Sebastian, Robin Rating: Mature Notes: Sexual Content Pelican Town of Stardew Valley…a quiet seaside Hamlet of not even thirty people. A place where community is everything and everyone does their best to get along. Rich in rural tradition and natural beauty, though not wholey untouched by the modern world. Thirty people happily living side-by-side…and among them, my beloved grandfather's murderer.

As a kid, I loved coming to my grandfather's farm in the summer. He'd take me fishing and let me feed his animals. On stormy nights we'd sit inside, and he'd tell me ghost stories and the next day we'd pick up branches that had fallen in the orchard. It never felt like work to me when he was around. When I turned sixteen though, we moved across the country and after that, I didn't get to return to the Valley. I kept up with grandfather and a few locals through letters though, mostly Sebastian through email. Those letters though were all I had of Grandfather…and even as my life got busy with college and other things, they never stopped. That is, until I received his final letter in the wake of his death.

My family didn't even get a proper goodbye. The town has taken care of him before the news even reached us. Natural causes we were told, believable given his age. I would have never thought twice if I hadn't taken to rereading his letters in my grief. And his final letter, willing me the farm stood out among all the rest.

You see, my grandfather was a pilot in his youth before he settled down. When I was little I went through a phase of wanting to be just like him when I grew up and played pilot so much he even built me my own fighter out of a log. From that summer on he called me Ace, even long after I moved from that dream. Never in any letter had he called me by my name, Acre, until the last.

I poured over it many times, comparing letter after letter to the last. The handwriting was a good imitation, but more and more little discrepancies stood out. I nearly went mad with my obsession, and finally, I shared it with Seb in an email. Using his sister's connections at the local doctor's, he found no record of autopsy or any previous health records on file for the past year leading up to his death. Despite finding this, I couldn't find a single cop willing to take the case…so I threw myself into getting my P.I. license and bided my time until I could claim my inheritance and find who forged my grandfather's dying words to me and didn't want me to know the truth of his death.

Staring down into the town from the cliffs overlooking the town, I glowered. Happy memories, tainted forever by someone removing the one person that had made it special before his time. As I seethed, the sounds of shouting started to grow louder from the house behind me followed by silence as the door slammed. Turning my head, I watched as a little orange light flickered into existence then bobbed my way, its holder angrily muttering to himself.

"You good Seb," I asked through the dark as the figure drew closer and paused.

"...Acre?"

"Yeah."

Out from the shadows, Sebastian appeared, cigarette falling from his mouth. Eyes wide he stepped in, then embraced me. "Fuck. I thought you'd never come. I thought it was all talk."

"No. I'm here, for now. Figured I'd bring Stanford Farm back up as a cover. You still good on helping me? Think your mom can build a cat door for Pumpkin Spice?"

"With the farm? Or the other thing?"

I looked up at him for a moment. "Well, both if it's in you."

Sebastian's dark eyes seemed to search my face before he leaned in. I tensed up as his smokey lips brushed over mine then fervently locked on to them. As if we were sixteen again, he clumsily pressed me to one of the trees, holding me close. The kiss burned, the taste of tobacco still strong on his tongue. I hated the stench, yet, even when we were younger I didn't mind it secondhand like this.

The angry loner seemed all too eager to pick up where we'd left off. While my heart wasn't in it, I still returned his affection, sliding my arms up over his neck. If only this were enough to take my mind off it all.

Panting, he parted, "I've got my programming. I dunno about farm work, but I promise I'll help you with the other thing. Then we can leave this shit hole and go to the city."

My heart raced as his hand ran up my shirt, soon palming over my chest as he leaned in to kiss my neck. "Seb…"

"I can't stand it here…"

"Seb," I repeated, flushing harder as he brought my leg up between his.

I tried to gently shake him off, but feeling his impressive length trapped against and the six years of longing rushing in, I felt more mutable about the situation than I would have liked.

"Take me away from here."

His hand dug down the back of my khakis as I finally gave in, arching back and letting out a moan as he dug his teeth into my neck. And then the door in the distance made a familiar slam, causing him to part before the crunching of leaves grew louder.

"Sebby? Sebby please come back inside," a woman's voice called out.

"Just a minute," he called out, voice cracking as he stuffed his hands in his hoodie pouch to pull down over his pants.

"I hope you're not out here smoking. I really wish you'd- Acre!? Acre Stanford? Is that really you?"

"Hello…Mrs. Robin," I answered, tugging my scarf up to hide my neck, no doubt bruised by her son.

"It's been years! Sebby, why didn't you tell us Acre was coming to visit?"

"I wasn't sure he was, for real."

"It's not a visit. I'm taking up the farm."

She moved in and embraced me, "I'm so sorry about your grandfather. He was a good man. A lot of things fell into disrepair after he left. If you need help starting back up I'll give you a good discount. Even more, if you provide the materials."

"Thanks," I responded, tensed up.

I didn't want to believe she of all people could have had something to do with grandfather's death. She was sweet and kind…but my paranoia couldn't exonerate her entirely. She was close to my grandfather. As a carpenter she could stand to gain from the acreage, perhaps waiting all this time to see if I was going to sell the property. All it would have taken was one carefully misplaced joint or loose support beam and she could have easily brought a barn down on top of him.

I clenched my knuckles as she let go, looking away in shame. Without knowing how he died I couldn't afford to write her off, even if in my heart I wanted to believe she was innocent already.

"Of course! Anyway, I'd love to catch up soon, but it is rather late. Not that Sebby doesn't gush about you living high in the city."

"Mom!"

"It's true honey. Your gloomies fade away when you've got an email from him."

I bit my lip, trying not to laugh as Sebastian huffed off back towards the house. "I'll see you around Acre," he called out, somewhere between embarrassment and anger.

"Oh. I feel like I interrupted something now," Robin sighed, watching her son go, "I'm sorry Acre."

"Please don't worry about it. It's late anyway and happened to be out here when he came stomping through," I assured her.

So many questions stirred within me, but it was too soon to start asking. If she did know something, leading with his death out the gate might have her, or anyone catches on. I needed to wait for now.

"You should go into town tomorrow and let everyone know you're here. I'm sure the Mayor would be ecstatic to see you. He and your grandfather were very close. And then I'm sure Sebby will have told Sam and Abigail by then. You four were always getting into so much trouble. And we've gained a few new faces too."

I smiled, closing my eyes and remembering the good times, playing on the beach, or with the farm animals. "I will be sure to stop in and let everyone know I've returned...and I suppose to introduce myself to others. Everyone usually meets at The Stardrop Saloon, right?"

"They do. Well, I should get inside and make sure my husband and Sebby are keeping a wide birth from one another. Have a good night. Remember my offer."

"I will. Good night."

Robin left and headed to the back trail that led to the farm. My stomach twisted once I got far enough away from the house. How was I going to get by, suspicious of everyone I already knew? It would be easier to think it was a stranger, but more likely it was someone that I knew well.

Six years had passed…but for Sebastian, it was picking up where we left off…and it seemed Robin too held affection for me after all this time. How long would it be until I could breathe easily around them again? The sooner I settled in and established myself, the better.

Suspects: 29

Exonerated: 1

#stardew valley #sebastian #robin #sdv sebastian #sdv grandfather #sdv robin #sdv farmer #sdv #pelican town #something happened in pelican town #mxm romance #murder mystery

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obsidianmama · 4 months

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HGP REVIEW- Ch 1, The WEIRDest Parents in the World

I'm already starting to feel like this book would be better with less background information. That's what most of this chapter felt like to me. Or maybe I'm just impatient for the actual parenting stuff.

We start with an anecdote again, this time about Doucleff sitting in the Cancún airport after her time spent researching the difference in Maya children's attention spans versus US (I assume) children's in certain situations. While there, she was blown away at how helpful the Maya children are, and how their mothers and grandmothers seemed peaceful compared to the overwhelming stress she and many other US parents were constantly under, living alongside and cooperating with their children without yelling, commanding, or nagging.

When she got home, she dove into research, reading scientific literature and contemporary parenting books alike, looking for information about Mayan parenting and finding next to nothing.

I thought that was kind of interesting. She doesn't say she went home and looked up more peaceful ways of parenting; she specifically looked up Mayan parenting. I can't say with any confidence what this means, I'm just saying it stood out to me. Because it WOULD have been possible to learn respectful parenting skills from USian authors and experts- How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk by Adele Faber and Elaine Mazlish was published in 1980. This book, for reference, was published in 2021, though unless I missed something it's not clear when these flashbacks are taking place.

But that's not what Doucleff says she was looking for. It doesn't necessarily mean she didn't try, the phrasing just stood out to me.

Next we learn why this chapter, as well as Section 1: The WEIRD Wild West (of which this chapter is part), have WEIRD in all caps in the title. The gist is that a couple of scientists started doing psychological experiments in people not just within, but outside of Europe and North America, and found that results from Europe and NA are often outliers compared to the rest of the world. They noted that 96% of all psychological studies were exclusively conducted on people from European backgrounds, making them useful for learning about the behavior of only a relatively small subset of humans, rather than general or fundamental human behavior.

They coined the acronym WEIRD, which stands for Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic. I feel like the use of some of those terms in these contexts might be... iffy, at best, but I'm not gonna get into it right now.

Just know that I'm already exhausted from how much heavy lifting the terms "Western" and "Euro-American" have been doing so far in this book.

Anyway, they get an anthropologist, David Lancy, in on it to see if this "WEIRD" outlier status holds true for parenting, and apparently it does, and Lancy highlights dozens of differences in parenting approach in his book The Anthropology of Childhood: Cherubs, Chattel, and Changelings. Maybe that'll be another book we can look into, depending on how this one goes. Anyway, one of those differences is the way families are structured.

I do have to give this book props for basically saying "abolish the nuclear family." I have read other parenting books mention that the phrase "it takes a village" is meant to be literal, and you're not really supposed to be taking on this amount of work as just one or two people, so it's unfortunately normal to get overwhelmed and even break down, but it comes off mostly as "don't feel bad for struggling with this; you're not really supposed to be able to handle this on your own." Which is an important message for overwhelmed parents to hear, but it's a very individual-level solution. While HGP doesn't outright say the words "abolish the nuclear family," it does take the idea to task.

Doucleff says that the nuclear family has not existed throughout 99.9% of human history, that the historical and natural state is for children to be collectively raised by large groups of extended family and kinsmen. They had a high degree of autonomy because they were always safely watched over, and adults were less stressed because the workload of monitoring and caring for children was distributed among many caregivers.

The degradation of these communities into isolated family units is therefore linked to the astronomical rise in post-partum anxiety and depression as well as childhood anxiety and depression. Knowledge normally circulated freely between kin and communities is now sequestered in parenting books, scientific publications, and parenting blogs. Extra arms for holding children and cooking meals are absent. Additionally, the burden of raising children has, in the last few centuries, disproportionately fallen to women- even with more and more women entering the work force in more recent decades, they still tend to shoulder most of the domestic workload.

A modern mother, Doucleff argues, "bears more of the parenting duty than ever in history, and yet she is the least prepared for the job" (27).

The position that a lack of support is a major, if not primary, reason for the decline in both parent and child well-being over the last several decades is one I've held for a while now, but I thought that last quote was a succinct and impactful framing of the situation.

I will say that by this point, as a nonbinary parent, I'm feeling a bit left out. Though I could have missed them, I didn't notice any instances of birthing parents being presumed to also be mothers- in fact I noticed the absence of such gendering of the role in the way the section about rising post-partum depression rates was phrased, which was nice. But I do notice a lot of use of "moms and dads" that excludes parents and caregivers who are neither of those things.

This is sort of where the chapter ends, but there's a bit of speculative history about why these changes in culture and parenting came about. There are a lot of theories, it seems, from the Industrial Revolution and capitalism to a love of privacy (yeah, hang on to that last one for a minute. But Doucleff chooses to again highlight the theory of John Henrich, which is that it all goes back to the Catholic Church.

I mean, historically speaking the Catholic Church has been the root cause of a lot of bullshit, so yeah, maybe.

The explanation is a bit interesting, but it's also speculation, snd not really important to the parenting, which is what I'd really like to get into, and I've written way more words about this chapter than I was hoping given how much I glossed over.

Next time we'll get into Chapter 2, the last chapter of Section 1. It's about why we parent the way we do (it's the chapter title, in fact) and I predict the answer will be that it has a lot to do with how we were parented, with influences from media and culture.

#hgp review #om reads #parenting book review #if you want to know more about the catholic church thing feel free to send an ask or smth #i just didnt find it important enough to dwell on in the review #its in a differently-formatted section at the end of the chapter so i think its just supposed to be an extra tidbit #but maybe im wrong and it will be important later. who knows

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yuna-writes · 9 months

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Politics

Usually, I don't get involved into politics, but then I spent the past several weeks analyzing why politics is needed...because it's everywhere. I think most of the problems I always struggled with is my self worth and self esteem. You can imagine a normal life consist of people being treated fairly and equally. Real life is nothing like this...from my observation.

I always tried to figure out why the kids in my school didn't approach me when I was the new kid in school. My impression at that time was that the kids were either mean or stupid. As an adult, I realize cliques or groups are formed by politics. If you think about it, school has a social hierarchy too. The rich kids are viewed favorably while the poor kids aren't viewed positively or even recognized. Kids who were extroverted were more popular than the introverted. People care about the status of who you are compared to the qualities you have. It's just the reality of it.

Admitting yourself to be a new kid is signaling people around you that you have no friends, have no power, and have no influence over other kids. Therefore, other kids have no reason to hang out with you because they can choose to hang out with kids who will improve their own status. It doesn't matter if you are smart, kind, and thoughtful person. If you are poor, unattractive or somehow ranked lowest in the totem pole of the social hierarchy then people generally don't see the value in you. It might seem unfair, but I think the competition makes people operate this way.

The psychology is weird to me, why do people feel so attached to the culture or brand of someone or something more than the content of their character? Just a while ago, a small Dunkin Doughnut cafe closed down and my co-workers were disappointed over the change. The new cafe that took over sold higher quality coffee but people ignored the new cafe. It made no sense to me because Dunkin Doughnut coffee taste pretty terrible lol. Their coffee is cheaply made, but people care about the status or brand of Dunkin Doughnuts. The new cafe didn't have a strong brand or reputation, even though the coffee bean was higher quality and coffee tasted better.

I feel like people judge other people's character similarly. It doesn't really matter so much If I call myself friendly, smart, attractive etc. No one cares about my opinion. What they do care is what other people think about me, which is really fascinating to me. I always avoided politics because playing the game felt really superficial, but that's how you gain supporters and friends. If you win the friendship of rich people, their approval will influence other people to like you too. My question is, how many people actually go about their lives...making "friends" and other relationships, but not really get to know who they are in reality? We have an idea of who our friends are, but we'll never know their identity was constructed by the opinion of others. We may have been easily as influenced by the next person.

It's like people love Dunkin Doughnuts because their friends love it too. The positive emotions associated with it overcomes the shitty taste underneath the coffee beans.

#notes

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