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general-cyno · 3 months

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I sort of rambled about this in the tags of a post, but I wanted to make a proper one myself since I find it very fascinating (law backstory flashback you will always be famous). so one of my favorite scenes is this one:

it is a very meaningful moment for these two, a very clear turning point to their dynamic at that time, and it's made even clearer by how law starts referring to rocinante as cora-san afterwards.

now, there are several instances throughout dressrosa arc where the similarities between doflamingo and law are mentioned, with the former going as far as to call them both birds of a feather. and as it's shown in the flashbacks, reading about flevance was enough to trigger doflamingo's traumatizing memories of his and rocinante's childhood, which seems to motivate him to bring law into the family. the way law seeks to lash out at everything then is reminiscent of doflamingo's own worldview and experiences, at least from his pov:

rocinante noticed those similarities as well and though he tried to (questionably) discourage all kids from joining the DQ pirates by scaring them away, law's case in particular prompted him to bring up the topic with sengoku at some point, as seen during sengoku's conversation with law.

sengoku repeats what everyone says about the amber lead disease, that it's incurable, and warns rocinante not to favor law much for it could jeopardize his mission. whether rocinante's agreement here was reluctant or not ig is up to each reader but learning of law's real/full name (his relation to the D clan) reignites his initial worries and some more, considering the historic opposition/threat the D represents wrt celestial dragons and how this could endanger him if doflamingo were to find out.

so there's even bigger reasons for rocinante to not want law to become doflamingo 2.0. though as he later admits amidst his drunken speech, the will of D no longer matters to him when it comes to saving law, as rocinante's journey to cure his disease ends up making him feel genuine sympathy for law beyond that. he's forced to witness first hand how much discrimination and dehumanization law's subjected to time and time again, because of his disease and ties to flevance. before all this, law's mentioned his imminent death more than a few times and does it after too. and during the first disastrous hospital visit, he tells rocinante: see? I'm not even human anymore!

which brings me to this bit of dialogue:

for all of law's similarities and/or parallels to doflamingo, it's worth noting that rocinante experienced the same things his brother did and due to his younger age probably understood even less of what was happening or why they were being targeted in the first place. compared to doflamingo, rocinante also has way less dialogue in their backstory but one he does have is this:

this happens in the part where rocinante, doflamingo and their father are strung up on a wall and shot at with arrows. the villagers all express their anger, grief, the violence and suffering they've gone through because of celestial dragons like the donquixotes. albeit different in nature, along with doflamingo, rocinante experienced a kind of dehumanization as well.

so, again: for all that law might resemble doflamingo the most, I do wonder... how much of himself did rocinante see in law, though subconsciously? a kid who lost his family, subjected to the kind of violence that led him to resign himself to death (seek it, even) and was treated by others as inhuman because of circumstances out of his control? it might've not been what rocinante believed to be his own motivations to help law, likely never actually saw or realized the similarities they shared, but imo it adds some more depth to his kindness and sympathy towards law.

this also marks a stark difference between the donquixote brothers. whereas doflamingo got caught up in a very vicious cycle (which traces back to the existence of celestial dragons as a whole and was further enabled by others like trebol) that he planned to continue with law, rocinante was able to see past law's rage and acknowledge the pain beneath. after all, rocinante knows too what it's like to be hurt by others who've been terribly hurt first and became someone who wasn't exactly keen on returning the sentiment, unlike doflamingo, regardless of whether it was in his nature to be so or if it's something that was nurtured as he grew up. that's not to say rocinante was an endlessly kind saint (he had his own biased views) or that he wasn't capable of violence (he did beat up all those medical staff and burn down hospitals for example), but those incidents weren't caused by a sense of entitlement on his part or such. he didn't blame law for stabbing him or in general for seeking revenge against the world, ultimately chose to protect and save him instead - which, indeed, changed law's life. as law presently insists, he owes cora not just that very life but his heart as well.

lastly - law himself might not disagree with doflamingo insisting they're of the same sort, but law is also the kid who couldn't fathom leaving his dying little sister behind. who softened and lowered his guard after receiving genuine kindness/love/sympathy for the first time in years. who saved a little mink and risked his own neck later on to save a boy who'd just lost his brother in the worst way possible. who didn't even consider putting his crew in danger when he knew (and expected) he might die and his whole revenge plan against doflamingo was rooted in love and grief to begin with, the same upon which the foundation of his crew was built and is a tribute to. last we saw of him, law orders bepo to go back in winner island because can't leave the crew behind, etc etc, so there's that too. how much of it is law's own nature and personality? how much is due to the impact cora had on him? both? would've doflamingo turned out differently or made different choices if his parents had tried harder to school him out of those CD views or if he'd had more positive influences aside from them, instead of the people he ended up surrounded by? would he have become the same kind of person he is rn no matter what? interesting stuff to think about.

#one piece #tp #donquixote rosinante #donquixote corazon #trafalgar law #every day I am plagued by Thoughts abt these guys help me #hope this is somewhat coherent ajdkkgg #also writing this made me realize cora kind of? subtly told law abt his and doffy's relation to the celestial dragons?#probably flew over his lil head tho #long post

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chaostudee · 1 year

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prologue. the things you do for the ones you love

summary : when you were asked to be your sisters maid of honour you never expected to fall in love with the best man. warnings : nothing ig? words : 1.5k a/n : this is my first series on here and i'm really excited to share it with you guys!!

it was just as you had left it. the blue shutters on the windows registered their bright brilliant hue and the unchanged silk curtains billowed in the soft morning breeze. the same abstract ornament sat on the steps leading to the front door and even now you were uncertain of its name let alone what it represented. your parents still owned the very much identical vehicles to the one you had as a child.

that thought was comforting. that nothing had changed. although when you were brought back to reality of it all everything was going to change. and it was inviteable.

"y/n!" called a voice that you had missed. your sister emily descended the steps with a fast pace that you were in fear of her falling.

"hi" you say letting out an exhale as you speak. emily smiles at your newfound presence in the drive of your childhood home.

there was an awkward moment when both of you were unsure of what to say or do next but then you felt her arms pull you close into an embrace. your arms snaked up her back to the same position where she held hers on your own. taking a deep breath in you notice something, that scent, the identical one that she used to wear all throughout high school.

you could've stayed like that forever but in remembering why you were here you pulled back and dragged her left arm forward to meet your gaze.

it shone and sparkled in the sun and just by that you knew that your future brother in law would be bringing some prosperity into the family.

"i mean....wow. it's gorgeous". emily shies away and pulls back her hand to her own control.

"you think so? i don't know maybe it's a bit flashy but you know a girl can't be picky". she admires the ring for a moment as though she has never seen it until now and this action makes you chuckle. sarcasm was something that emily had acquired from a young age right after she had begun to watch friends. your mother, throughout her teenage years had to witness the endless puns and jokes although after a long day her words were sometimes mood lifting.

"i missed that laugh"emily admits and this makes your heart warm.

"i missed you". and it was true, you had missed her. at first you were reluctant in coming back because your last visit had been over a year ago and even then it wasn't a joyous occasion with your father's degrading comments. your father hadn't always been so supportive when you had informed of your aspiration to study fashion. you guessed that was another reason that your sister desired your presence, or that you hoped.

"so....how's life? well i mean besides getting engaged and all. how is everyone?". emily nods as she takes a look down at her stained converse, whist tucking a strand of her brunette hair behind her ear.

"i mean mum is good. me and daniel have been staying here for the past weeks and yeah i mean she seems to be doing fine but i think she misses dad.".

you don't try to hide your annoyance with this. you noticeably roll your eyes remembering the countless work trips he would take that would leave your mother to her lonesome. those times you would aspire to be on your best behavior because you could see the bags under your mother's eyes from just a few hours spent with her daughters. it hurt you that your father was still pulling the same old stunts.

"he's still working?"you ask because most people at his age would be either sitting in a retirement home or perhaps on the golf course without a care in the world. your father had never been most people.

work had always come first for him. and you couldn't even understand why. maybe someday you would understand but you would never put your occupation before family.

"i ask myself the same question all the time."

"tell me about daniel".

you hadn't heard much about your sister's apparent "love of her life" according to your mother. the way you mum spoke of him made you wonder if it was possible that she loved him more than emily.

"he's great, perfect. i think he would be just your type" emily says with a straight face.

a rush of nostalgia hits you having heard those words countless times when there was a new prospect of a boyfriend. although they never seemed to last, for you anyways. emily always set you up with guys she knew or a friend of a friend and maybe if you had tried you wouldn't be single at 30 but here we are.

"are you seriously setting me up with your fiance?"

"now who said anything about setting you up?" emily gives a tight lipped smile, "just a suggestion".

"yeah but in all seriousness, he is a great guy and i'm lucky to have him". she looks down at her converse once again as she speaks and with her hair covering her face you can't tell whether her cheeks are flushed but you presumed so.

"who knew you were all soppy?".

at this emily raises her head and silently gasps and then remains with her mouth agape as if she was going to answer back.

with a blunt "shut up" she rolled her eyes but you could tell that you were right. you had always been the hopeless romantic but it looked like you had swapped. you now were not too keen on a serious relationship, not anytime soon anyway. in your opinion relationships just added to the weight that you had to carry around everyday, the worries.

"so where is daniel now?".

"him and mum are out shopping. those two are attached to the hip most of the time. weird right?"

"haha yeah weird"

"you'll meet him tonight."

"tonight?"

"yeah...tonight, you know?". jazz hands. "tooonight".

"what's tonight?

"my engagement party"

"oh shit yeah sorry. oh congratulations by the way".

"who knew you were funny?"

"i did"

"c'mon let's go inside i want to show you what i did to your room."

"about tonight....i didn't really bring-"

"i have a dress"

:::

your room was just how you had left it. the same vanity with pictures of your friends from highschool, clothes strewn across the floor and your posters on the walls. it was like you had never left.

you smile as you lift up a picture of you and emily at the beach a few years back. your smiles were wide and you both had your arms around one another. back then you didn't have a care in the world, but now you couldn't say the same.

emily comes bursting into your room with a bundle of dresses in her arms. once she sets them down on the bed she comes over and tuts when she spots the photo in your hand.

"i remember that day, we were so happy, dad had just got promoted and him and mum were over the moon-"

"we had never seen them so happy" you say interrupting her.

grabbing the picture from your grasp emily pulls you from your past.

taking you by the shoulders she says "no getting sad".

you nod giving her a small smile. she gives her own nod of approval before gesturing to the dresses she brought in.

"take your pick".

you raise your eyebrows when you pick up a dress that could hardly count as a dress.

"really?"

"what?! it's all the rage in paris right now".

you poke her in the ribs which makes her squeal.

"girl we gotta get you a man" emily states as she starts looking through the clothes herself.

"and this is the way to do it?".

"sure!".

you scoff but before you begin to throw another comment you spot something that catches your eye. the material is sparkly and glittery just like a disco ball.

"this one" you confirm.

emily turns around and gasps when she sees what you have chosen.

"perfect, who knew you had taste y/n?".

"um clearly not you"

"haha. anyways back to the boy thing".

you groan at the subject. dating had been a tough subject for you as of late. it had been less than a year since you had broken off with your toxic ex. you still held trauma from him and your sister knew this but she took this as a reason to get out more.

"i bet soms of daniels friends are single" she says, pondering as she tries to recall.

"oh actually he said that one of his friends was recently divorced.....".

"ems im not going to date a 40 year old".

she laughs at my comment. like really laughs.

"he's our age silly".

"oh".

"daniel says he hasn't been with anyone since the breakup.....just like you".

"your point?"

"you'd be a good match".

"ugh whatever."

there's a silence.

"wait what's his name?"

"oh um bu- barnes or something i dont know?".

your eyes widen. it couldn't be could it? your eyes falter to one of the pictures on the wall. you in the middle beside you neil, marrissa and....james. james barnes.

#bucky barnes #bucky barnes fluff #bucky barnes imagine #bucky barnes smut #bucky barnes series #bucky barnes x reader #bucky barnes x female reader #bucky fanfic #james buchanan bucky barnes #bucky x you #bucky x y/n #winter soldier #james buchanan barnes #james bucky barnes

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drmflm · 1 year

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home sweet heartbreak | l.hs

summary: you were supposed to be in then out. but the prince has other plans—plans to give you an evening you would never forget, filled with flowers, food, and a bleary black swan mask.

pairing: heeseung x gn!reader (ft. jake and txt’s taehyun, soobin, + yeonjun)

word count: 4.0k

genre: angst angst angst with comedic breaks in between

au: cinderella, spy, royalty

rating: pg-15

warnings: grief, mentions of death, infiltration (which is treason ig?), unhappy-ish ending

event: this is for @kflixnet's fic exchange event!! hi @flwoie!! i hope u enjoyed this fic 🥰 it was so much fun getting to know u and to become an engene as part of this!! <3

note: blame sona for the ending. I WAS PLANNING to make it happy but she wanted sad so. you get sad 😊 oh also, the reader uses a fake name for the first bit of this!!

When the red carpet rolled, you strode.

“Don’t make eye contact with them. Remember, you’re above them,” the radio buzzed as you straightened up and handed the knight your invitation nonchalantly, trying not to look at him. “Good job.”

“For the announcer dude, just slip him the 20,000 bill we gave you earlier,” Soobin said over the radio as you neared the stairs where the steward would announce your arrival.

You couldn’t speak without sounding suspicious, and most especially could not in a setting such as this, so you hooked your thumb into Taehyun’s right pocket and offering a small bow to the small lens tucked into the clip of his tie.

“He’s not very good at his job,” Soobin replied, and you could nearly hear the smirk in his voice. “The guy’s a good friend of Jun’s, doesn’t mind repaying an old favour for a small price. He’ll let the knight know not to go snooping.”

“Are you sure he’s loyal?” you whispered to Taehyun, rubbing his arm softly. “You know that everybody always has their own agenda.”

He nodded, lips pursed as he stared at you for a moment too long through his mask and looking away. “People will always bow to money, and we have a lot of it.”

People loved gossip, but the only thing they loved more than that, was money itself. The more money you had, the more likely you were to succeed in this society. Did you agree with it? No. But could you escape it? Unlikely.

So you just took advantage of it instead.

“I do hope they’ll have those cookies again,” Taehyun sighed, looking at you with an overly wide smile and a scrunched eye smile. “What were they called again? They were absolutely divine last year at the Prince’s private ball.”

Establishing status, a commonality among the ultra-rich you noticed. Of course, Taehyun was less ostentatious about his wealth than others, but he couldn’t allow others to find him weak or subordinate in any way. He represented his family at any gathering, and at this one in particular, he had to establish himself as one of the highest and most important businessmen in the country.

And the easiest way to do that? Just tell people you know the royal family and you had it in the bag. You might not know it, but people always listen to power. It was evident in the way that the people in front of you, upon hearing Taehyun’s words, permitted you to skip ahead with 90-degree bows, until you reached the steward who would announce your arrival.

As the couple before you gave him their card and stood in the front, Taehyung pulled you flush against his side, where you sank your fingers into his pocket and curled it into your fist. As he let you go, you folded your hands in front of you.

He handed you your name slip nonchalantly as the steward announced Lady Jieun and her partner, before you slipped the man the bill, and quickly made your way to the front.

“Kang Taehyun of the Kang Family Corporation and his date, Kim Iseul,” he announced, before gesturing for you to make your way down the stairs.

“People are nosy gossips, but Taehyun’s always been known to go out sporadically—dating rumours have been confirmed and denied so many times that nobody really cares anymore,” Soobin said over the radio. “There might be some articles about it but nothing big.”

“I doubt anything will really make it to the media,” Yeonjun said over the radio as well. Taehyun tightened his grip in yours. “They’re more preoccupied with Lee Heesucks instead.”

You would’ve laughed at the name if it weren’t for the fact that you were there, in the limelight of a dozen of the ultra-rich. You didn’t stand out—not after Yeonjun and Soobin worked hard to make you look perfect—and you hoped you wouldn’t for the remainder of the night.

Everyone was clad in dresses made of silk, suits made of the finest fibres, and every mask you saw was more and more garish the more you looked. Some were animal themed, dipped in gold and silver, others were clad with diamonds and precious gems.

But it was all a feast for the eyes, more so than the heart. When you noticed how careless and shallow most of the people were as they picked glasses off trays, took one sip, then discarded them on the same tray, you felt yourself grow nauseated at the fact that you were sharing the same air as them.

“How long will we be here for?” you asked quietly once he guided you to the dance floor and began waltzing you around.

“Just long enough for Taehyun to look around. We need to get you out before midnight, otherwise it’ll look really suspicious,” Soobin said, and you tried to control your expression as Taehyun swung you around at the lively music. “Hopefully you can blend in, but if things go awry or Heeseung notices you, we need you to distract him as best you can, for as long as you can.”

You smiled, but it fell when he added, “but under no circumstances, Y/n, do you go approach Heeseung yourself. This is dangerous territory right now. You need to be careful.”

You nodded, smiling as the song ended and the trumpets blared. All eyes turned towards the staircase, where the steward would announce the next arrival.

Beside him, stepped out one a man clad in an all white suit, traces of gold wrapping up along the cuffs of his sleeves down the length of his arms, his torso, his legs. They caught the light and the gaze of all who looked at him—towards the diamond that rested on the centre of his chest.

His face was shrouded by the black swan of his mask, feathers trailing gracefully along his face. You couldn’t see his eyes, but you knew they were sweeping across the crowd, looking, searching for—

“Introducing His Majesty, Prince Heeseung of the Lee Family!”

“He looks like an overcooked chicken in that mask,” Soobin grumbled, but you could barely hear him over the enthusiastic applause.

“Okay Y/n, now that Heesucks is here and no longer in his room, Taehyun is going to start the operation now. We’re going to turn off your radio so we don’t distract you or worry you. If that sounds good turn off the camera.” Yeonjun said over the radio.

While Prince Heeseung descended, and all eyes were focused on him, you reached up to the centre of your mask and—under the guise of fixing your mask for anyone looking—pressed one of the stray diamonds by your nose.

“Okay we’re shutting it down in 3…2…1–“ Beep.

At this, Taehyun nodded at you with a smile before slowly, quietly slipping away.

The food was good, you noted as you had your fifteenth helping of the same treats you were eating all evening. They were these small, star-shaped cookies with an orange frosting and sprinkles—so many sprinkles.

Ever since you were a mere child, you always loved the taste of tangerines, of ripe oranges. They reminded you of your mother who had grown an orange tree in your backyard in respect of her good friend Seri—and always made the most delicious freshly-pressed orange juice.

So while you were caught up blending in on the dance floor, you indulged yourself in trying some cookies, reminded of your mother, the sweetness of her oranges, and the sweetness of your childhood.

Things changed a lot the last couple years. Things too big to say in only a few words. Oranges were banned, oranges were a fruit never allowed in your household. Not with their history of heartbreak. Not when oranges really only grew where the heartache wandered.

You wished Yeonjun would come back on over the radio. You wished someone would say over the intercom that this was stupid, that the two of them should just make up.

But you couldn’t. Not when you didn’t know the truth.

The whispers grew louder, more boisterous around you. You heard him before you saw him. The cookie in your hand felt like a deadweight the closer you felt him step towards you.

“May I ask who I owe for depleting the Solarian Cookie supply?” he asked, coming up beside you as he grabbed the one out of your hand. “I thought everyone knew that these are the cookies I fancy the most.”

Jerk. “Well, pardon me Your Highness, I was not aware these cookies were reserved,” you replied. “Please excuse my careless mistake.”

“Mistakes,” he corrected, before taking a bite. “You made more than one, as you ate more than 10.”

“And how can you be sure that, that was me?”

He shrugged, “intuition I guess.”

“But intuition isn’t facts,” you argued as you shoved another one into your mouth.

“I suppose it isn’t,” he mused, before turning to face you, and you instinctively turned in response. “But I think it is when it comes to my cookies.”

“What a lame excuse,” you laughed, before you remembered. You were not supposed to talk to him. Absolutely not. He was dangerous.

Even if you wanted to, you couldn’t. You couldn’t betray your family.

“Just this once I’ll let it go,” he said, staring at you intently. “You remind me of a friend. But no more cookies, do you understand?”

“Yes Your Highness,” you replied, bowing your head.

You waited for him to walk away, but his white shoes never left their place in front of you. You tentatively looked up. He stared down.

“Sorry if I did not make myself clear, I would like to grab my cookies, so would you mind moving aside?”

At once, you immediately moved aside, feeling the hot course of humiliation travel through every fibre of your being until the man grabbed his cookies and left. As soon as he got far enough away, you let out a silent, soft breath. The whispers around you grew louder.

“He can be quite intimidating, can’t he?”

You looked to your right where a man greeted you. His attire was different—with zigzagging lines of bronze up and down his maroon suit, lighter coloured streaks in his hair, and round circular specs on his face. Clipped to his tie was a flag you had never seen before.

“Indeed,” you replied, looking at the flag once more before making eye contact. “For a Prince he is quite cold.”

“Don’t let others hear you say that,” he said, and you could hear an unusual variation in his accent. “Allow me to introduce myself, I am Sim Jaeyun.”

“Kim Iseul,” you replied before raising an eyebrow. “And what might you do, Mr.Sim?”

“I am part of the Prince’s Foreign Affairs team,” he replied, smiling at you warmly. “Translating for him as well as offering advice on how to best interact with certain cultures.”

Like Hueningkai, you realized bitterly. This man was his replacement.

He noticed your gaze on his tie, “Ah, this is my Australian clip. It was given to me by my father before I left to come here.”

“How lovely. It must have been a long journey. Do you ever miss them?”

He shrugged, “Sometimes. But I don’t really have time to miss them since I’m here.”

The conversation took a deeper turn than you were expecting, one where you felt the time go by faster, less forced. Jaeyun was like you, he wasn’t from an ultra-rich family, and he was much more down to earth than the rest of the people there, including the Prince himself.

“Why is the Prince like that, if you don’t mind me asking?” you asked after a while. You two had relocated to a table off to the side. “Why’s he so cold?”

He thought for a moment, “There’s a lot of things. But, as you may know, the Prince has been waiting, a long time, for his beloved brother to return to him.”

Beloved?

“His brother?” you asked, looking at him curiously. “What do you mean?”

He just shook his head, “it’s of no importance, Iseul. Just know that his anger was not directed towards you, but rather, towards himself.”

Prince Heeseung feeling anger at himself? That seemed very unlikely.

“Ah, Jaeyun. Just the man I was looking for,” the Prince’s voice rang out as he neared you. Upon seeing you he halted. “Why are you with them?”

“I think you may have mischaracterized them, Hee,” was his reply as he stood up. “Don’t worry, I’ll go check on him, you have a good time. This is your ball after all.”

With Jaeyun’s departure, it was just you and him, face to face. When you bristled at the silence, he took a deep breath before sitting next to you.

“I apologize for my unsavoury behaviour earlier. That was unbecoming of me and I hope you can forgive me,” he said, not making eye contact as he fiddled with the strings of his bow tie.

“It’s okay, I understand,” you replied, looking at him. “Sometimes things are just as simple as having a rotten day. I get it.”

“Where’d you hear that from?” he asked, head lifting up to meet your gaze. “That expression?”

You blinked at him, “‘Having a rotten day’? That was a phrase my mother told me. Why?”

“No reason,” he replied, holding your gaze. “What is your name?”

“Kim Iseul, Your Majesty.”

“What is your real name?” he pressed, leaning towards you.

“That is my real name,” you replied, leaning backwards slightly.

“Pleasure to meet you, Kim Iseul,” he said at last, before offering you a hand. “May I have this next dance as an apology for my behaviour?”

You looked at him, trying to find any ingenuity. “But you’ve already apologized.”

“I know, but I want to.” He didn’t want to. He was just trying to be nice. But you entertained the thought, of just this once, under a mask made of midnight, that it’d be okay to pretend like nothing had ever happened.

“Okay.”

That was the moment you knew, as he swept you away, that you would never be able to truly resist him.

“For a mysterious partner of Kang Taehyun, you dance quite well,” he complimented as you waltzed to the palace musicians and basked in the limelight.

“Well, I only learned from the best,” you replied, gesturing to him. “You are a fantastic lead yourself.”

He smiles, “Useless flattery, Iseul. I’ve been ballroom dancing since I could walk.”

So have I. “You can tell, your footsteps are so graceful.”

“Again, useless flattery…” he paused, “Iseul.”

You maintained eye contact and he held you a few moments longer, even after the song ended. You knew people were staring, probably talking about how Taehyun had abandoned his date and said date was all over the Prince and—

“Why?” you whispered tightening your hold on his hand. “What’s wrong?”

“Did you think I wouldn’t recognize you as soon as I laid my eyes on you?” he asked, eyes piercing through the thin veil of his mask, right into yours. “Y/n,” he breathed, leaning in closer. “Nothing, not even Time itself, could ever make me forget you.”

“You’re not supposed to know I’m here,” you sighed, letting go and breaking apart. “Nobody is. I came because of the masquerade. Not for you. Not for anyone.”

“That’s not true,” he replied, grabbing your hand and leading you away. You ripped it out of his grip but followed him out the hall anyways. “You came here for a reason. Why? If not for me, why?”

“It was me, all me, Your Majesty,” you replied, fingers trembling in his hold. “I forced Taehyun to come here with me.”

“Stop lying to me,” he growled, once you the ballroom doors had shut. “Tell me you missed me, even for a second. Tell me you regretted it just once.”

You hesitated. You couldn’t see his face, but his shoulders slumped. “I see.”

You blinked back tears as you cleared your throat, “Both of you made many mistakes. The only thing I regret is not hearing both sides of the story. But Hee—I don’t hate the fact that you were crowned and he wasn’t. I hate the fact that I had to choose between you.”

“It wasn’t even my fault,” he sighed, before he reached up and took the mask off his face. Exposed, you saw every facet of his face, crafted by God and shimmering with tears. “I didn’t want this either.”

“What did you want?”

“To be with you,” he breathed, coming closer and grabbing your hand. When you didn’t yank it away, he grabbed the other. “I would have been happy a commoner Y/n, so long as I had your hand in mind. Please, believe me Y/n. Can’t we pretend, just for a few hours, like nothing had changed, that you never left?”

“Won’t that just hurt us both in the end?” you asked, pursing your lips and sinking your teeth into your bottom lip. “Can you promise me you’ll let me go when the evening ends?”

“If that’s what you want,” he sighed, tightening his hold before letting go and turning around to brush away his tears. “But please. A chance.”

And, just like when he offered you a dance, you took his hand, and let him lead you away once again.

Him, unmasked and exposing the imperfections of his face, the vulnerability of the beauty mark just along his jawline, the soft curls of his hair.

He was a black swan with a pretty smile but you—you were a gold shadow, there was nothing more to you than the shallowness of your own desires, of your own shadows, your own betrayals.

You couldn’t look him in the eye, not because he was above you, but because you stooped down to a level far too low for him.

He led you to a small, circular door at the end of a never-ending hallway, before fishing out a familiar key from around his neck. This was what you were searching for. All this time, all of Jun’s anger and heartache, was because of this key.

The key to his—and everyone else’s—dreams.

He took it off his neck and inserted it into the lock, before the lock clicked open. He led you in, where your eyes immediately latched onto the blooming flowers and the beautiful tree of tangerines before you.

The small, secret garden was a masterpiece; the way the flowers framed the tree was deliberate like the swing gently rocking in a cool breeze, thousands of stars the only witnesses to this small sliver of true, untouched beauty.

This. This was what Yeonjun always wanted.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” he asked after a moment, carefully stepping towards the flowers. “I never showed this to you when we were younger, because I always wanted to surprise you when we grew up. I wanted to save this for the day when I’d get down on one knee and—propose, Y/n. I bloom only for you.”

You heard it, you couldn’t see it though, as the darkness shrouded his face. You only saw the shadow of his tears in the dim light of a dozen fairy lights. Sanctuary. That’s what this was. Sanctuary.

“You always said you’d find your sanctuary. Is this—“

“This became it when I lost you,” he whispered, before stepping into the light, grabbing your hand and leading you towards the swing. “Y/n, all I could think about since you left has been all my mistakes, everything I ever did in the past. Just please—for one moment, let me pretend like all of that never happened.”

“I can’t, Hee,” you whispered softly. It was a sin to ruin the sweet silence of the night. “I can’t because this is what Yeonjun always wanted. How can I take that away from him? He always wanted his mother’s garden, he wanted to be with her, cradling her grave.”

Heeseung’s head dropped as he let go of your hands. You sat down on the swing, while he gently pushed you back and forth.

“I’m sorry. I kept the key because I didn’t want anybody to ruin it. I didn’t want the landscapers to come and bulldoze it down, I didn’t want anybody finding Seri’s treasure and ruining it.”

You were quiet for a moment before he stopped pushing you, “was that why you came here? For Yeonjun?”

You nodded, “Yeah I guess so.”

“Nothing else?”

“I—“

“Y/n, we’re back. We need to get you out of there are soon as possible. Security has caught on that we’ve infiltrated the palace. Beomgyu, the idiot accidentally stole too many cookies and Jun’s friend slipped to the knight so now Head Guard Yang is currently trying to get rid of Taehyun. Meet him out back by the rosebushes ASAP!!” Soobin said over the intercom, startling you out of whatever Heeseung-induced self-doubt you’d put yourself in.

This wasn’t about you. This was about Yeonjun.

He looked at you with something heavy in his eyes. He heard Soobin, both of you did.

“Go,” he whispered, leading you out and ripping the key from his neck. He placed it in your hands. “Get out of here Y/n, I don’t want to see you ever again. I’ll hold the guards off for a few moments. Just go.”

“Hee, I’m sorry,” you started, but he held up a hand.

He slid the mask back over his eyes, “leave. You don’t belong here. Nobody belongs here. I thought that after Seri died, I lost a mother, but I didn’t think in my wildest dreams, that I would also lose the only people who had ever meant something to me.”

His lips curled up, “You changed Y/n. I hope you forget about me quickly. Taehyun looks like a nice man. He looks like he cares about you. Tell him I say ‘Thank You’.”

He pushed passed you and started running down the halls, running from you. You heard the radio buzz, you couldn’t do anything but stand there, paralyzed at the gravity of what you had done. At the person you lost and continued to lose.

Every step felt heavy, and you eventually ran, but you couldn’t walk, you couldn’t be left to the mercy of your thoughts—not when the key sat heavy in your palm, and the tears even heavier in your eyes.

You couldn’t because when Taehyun carried you down the steps, when you got into the car and sped out somewhere under the veil of midnight—nothing could fill that uncomfortable emptiness on your fourth finger, that empty void that nestled in your soul.

Even seeing Yeonjun’s face light up at the key in your hand, or hearing the rest of the guys celebrate, nothing could bring you back.

Not when you knew the life you had left behind. Not when you knew, you made the greatest mistake of your life.

Because you wouldn’t be able to forget him—a black swan who brightened your life with glittering jewels and twinkling eyes, the man who hoarded cookies and smelled like oranges: sweet, homey, and heartbroken.

#kfn: the exchange event #kflixnet #enhypen #enhypen x reader #enhypen x you #enhypen x y/n #enhypen imagines #enhypen scenarios #enhypen oneshots #heeseung x reader #heeseung x yn #heeseung fanfic #heeseung angst

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bluberimufim · 5 months

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A short display of Portuguese Christmas sweets[1]

[1] I don't think "sweets" is the best translation but idk how else to say it, what I mean is "pastries and cakes", basically

Hello! This is very late (but tbh we eat the same stuff on Christmas and New Year's so ig I'm not that late)!!

I wanted to do this because it seems to kinda be in line with my Halloween folklore post and I want to share more stuff with you all! This one I know a little more about because I eat these things every year, but I promise I'll get back into folklore next because that's what interests me most. Please be aware that half of this is from my personal experience and may not be 100% accurate to most other people.

Bolo Rei (trans: King Cake)

image source: https://lmalimentar.pt/lojaLM/bolos-congelados/318-bolo-rei-cozido-1-kg.html

This is like, the cake people think of when they think of Christmas. It's some basic dough filled with nuts and sugared fruits. Then, it has more sugared fruit on top (I've tried to find exactly what fruit it is but every recipe just says "fruit" despite it always being very specific colours and the only place I could find that listed what it supposedly was said it was pumpkin and I don't believe it). This cake is inspired by the image of a jewel-incrusted crown and was created to honour the Three Magi. It's said that it was inspired by the French Galette de Rois but I've also seen people say it's similar to Italian Panettone.

Bolo Rainha (trans: Queen Cake)

image source: https://www.receitasdeculinaria.tv/receita-do-bolo-rainha/

For the cool kids who don't like the fruit part of Bolo Rei - this one is literally just nuts. This is also supposed to look like a crown but I can't find any source saying what it's supposed to represent, so I think it's just Bolo Rei 2.0. This one wasn't that big of a thing when I was a kid but it's gained a lot of traction in the last 10 or so years.

Pão de Ló (trans: literally "Bread of Ló" / "Ló's Bread", I'll explain in a bit)

There are two versions of this one but I'm gonna talk about dry Pão de Ló first.

image source: https://www.receitasdatiaceu.com/recipe/pao-de-lo-tradicional/

This is my personal favourite - literally my favourite cake of all time. I have never met someone who does not have this as their favourite Christmas food. This is a type of sponge cake you eat on both Christmas and Easter, although it seems it was originally just for Easter. This is one of those you absolutely can't make at home unless you're literally crazy because it needs to be baked in a clay mould with sheets of paper and I've heard it requires 24 eggs per cake (tbh seems unrealistic but Portuguese pastry is like 80% eggs so it's not that outlandish, and I'm inclined to believe it bc I've tried like 3 different home-made recipes with normal amounts of eggs and it never tasted right). The origin of the name is basically impossible to find because every source I see claims a different story, but "Ló" seems to be the name of its original creator. Also, this cake was brought to Japan during the Discovery Period and it's allegedly the origin of a Japanese sponge cake named Kasutera.

Pão de Ló de Ovar (trans: Pão de Ló from Ovar)

image source: https://iberismos.com/pao-lo-um-doce-com-muita-historia-iberica/?lang=pt-pt

Kinda like regular Pão de Ló but wet on the inside - the liquid-y part is egg. Its origins seem to be in conventual sweets (like, from a convent), which are known for using lots of eggs. But just like with its dry variant, there are a few different stories about it. Sometimes people argue about which variant is better, but it's really not that divisive. In fact, all the foods in this post often coexist at the Christmas table despite some being similar to each other.

Sonhos (trans: Dreams)

image source: https://claradesousa.pt/receita/sonhos-de-natal/

These are much simpler than the cakes. It's basically just fried dough topped with sugar (I've heard that Brazilians call them "chuvinha" aka "little rain" because of this, and I think that's kinda funny because most Portuguese sweets have sugar on top). This is kinda like a "base" because there are other sweets similar to it but with carrot or pumpkin on the inside, and I don't think there's much reason to get into them here - also I don't usually eat them. You can eat them dry or with syrup made with sugar, cinnamon and lemon/orange.

Rabanadas (no clue how to translate this bc google suggests "french toast" and I refuse to accept that)

image source: https://www.pingodoce.pt/receitas/rabanadas/

This is a simple yet effective classic. It was originally made to utilize stale bread people had lying around (I've seen sources suggest it's because bread is sacred to Jesus even if it's stale and so it's bad to waste it). It's made with bread, honey or sugar, milk, and cinnamon, although I've seen people replace the milk and honey with condensed milk. It has been recorded since the 16th century, when it was used partially for medicinal purposes to help people regain their strength, especially after giving birth (which... thematically appropriate but it still surprised me when I found out).

I hope you had fun looking at all this tasty food - because I certainly did and this is my blog.

#i may also make a separate post on christmas food #like for dinner #but that's way more straightforward #also if i were to explain the Lore behind it it would involve briefly discussing Portugal's fascist dictatorship #and i don't want that in the post i made because i wanted to tell you about my favourite cake #the pão de ló thing is so real tho #the moment the holiday season ends you immediately start looking forward to Easter when you'll get to eat it again #also about the kasutera thing #it's the second time i've seen japanese sweets inspired by portuguese ones wtf #i am obviously aware of colonization but wtf dude #first pastel de nata and now pão de ló?? they have great taste. no notes.#if i sound like i know a lot about rabanadas it's bc i had to write an essay on them 2 weeks ago #not writing #portugal ramblies #christmas #portuguese cuisine #is that right?? it's the only tag related to it i can find #portuguese food

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geminusrufus · 10 months

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Normalizing Scraped Greek Inscriptions

I'm so sick none of this is spell checked.

0: Wait, What?

Are you confused why I'm talking about "scraping," "inscriptions" and the like? Then check out this post!

(shameless plug)

Anyways, you have a web scraper and it has returned an Ancient Greek inscription. Opa! Now we can start with the linguistics, right?

Unfortunately, no. We still have to handle our encodings. I mean... you could go straight ahead, but I can tell you from experience that it's not pleasant.

1: Unicode Encoding

So here's the problem. When the Greeks first borrowed the alphabet from the Phoenicians, spelling was rather simplified. Every letter was in (what we would call today) capital / upper case, and punctuation was minimal at best.

Let's use IG I3 1 (PH#1) as an example. On the website, the inscription looks like this:

But if you went out and actually pulled the rock out of the ground, then it would look a much more like this:

How did we get to the version on the website, then?

Well, over the course of the next six centuries, the letter shapes changed to something more resembling the upper case letters used in written Greek today. Then, in the late Roman era / early Middle Ages, Byzantine scholars started developing what would eventually become the lower case letters. Manuscripts were all written by hand, you see, meaning every piece took exceptional dedication. It is fitting, then, that scholars wanted their works to be as expressive as any other art! Hence the practice of calligraphy, as well as our alternate letter forms.

(Oh, and there was some spelling standardization scattered around, but that's not represented in the PackHum transcription, so we won't dig into it...)

Additionally, the Byzantines added a handful of accent marks. See, Ancient Greek had a pitch accent (similar to Japanese, or that wonderful circumflex accent in Swedish). To describe what pitch went where, scholars developed the following accents (shown on the letter alpha, with modern accent names):

ά alpha with tonos (aka acute)

ὰ alpha with varia (aka grave)

ᾶ alpha with perispomeni (aka circumflex)

Word-initial vowels also began with either smooth breathing or rough breathing (the consonant rho was always rough at the start of a word). This indicated if the vowel was preceded by an h-sound (rough) or not (smooth).

ἀ alpha with psili (aka smooth breathing)

ἁ alpha with dasia (aka rough breathing)

Finally, some long vowels were part of diphthongs. These /V:i/ segments (usually) lost their second element, becoming a long monophthong: e.g. αι (a:i) > α (a:). Byzantine scholars, who could still understand Classical and pre-Classical writing, noticed this change and began marking those long vowels with a little iota (the i-letter).

ᾳ alpha with ypogegrammeni (aka iota subscript)

Over the generations, these changes became standard for any and all written Greek, both ancient and modern.

Now. Here's the thing. These accents could combine. And they combined differently for upper and lower case letters. Look at this table from my thesis (shameless plug).

And here's the thing... because of how Unicode works... the computer reads every single one of those as a different letter. If you're trying to program a tool for working with these inscriptions, then you can't just say ~grab every α~, because you will get only α, and not ά, ᾶ, ᾏ, and so on.

But wait there's more! Unicode also contains those accents as separate letters which the computer can click together! These look the exact same as the "precomposed" characters in the table above!

"Ok," you say, "how do we unfuck this?"

2: Unfucking Unicode Normalization Forms

Well, the folks at Unicode considered this problem early. Their solution was to implement a way to take apart and rebuild characters on the fly. Let's start with the core vocab:

Composition: The process of turning a base letter and combining diacritics (aka accents) into a precomposed character.

Decomposition: The process of turning a precomposed character into a base character and combining diacritics.

Precomposed Character: A letter on Unicode's big chart which already has diacritics. Each one of those characters in the table above is a precomposed character. Unicode, unhelpfully, makes sure these look identical to characters with combining diacritics.

Keep those in mind and you'll be solid.

The Unicode Consortium gave us four tools that can help with our conundrum. The first is called "Normalization Form Decomposition" (NFD). This form turns any precomposed characters into the appropriate combination of base characters and diacritics. Take the letter ᾊ, for example. It's name is the Unicode chart is "Greek Capital Letter Alpha with Psili and Varia and Prosgegrammeni," and it's code point (its position on the chart) is U+1F8A. If we decompose this character, we get the four characters:

Α (Greek Capital Letter Alpha; U+0391)

◌̓ (Combining Comma Above; U+0313)

◌̀ (Combining Grave Accent; U+0300)

◌ͅ (Combining Greek Ypogegrammeni; U+0345)

Note that Unicode does not contain separate combining accents for the tonos (acute) or varia (grave), so characters are actually composed with their latin equvalents.

Next, we have "Normalization Form Composition" (NFC). As the name suggests, this one composes characters, taking your string of letters and accents then returning one precomposed glyph. Bear in mind that this process is clever: it actually decomposes your string first, then recomposes it. If we composed the four characters above -- or any equivalent, such as Ἂ + ◌ͅ (Greek Capital Letter Alpha with Psili and Varia; U+1F0A, and Combining Greek Ypogrgrammeni; U+0345 ) -- then we will get the glyph ᾊ from above.

Nice, right? Most programs are doing this constantly. If you're on a Mac / iPhone and you type an accent+letter, it will automatically transform into a precomposed glyph whenever possible. If you're working with R (and we are) then RStudio will do the same. This right here is the secret sauce for multi-lingual typesetting in the modern age.

However, sometimes you get letters that are the same thing, definitely the same thing, but have more than one code point for various reasons. These are usually specialized forms of a letter with some persistent quirk which would be difficult to reproduce consistently. For example, the Latin Extended-D Unicode block contains the letter ꞵ (Latin Small Letter Beta; U+A7B5) which is used for various Central African languages in the Gabonese Republic (source: wiki). While the appearance of any glyph is at the discretion of whichever font is in use, this letter is often identical to the letter β (Greek Small Letter Beta; U+03B2). The Latin Extended blocks contain many such letters.

Another example: you know those websites that let you type in bolds and italics etc. when they're otherwise not supported? Something like 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 or 𝓉𝒽𝒾𝓈? Or maybe you're a *~goth egg~* and your bio is in Fraktur: 𝔱𝔥𝔦𝔰? Each one of those characters is actually a glyph from the Math Alphanumeric Symbols block. Each of these is used in mathematical typesetting, but look at them. They're still the same Latin letters we're used to, they're just preformatted for a specific usage. What gives?

Well, the Unicode consortium has a way of describing letters that are-but-aren't the same. They're called equivalent.

All the accent examples above are in canonical equivalence. That means, from a human's perspective, the precomposed glyphs and the letter+diacritic combinations look exactly the same. If you print them on the page, the printer makes the same dots in the same places. If you write them out, you make the same strokes with the pen. They may have separate code points but, as far as anybody reading it is actually concerned, they're the same thing.

However, the math examples above are in compatibility equivalence, as are the two betas further up, meaning that their specific formatting is informational even though they're really just forms of the same letter. A mathematician presented with an italic 𝑒 and a Fraktur 𝔢 would know that they mean different things, even though they're the same letter, all because of how they're set on the page.

N.B.: The letters fi and the ligature glyph ﬁ (Latin Small Ligature fi; U+FB01) are in compatibility equivalence with one another.

"What does this have to do with Normalization?"

Good question! The Unicode standard also contains methods for composing and decomposing with compatibility equivalents.

First, there is "Normalization Form Compatibility Decomposition." This has the abbreviation NFKD, where K stands for... Compatibility. I think they did that because...

There is also "Normalization Form Compatibility Composition" (NFKC). Like NFC, this first decomposes (but this time with compatibility!) then recomposes. These have the special effect of turning ligatures into independent characters, super-/subscripts into in-line numerals, etc.

Finally, with these Normalization Forms, we have enough control over what glyphs the computer reads and can manipulate strings of characters to make them searchable!

3: Normalization Forms in R

Okay. That was a lot. Let's take stock.

So far, we have covered:

Problem: How Greek accents interfere with processing

Background: How the accents developed

Problem in Depth: How glyphs are recognized by Unicode

Solution Framework: How Unicode manipulates glyphs

Now the question becomes "how do we implement Normalization in our web scraper?"

To start, we will need the R library stringi. The whole purpose of the library is to expand our options for string processing in R. This includes five functions which are the most relevant for our current purposes:

stringi::stri_trans_nfd() Normalization Form Decomposition

stringi::stri_trans_nfc() Normalization Form Composition

stringi::stri_trans_nfkd() Normalization Form Compatibility Decomposition

stringi::stri_trans_nfkc() Normalization Form Compatibility Composition

stringi::stri_escape_unicode() Escape Unicode Characters

The first four are just the Normalization Forms from Section 2. The fifth one is just how we check our work. Remember: above I mentioned that RStudio will compose Unicode strings automatically before providing an output. If you store a decomposed string and try to print the results to the console, you will still see a composed string. This makes it hard to tell if you are working with properly formatted data! However, you can escape Unicode strings. That is to say, you can tell the computer that it should not touch whatever the output is.

If you have worked with Markdown, HTML, LaTeX and the like, then this should be familiar. If not, here's the short version.

Sometimes a computer needs to use certain characters for commands. For example, you can't just type the left angle bracket < in an HTML file and expect anything to happen, because you use angle brackets to tell Firefox that something is a command. If you want to type Greek is Beautiful in italics, then your HTML file would read <i>Greek is Beautiful</i>, where the opening tag <i> and the closing tag </i> define italicized text. As a result, if you want to type the left angle bracket, you need to use the escape code < . But look, the ampersand is used in an escape code. If you want it, escape it! & is the way to go.

Let's circle back to R now. If we want to type the letter ᾊ (Greek Capital Letter Alpha with Psili and Varia and Prosgegrammeni; U+1F8A), then we have two options. The first is to type the character directly into the console / .R file. Second is to type the Unicode string. In R, it's spelled \u1f8a.

If you want to escape it, then you need to add another backslash to the front, as such:

This is exactly what we would get if we pass the glyph ᾊ to stringi::stri_escape_unicode():

Now lets see what that looks like if we decompose it first:

Ohoho!

So, even though RStudio will recompose characters before we get the chance to see them, we can capture decomposed characters by escaping them. This way we can print out a string and make sure it decomposed properly.

(Quick note: that symbol %>% is called a pipe, and it is accessed by loading the library dplyr. This tells R to take the output of a function and hand it down to the next function in the line.)

With that victory under our belt, let's take a moment to tidy up. We're going to write some wrapper functions, i.e., functions that simply call another function. This might seem weird, but it can make our code more readable down the line. For example, since we're going to be normalizing a lot of text, things will get messy if we have to call stringi::stri_trans_nfd() every couple of lines. It would be much better if we could just type, say, NFD() and achieve the same results.

Let's see what that would look like. We need to pick a name, define it as a function, declare a placeholder name for our input, normalize the input variable, then return it.

Nice and simple! Let's do the same for the other Normalization Forms.

There we are!

With these in our pocket, we can start tidying up our inscriptional components. For starters, the source book for the inscription includes a superscript: IG I³. It's a small thing, but it means we can't simply type the name into the console, and we're in a position to clean it up.

Superscript numbers fall under canonical equivalence, so we'll use one of our NFK_() functions. Since there is nothing to compose -- no diacritics and the like -- the outputs of NFKD(PH1_book) and NFKC(PH1_book) are equivalent. That means we can skip composition and stick with decomposition:

Cool cool

What about the header? Well, mixed bag. Take a look:

There's some line breaks in there — see those \n's? That spelling should look familiar. — but normalization doesn't touch that. Really, the only thing here that we can currently fix are those superscripts. Once again, NFKD() to the rescue.

Fine enough for now, I suppose. But... we'll remember this. With some evil intent.

How about the text?

Lots of those line breaks... wonder what that's about. We also have some numbers in there. Let's break down what those mean.

If there's square brackets, like in τ̣[ὸς ἐ Σ]αλαμ̣[ῖνι κλερόχ]ος, that means the text is actually missing. Any letters in between those brackets are reconstructed, i.e., an educated hypothesis as to what might have originally been carved there.

(Dot's under a letter mean they're partly obscured but still roughly readable)

However, some of those brackets have periods and number nested in them, like in ἐᾶ Σαλαμῖνι [․․5․․]λεν. That means there's five "spaces"...

I guess now's the time to explain something. See that picture up above (so, so long ago) where I recreated this inscription for you? See how the letters are aligned in a grid? That type of arrangement is called Stoichedon (wiki), and it's a standard feature of Athenian inscriptions. Not every inscription does this, and sometimes non-Athenian inscriptions do use it, but generally it's an Athens thing.

Now look at the header. See where it says "stoich. 35"? That means this is in stoichedon/grid style, and that there are 35 columns.

So, that [․․5․․] means that there are five letters missing! If you look at my reconstruction, you'll see that I took those gaps into account when aligning the letters. If there's a "c." (for "circa," bc the earliest books were published in Latin), that means there's roughly that many spaces. Not sure what condition the stone was in that we ended up with β[ο]λε͂[ς ․․․c.11․․․․] at the bottom, but that's the number I used aligning the letters in my reconstruction, and I didn't get a malformed array error, so.

(I also didn't include any letters in brackets, though I did include dotted letters)

"Ok, that's all great, but what about the numbers not in brackets?"

Well, those are line numbers! See them in the picture waaaaaaay back at the top? Well, they're also text and they're also included in the HTML that we captured so... there they are!

Unfortunately, we can't do anything about numbers at the moment. Bit of a misdirect, given how much I just wrote about them, but I thought it best that we all knew what they were. And this is my blog. If you don't like it, then A) how did you get this far, and B) my thesis is much more concise.

(Shameless plug)

Anyways, there is something we can do with the text, though. Look that that word "ℎεκάτε[ρον" right before the 19-space gap. Why does that h look like that? Why is it even there?

Well, in reverse order, this inscription in particular is so old that it predates the semi-standardized spelling we're used to. See, in modern Greek there's this letter called ita, and it looks like this: Η η. In Ancient Greek, it's called êta, and looks roughly the same. As mentioned above, the lower case form was a Byzantine invention, but the uppercase form was... roughly stable (the vertical lines also have bars across the top and bottom in the recreation, but it's close).

The thing is, that was after the Athenian spelling reform implemented by the archon Eucleides in 403/2 BCE. In fact, he didn't just try to standardize spelling, but he switched alphabets. See, there wasn't just one Greek alphabet, but many.

In the alphabet that the Athenians used before Eucleides' reform, the letter was called heta, and it made an h-sound. After the reform, the Athenians stopped writing the h-sound, and it wouldn't come back in writing until the Byzantines came up with he rough breathing mark (see above).

(In fact, the Latin alphabet was derived from one of the Greek alphabets which retained heta, and it eventually evolved into the Latin letter h.)

"But why not just use an 'h' ?"

Well, the thing is, in most transliteration schemes the Latin letter 'h' still maps onto eta. Since the PHI website actively transliterates text any time you use the search bar at the bottom, they can't have that sort of overlap. So, they use the character ℎ (Plank constant; U+210).

Fortunately, we don't need to transliterate anything. We can type in Greek, so we won't need to worry about using Latin inputs for Greek searches. That means we could easily have the Latin 'h' in our inscription texts!

Plus, the plank constant is just an italic 'h'. We've handled this exact type of problem talking about compatibility equivalence, so we know we can use one of our NKF_() functions again.

But... there's more to consider. Look, we have accents now! We aren't just dealing with numbers or single characters, but fully composed glyphs. Sure we wouldn't ever see the decomposed forms, but leaving them decomposed now would be inefficient. See, if we store the text in its decomposed form, then every character needs to be stored separately. Think about the ᾊ example from above. The precomposed glyph ᾊ is one character. The decomposed set Α + ◌̓ + ◌̀ + ◌ͅ is four characters. It may not seem like a big deal right now, but when we run the full scraper, we're going to have multiple millions of glyphs. Then it will matter.

So let's recompose while we're at it.

And there we have it!

All of it!

Normalized!

This will come into play again later, but that's all we can do with normalization for the time being.

Next time, I think we'll go over tokenization.

#Ancient Greek #R #Dialectology #Quantitative Linguistics #Programming #Historical linguistics #Web Scraping #Still so sick #Head melting #Someone grab the thermal paste

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plan-d-to-i · 3 years

Note

1-people forget that in the universe MXTX created it is stated that YZY's situation is not normal, it is a patriarcal society so wives don't keept their names nor do whatever the fuck they want and they certainly don't humiliate their husband without even being told off, she's uniquely horrible and JFM is uniquely spineless. i always think JFM did love and worried about WWX but that last interaction he threw him under the bus to appease JC so his last memory would cement that he did love him

2- bc he didn't have more time to keep trying to make him understand and i always wonder how things with JC could have been fixed, easiest would be having had the balls to get rid off YZY early but if he divorced her (or got her killed lol) would JC have been different? or would he resent him even more for not protecting his mother? idk i feel like JFM was cursed from the moment he accepted to marry her and i can't help feeling bad for him

LOVE THIS. So I agree w like 99.9999% only my feelings over JFM change every five minutes. I never hate him but I vacillate wildly between i feel like he could've done more and ig he was himself a trapped in that situation so it's unfair to hold him fully accountable.

Madam Yu is an undeniably violently abusive woman who has married a kind, non-confrontational man. Most of JFM's flaws are only seen as 'flaws' instead of qualities because they framed as ineffective against someone as rank as her. I wouldn't even say he's spineless, because he does cancel YanLi's engagement for fear that it will make her as unhappy as his own marriage made him & effectively stands against his wife's demand on top of also passing on a very beneficial alliance w Jin Clan. (In fact Jin GuangShan is way more reluctant at the thought of taking this news to Madam Jin.)

Abusive relationships have their own dynamics so it's hard watching from the outside how JFM's resignation to his circumstances and avoidance are ineffective against, someone like YZY who materializes like a storm cloud to rain her venom down on everyone, especially WWX. Because WWX is not only bearing the scars piled on his back from YZY's whippings/'discipline' but he's trapped in a perpetual balancing act between JFM, YZY, jc and to an extent Yanli. He has to make JFM proud/see the value in keeping him around & at least in the beginning of his stay with the Jiangs we know he always tries to eat/take less than he needs, but he can't be so good & talented that jc feels threatened or set Madam Yu off. At the same time Yanli rewards him with soup and affection when he takes the fall for jc his first day there. This definitely establishes a pattern wherein WWX sees his usefulness within the Jiang sect in diverting punishment for the failings of those around him, especially jc, to himself. She also repeatedly asks him to just accept jc’s shifty behavior as a representative of his affection... bc she's a huge fucking enabler, which probably doesn’t bode well for how she’s come to interpret affection.

As for YZY she's the only one who paints herself a victim, when it's clear she's the instigator of the conflicts!!!! She’s literally the bad guy, boss, fly in the ointment etc. There's a lot of gaslighting in her interactions with JFM so I'm confused as to why people think that of everyone she's the reliable narrator or some poor sad victim of an uninterested husband??? She clearly does as she pleases in Lotus Pier, yells at JFM in front of Servants, accuses him of fathering a child with his friend's wife, she whips the head disciple for imagined infractions with a spiritual weapon! and pretty much just chills w her ladies when she isn't busy spewing venom wherever she goes. WITH NO REPRECUSSIONS. If JFM had been a woman and YZY the man I'm sure all her cringe stans would be frothing at the mouth to drag her(yzy) to hell by the balls.

People love to accuse JFM of favoritism towards WWX or showing him more affection. To me it's clear that for JMF, WWX is simply an extension of his father/friend & ultimately a subordinate in the Jiang household. JFM clearly cares about jc, it's not his fault that jc doesn't get it, and it's not his fault that YZY is always poisoning their relationship. JFM for his part is still trying to guide jc towards how he's meant to occupy his future position as Clan leader, quite gently too considering jiang cheng was berating WWX for saving their allies... I’m sure if anything JFM hoped WWX’s morality and sense of right and wrong would rub off a bit on jc & why wouldn't you want someone immensely talented and loyal and devoted to the well being of your son and family around?? JFM did a nice thing getting WWX off the streets but that doesn’t mean he also didn’t think WWX could be a good friend to jc who when WWX is first brought to Lotus Pier has ZERO friends, and was likely to remain with zero friends considering his personality. Only someone like WWX who is forced by circumstances, & his kind nature & gratitude to the Jiangs would be in a position to befriend him. So I think it's laughable to say JFM favors WWS when WWX was the sacrificial lamb friend/pet JFM gifted his son. Not to mention that the only person who says JFM doesn't properly value jc is again YZY. Ofc jc takes to like a duck to water because he's cut from the same cloth as his rancid mother and it's much easier to blame WWX for all his failings and misfortunes than to take a good hard look at himself or ever take responsibility for anything. jc doesn't do self reflection. There isn't any scenario where jc would have been a good person. He's lacking basic human empathy. His view of the world has him as its center. He can only relate to things as they concern and affect him and he doesn't even possess a modicum of honor that might keep such selfish impulses at bay.

To conclude, I totally agree. JFM cursed himself the moment he let himself be coerced by YZY and her Clan into marrying a person whose character and values he knew ran so deeply counter to his and his Clan's own. Sure enough under the control of jiang cheng, the original spirit in which Jiang clan was established is gone. It's a place devoid of warmth that people are scared to visit lest they be confronted w the screams of people being flayed alive.

#mdzs #jiang cheng #jiang family #yu ziyuan #madam yu #jiang yanli #the jiangs suck #WHY DID I MAKE THIS SO LONG FFFFF #I tried to edit it down 138431 times #this was edited 2000 times #I obviously consider YZY to be the shittiest shit to ever be shit on the face of the earth #and I think this is v JFM favorable at least it's meant to be but as always I cast a lot of shade all the way around

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ricerice · 3 years

Text

Ｇｅｎｓｈｉｎ：　Ｍａｆｉａ　ＡＵ　ャ翁温

On a slightly more serious note, this AU is a multiple-part series, so I’ll tie off as many loose ends as I can lmao. Good luck to those who are pulling for Kazuha! A friend of mine got him in ten pulls with three pity.

I’m saving my rimos for Xiao, but depending on if Lauren gets him or not it might be Hu Tao.

Credit: Jessica

Warnings: ig mafia behavior

Word count: 874

Reminder: I am not trying to romanticize the mafia or anyone’s experiences with the mafia. If you are not comfortable with these topics, please don’t feel obligated to read it. - Jessica

“Are you almost ready, Lady [Name]?”

“Yes, just give me one minute.” [Name] responded, pulling her gloves on. “Do you mind debriefing what the boss expects today?”

“O-Oh, I’m sorry, Lady [Name]. I don’t know myself. Master Jean didn’t disclose this information to me.” Sucrose, the mint-haired assistant for Albedo said nervously.

“That’s quite all right, Sucrose.” [Name] looked herself over in the mirror, checking everything over to make sure it’s all presentable. “Does Albedo have anything for me today?”

Albedo was the inventor for many of the gadgets that the Mondsadt mafia used. He supplied many things for the mafia, but more specifically, made sure to design something new for [Name] for every mission. He was very dear to [Name], and they spent time together outside of the mafia.

(In fact, he asked [Name] if he could paint her very often.)

“Yes, he does, actually!” Sucrose said excitedly. “I came up with the idea for it. He requested that you stop by his office before your mission to pick it up.” If she had a pair of animal ears, they’d surely be standing up in excitement.

‘What a cutie.’ [Name] thought.

Sucrose was the assistant to Albedo. She was rather on the shy side, but was always eager to speak with [Name]. After he finished the prototype, she was usually the one to test it and document the results. [Name] thought that she was absolutely adorable.

“Thank you, Sucrose.” [Name] said. “Please inform Albedo that I’ll be there shortly.”

After she said that, Sucrose quickly bowed and left. [Name] gave herself one final look-over and proceeded out the door as well.

Walking to Jean’s office, [Name] thought about what her mission could be. As she was absorbed in her thoughts, she didn’t realize that she stumbled into someone.

“Whoa there, can’t have you falling for me too fast, can we?” said a sultry voice.

“Kaeya.” [Name] greeted. “It’s good to see you.”

“Always so formal.” he said, bringing her hand to his lips. “Let’s change that, shall we?”

Kaeya was the information broker and had been in the mafia for a couple years before [Name] joined. He, though capable, flirted relentlessly with anyone with a pair of legs and had decided that [Name] was his next target. Without fail, every time they saw each other he would make it a point to compliment her, all with a smile on his face like he knew something she didn’t.

[Name] rolled her eyes. “Is this truly necessary? There’s much to be done.”

Kaeya placed his hands on his chest. “As cold as you are beautiful, Lady [Name]. I did hear about your mission. Unfortunate, who your partner is.”

“Do you know something?” [Name] asked, brow furrowing slightly.

Kaeya laughed. “I know many things, Lady [Name]. Go on in, you’ll find out soon enough.”

Confused, [Name] bid Kaeya a good day and stepped into Jean’s office.

“Master Jean, good afternoon.” [Name] said with an incline of the head.

“Ah, Lady [Name]. Come, sit.” Jean said, waving her over. [Name] followed obediently, sitting herself on the plush armchair.

“Today’s mission is largely for diplomatic reasons.” Jean started. “A Snezhnayan organization called the Fatui has threatened the borders of the Liyue mafia. According to our gatherings, they plan to poison the leader at a party later tonight.”

“Forgive me, but isn’t hosting a party while being targeted kind of… a bad move?” [Name] couldn’t help but ask.

“Under normal circumstances, yes.” Jean answered. “However, the party is only a cover-up. In actuality, the party is the host of one of the biggest underground trading sections in a century. Therefore, it cannot simply be cancelled.”

[Name] exhaled through her nose. “I see. So my job is to get rid of the threats from Snezhnaya and guard whomever is representing us. Speaking of which, who is representing us?”

“That would be me.” a voice said from the shadows of the room. [Name] watched a red-haired man step into the light, a small scowl on his face like this was the last place he wanted to be.

The first thing [Name] thought was ‘Strawberry?’

“Lady [Name], this is Master Diluc. He owns the Dawn Winery.” Jean said, gesturing to the man who had his arms crossed.

“Thank you, Master Jean, but I can introduce myself.” the man, Diluc, said. Though his words were harsh, his tone was even, betraying no scorn for Jean.

“I look forward to working with you, Master Diluc.” [Name] said. “I trust that you are most capable.”

“Hm.” Diluc said in reply.

Well, now she could see why Kaeya didn’t like Diluc. He was serious and solemn, not a man of many words, which was the complete opposite of Kaeya. [Name] didn’t mind, though. Diluc was interesting, and [Name] would make it her mission to one day braid his fluffy strawberry hair.

(Priorities, am I right?)

“Now that you have met, Lady [Name], please go to this address tomorrow at nine.” Jean handed [Name] a card, which was blank except for an address and postal code printed in the middle.

“Thank you,” [Name] said, taking it as the dismissal it was.

After [Name] left, Jean turned to Diluc.

“I believe we have much to discuss, Master Diluc.”

Ooh what’s the tea Master Jean 👀? - Jessica

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kenmasgameboy · 4 years

Photo

ruin me.

chapter 8: who?

previous…next

masterlist

kuroo tetsurou came into y/n’s life when she needed him to fuck it up the most.

Kuroo tapped the notebook you where you were rewriting your notes for better organization. You looked over, eyes wide with the sudden eye contact he made. Fuck, he’s so hot. You thought this to yourself and had to look away.

“When do you have to close up?” Kuroo asked, his voice smooth in your ear as you become painfully aware of his gaze.

“Half an hour.” You mumbled, checking your watch. Thanks to the silence around you he still heard you.

“Perfect, uh.” Kuroo nervously fiddled with his pencil, trying to prepare himself to be rejected, “Could I walk you home when you’re done?”

“What?” You practically choke it out, your skin feeling hot and sweaty under your current predicament.

“It’s just getting late, I think Inuoka had to have gone home by now if you were planning on going with him. But I’d love to walk you. I really don’t mind.” Kuroo insisted. You gripped the page of your book, crinkling the corner of it between your thumb and index finger.

“Kuroo-san?” You finally gain the courage to say something above a mumble.

“You don’t have to be so formal—” Kuroo started but you needed to let it out before you swallowed it back down forever.

“Why are you messing with me? I know I tweeted that thing but I didn’t think you’d ever see that. I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable.” You said it in practically one long breath, trying to get it all out of your chest like blowing it into a balloon.

“What tweet? Oh the one where you said I was some good fucking food, something about being a delicious specimen, right?” He flashed a handsome teasing grin your way. Your whole body felt like cringing, curling in on itself until you turned into seafoam but restricted it to just your hands curling and your face wincing. Why did you ever forget the internet is forever?

“I’m just teasing you. Of course, I’m flattered. But I was interested in knowing who you were before I even saw that.” He insisted, his genuine smoothness spilling across the table.

“Oh.” You said, quickly turning your face into your opposite shoulder as to hide the panic and flustered expression you surely are wearing. Kuroo wanted to see that face so bad. A light breath was exhaled from his nose as he held back his laugh, you were amusing though he would give you that.

“Why don’t I walk you home?” He repeated himself. You remembered Inuoka’s long gone and the dark of the night had already settled in. You couldn’t walk home alone, but walking home with a guy you didn’t know very well also didn’t sound like a fun risk.

“Y/N-chan?” Your class representative suddenly had approached the desk, Nakamura Satoshi. You hadn’t spoken to him much, only when he needed you to do a certain task. He was #1 in your year, and was extremely popular with the staff and faculty. He wasn’t exactly Kuroo’s status with popularity, but he was up there. There was no doubt people knew who they were. And they knew who each other were.

You were so thankful that nobody else was in this library. As this would be quite the sight for anyone to see. Two of some of the most popular boys at this school hanging around the loner librarian assistant. What was next? Was an idol going to come try to talk to you as well? You set a reminder in your head to punch Inuoka for leaving you alone tonight.

“Ah, Satoshi-kun, I’m sorry I forgot you were here. Can I help you find something? I was about to close up.” You smiled lightly at him. Your interaction with this guy made Kuroo want to put his fist directly into Nakamura’s face. Did he not see he was working on something over here? He just had to come ruin it, huh? Why were you so familiar with each other? Kenma said you didn’t talk to anyone. Kuroo’s patience was coming to a stifling end.

“Ah not exactly, I’m sorry to keep you past your shift. Is the librarian coming to relieve you?” Satoshi asked you,

“No, I’m locking up tonight. She texted me a little while ago to let me know she couldn’t come back to do it.” You said. Kuroo was getting antsy, starting to pack up his things as he tried to urge this kid to stop talking. He was getting the need to be petty, jealous of how comfortable you were with him.

“Oh, I see.” He said, returning his voice to a normal level since nobody else was here, “I was wondering if you could help me understand this assignment from English? You got second highest in that subject last term, right?”

“Well, yeah. Second to you?” You turned your head to the side in confusion, but Kuroo didn’t miss a beat in understanding this guys game plan.

“I could help you.” Kuroo smiled nonchalant, playing coy as if he didn’t know a thing.

“Oh, Kuroo-san! My apologies, I didn’t see you there.” Satoshi bowed and smiled politely. Immediately it was like a surge of lightening went through both of their eyes, their competitive natures being at opposing sides with each other.

“No worries, I scored #1 in english the last 3 years, I don’t mind helping you.” Kuroo said, trying to draw his attention away from you.

“That’d be great, but I’d feel like I was cheating if i got help from someone as advanced as you. Besides, Y/N-chan always takes the best notes from what we covered in class today. I swear! They’re always better than mine.” Satoshi was being light-hearted but not even you could deny the air had gotten thicker.

“It’s okay, um. Is it this one? I’ll admit it was kind of difficult. Learning when to use past, present, and future tense verbs can get rather difficult especially if it changes mid-sentence.” You said this while looking down at the identical sheets, trying to ignore that half of the answer bubbles looked like they used to have writing in them but had been erased. But Kuroo certainly couldn’t ignore that.

“I know, I’ve been kinda struggling with it. Kuroo-san, this could take a little while. You shouldn’t have to wait for Y/N-chan. I can walk her home.” Satoshi tried to wave him off. Kuroo stood up, using his height to his advantage over Satoshi who was probably only 4 inches shorter than Kuroo, but still enough to make his point.

“I don’t mind waiting, I already got my studies done for the day. No need to rush.” Kuroo insisted, “Besides, L/N already told me she wanted me to walk her home.”

“I don’t remember her saying that.” Satoshi pointed out, causing Kuroo’s eyes to widen. So, he had been listening to them. “Y/N-chan, do you mind staying with me, I’d love your input about a few other things for our class? I’ll walk you home and buy you something from the vending machine.”

You wanted to explode. Right then and there felt like the perfect time to just implode actually, so why couldn’t you spontaneously combust.

“Uh..” You nervously fiddled with the end of your uniform sweater, you looked up to Kuroo for some kind of answer. You don’t know why you had done that, you just felt like he would help you in this. Inuoka normally would be that person for you, but now out of the two in front of you, you go to Kuroo. But he just stared down Satoshi instead, when you made eye contact with him you backed down again. You panicked under his gaze. He registered that look you were giving him a second too late, “Kuroo-san, I would feel bad making you wait for me. It’s okay to go on without me.”

Kuroo wished he could back track, he wished he had the right authority to just pick you up and take you with him. He wished he could’ve gone back to when you looked at him with those panicked eyes looking for an answer and answered for you again so that you would feel like you had an ally. Satoshi didn’t skip a single beat, he took the seat Kuroo had been sitting in for the last few hours to make sure he could be even closer to you than he had been to immediately start asking you questions to ignore Kuroo.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, L/N.” Kuroo couldn’t help but hang his head with his defeat. As soon as Kuroo left through the front doors, the rubber band you felt between the two of you that had been getting pulled tighter and tighter was cut by the doors of the library. It snapped back and hit the air out of your chest. You felt weaker without him, like you couldn’t focus on what Satoshi was asking you even though you were more familiar with him he never gave you the same feeling of blissful silence in the way Kuroo gave you today.

You didn’t know that Kuroo was going to give you up that easy. You didn’t know that he wasn’t. That he was waiting down the hall waiting for you to leave with that guy with you so he could prove his own suspicions. He was never going to give up that easily.

***

TAGLIST:

@firebonbon @ushiwakasthighs @koukamisblog @dragonxbabe @ari-hatake15 @nohxmanity @chaelysian @whatevenisapaige @fern-writes-ig @haikyuufairy @ushiwakaismybae @kalesveggietales @tetsuswhore @starry-magicshop @iwanttogotopluto @cuddlesslut @bby-bokuto @nagichi-kenma @roseestuosity @prcttylittlcthing @its-bnha-babe @horsegirlbabey @90s-belladonna @insomniish @aquzaifus @johnnysactualgf @axolotleyeliner @boosyboo9206 @berriesii @animewithmemes @gemswrites @incapableofacleverusername @jvhoone @i8bbflesh @sempiternal-amour @anejuuuuoy @rd-crew

send a comment or an ask to be added to the taglist! if your name is crossed out it’s because i couldn’t find it! let me know if you’ve changed your username!

a/n wOW WHAT A MASSIVE CHAPTER! let me know what you guys think <3 a bit more drama-filled than normal hehe

#kuroo #kuroo tetsurou #kuroo x reader #kuroo smau #haikyuu kuroo #haikyuu #haikyuu x reader #hq #hq x reader #kuroo smut #kuroo tetsurou x reader #kuroo tetsuro #kenma #inuoka #haikyuu smau

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the-bjd-community-confess · 3 years

Text

More Divaz confos

Mod: Round two of these, previously: link. There’s some interesting customer reviews in this batch (5 and 8) which may be useful to readers.

1.Vic3mage "the secret bjdivaz vip group is just pictures of boxes coming in and going out". Yeah, between the bitching about d0llshe, asking people to post on doa for them, dunking on ex-customers, posting pics of random doll parts that they can't identify which doll they're supposed to go with, whining about how little money they make, whining when ppl e-mail them, whining. Yeah, other than that it's just boxes, and alpacas u can buy off amazon anyway lol.

~Anonymous

2.The butthurt users crying and guilttripping under every Divaz confession who have never been seen before elsewhere on this blog are extremely unsuspicious and unproblematic and definitely unconnected to Divaz and unbiased in every possible way

~Anonymous

3.idk shit abt bjd1vas but v1cemage i can absolutely tell you the shit about ch0o is 100% accurate, fucker's got a long, long history of being an awful little man that stretches well beyond his involvement in the doll community. between the two i'd still trust bjd1vas over ch00 ch00 the fool any day!

~Anonymous

4.The Z3st and Div4s thing is really silly and both entities were being shady but did they really have to take the DZ waiting room down with them? :( He had even made a separate thread about it......

~Anonymous

5. RE: BJD Divaz

I’ve been a customer of BJD Divaz since they first started, when it was only run by Chart3rline. I even contacted other BJD companies trying to persuade them to work with Divaz as their US representative. Most declined because they didnt like D's commission fee, but I was able to persuade a few of them.

I asked them to purchase a doll off DOA because I couldnt afford the asking price, and while they did, I found out later that instead of agreeing to purchase the seller's price, they negotiated the price to be lower. This significantly cheaper price was not passed down to me. I paid the full price +the commission fee based on that full price. I am disappointed I was not told this. This is when I stopped viewing them as a "friend" and instead, as a business. I dont hold this against them, it’s context to what Im going to say later.

I’ve stopped purchasing from D after my recent order from them. This company usually takes 3 or less months to make a doll. I’ve ordered the doll from D and it took 11 months. They let me know it arrived to them in March and that it will be shipped soon, except it only shipped on July, and only after I sent them several "reminder" emails. Before people in the comments try to put the blame on me for not sending a reminder soon, please keep in mind that I acknowledged the email in March and confirmed everything and they keep stressing to not send them emails because they are busy, I’ve emailed once every month since. I’ve since switched to ACBJD and Ive been happy with communication and the dolls ordered. I imagine ACBJD gets the same amount of emails, but they dont berate their customers if they email more than once.

I regret when people wanted a D0llshe, but not deal with him, I always recommended D. I would warn people of ordering directly and instead go through D. They assured buyers they would be handling communication and all the efforts so they wouldnt worry, except they didn’t. A person that I’ve recommended D to, who surpassed 2 years, keeps messaging me for help because D wouldnt reply to their emails. She is respectful, sweet and a timid person, not a Karen. This person, emailed D without a reply so would email a week later, only to be told that their email would be pushed down to the bottom if emailed again. No response, so she goes to FB and IG, who both tell her to email because they arent the person running orders. Finally got a response that they would get their refund, after D0llshe sends D's payment, but minus the PP fees. 3 months later and theres no refund, only a promise of them getting it later. Why is the customer missing out on fees when they have no doll? Customer emails d0llshe and he says he cant offer refund, because they didn’t order through them, which is understandable, but when all options are out for a customer, do you blame them for chargebacks?

If anyone files a chargeback, D will be blacklisting them from every company they rep, as in blacklisting you from buying direct from those companies. I urge everyone who has negative experiences with D to email the companies they rep instead of venting on confession blogs, and writing your experiences on social media. Make it count and send letters to the companies they represent, and please provide proof because they will try to make you out to be a liar.

Speaking of, they made vague posts on cl0ver singing for charging paypal fees, and that they offer guarantees as an official dealer, except when offering refunds, to non delivered products I might add, they are keeping the fees, and offered no help with d0llshe, even before they ended their dealership with them. Someone on DOA was told to not email them unless the wait time surpassed 1.5 years. They are even so petty that they post screenshots with the full name and address (dox) of the customer on purpose and then delete it out a day later as if they just realized their "mistake".

Before you try to make excuses for them about the fires, keep in mind, I am dealing with a business. The lower price negotiation with the DOA sale, I am in no way obligated to give them a pass or treat them as a friend when they made it clear that our relationship is strictly business. Their issues, are not my issues. D0lk got dragged for not shipping in time, others, including artisans, got dragged for being so late with communication and sending back refunds for cancelled orders. Why does D get to be exempt?

The supporters are the worst part of this, because of instead of being honest so D can improve, they support them for being "real". For example, look how micemage words it, to make it seem like this criticism is from one person, when there are people on addicts who didn’t have good experience. Check the bjd dealers tag here, you will see the supporters in the comments going off on any and all criticism of D. Some have sane comments, but the majority are cult like and try to identify the person venting as if it’s one person. Addicts deletes threads with criticism asking people to instead direct it to their feedback group; which lets be honest, no one is going to do because its "not that bad", and most dont want to join a new group, which is mostly dead.

This is my first and last confession on D, I’ve emailed each company they rep and told them my experience as well as contacting the 3 month wait company, with screenshots of my order, how they handled it, and the excuse they used to put blame on the company for being so late (package arrived march to D, 4 months to be shipped is on D, not the company). I’m not using company or order details because I know they are petty enough to try to identify me and publicly shame me like they have to others. This and the threat of suing is why not many people like to go public with their experience. They just keep feedback neutral, move on and never deal with again.

~Anonymous

6. Listen, I can't take you seriously in regards to BJD!vas because you're posting on a confession blog. If you were serious, you would have posted in buyer beware groups, DoA reviews or the board to get things resolved, or you would have made a complaint to the BBB. And your language makes you come off more as someone with an agenda rather than someone who is trying to warn people. If shipping is the issue, stop buying with standard shipping and pay the extra price for express shipping. I saw one of you complain that it sat with them for 20 days; that's probably because you're not the only one and they more than likely have a queue to check and then ship out. Do mistakes happen? Yes, because we're human. I've been in this hobby for a few years now and it seems like most people know you're going to have to wait, sometimes even outside the expected wait time. And shipping something as big as a doll is a timely endeavor. I shouldn't have to say that.

My point is simply to stop complaining on an confession board and either take it to the places previously mentioned. Posting here behind the anonymous mask makes you sound like a petulant child who didn't get their way right away.

~Anonymous

7.My only issue with BJD Divaz is how I never get any updates. Every email, they tell me to join their facebook page for status updates. I dont have a FB and I dont want to create one. I bought my doll through their website, updates should be posted on their website, or they could send me an email. That isnt asking much.

~Anonymous

8. Since there seems to be a lot of either "completely negative everything sucks" or "everything was sunshine and rainbows" confessions about bjd!vaz I thought I'd chime in with a neutral review.

PROS

-They were always polite and professional in their emails, and gave me very detailed answers to my questions.

-I got exactly what I ordered, so no mix ups or missing parts or anything like that.

-I think them being forthcoming about personal issues (only one person on staff, illness, the flooding isue etc.) on social media is good, since it keeps customers updated as to why there might be delays.

-If you live in the US their shipping is very reasonable.

CONS

-Reply times were varied. Sometimes it could take over a week, sometimes a couple hours.

-My order took about 10mo which, when comparing to other people who ordered through the same company around the same time, was about 3x as long as if I bought it direct and 2x as long if I had gone through a different dealer. I get some of the waiting time is out of their control, but it was kind of ridiculous.

-They dont necessarily ship the same day they send you a tracking number. I wish they said something like, "Here's your tracking number, our pickup is Xday so it should start moving after that" just so I could be aware.

All in all no major complaints. I got my doll and all that. Their lone employee is clearly overwhelmed. I hope they hire another person, if only to give the one a break.

Truthfully, I most likely won't buy through them again. I'd rather pay the international shipping and go direct, than deal with the extensive wait time. I'd still recommend them to someone looking for a very long layaway, though. I paid in full, but if I had a 12mo layaway I would've never known they weren't ready to ship my doll until month 10.

~Anonymous

#BJD #ABJD #BJD Confessions #TrueBJDConfessions #BJD Dealers

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mingmingfufu · 3 years

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Can we just talk about the ending of KawoShin open discuss. *sort of spoilerish*

I feel like I’m the only one who’s like reallly disappointed LMFAO--ya’ll there’s so much “canon” alternative universe and merchandise for Kawoshin in Evangelion that it kind of makes me upset to realise this couple just went down the drain. Yeah, I can see how people were like, “Kaworu’s toxic” or “Kaworu has a hero complex for Shinji” to which I say are valid points. But the toxic thing I feel like can also be applied to pretty much everyone around Shinji tbh, except for Rei. I did NOT, like Asuka at all but I really love her character though, and I felt for her a lot throughout the series.

I did not ship them either because honestly, Shinji and Asuka seemed better off playing the sibling dynamic instead of trying to play bf/gf which honestly is kind of forced by their living situation. Also since they’re in a similar disposition non existent father and dead mother, you’d imagine they would rely on each other for emotional comfort. Though Asuka—her personality I feel like she can’t differentiate between familial love and romantic love and the affection she wants is a bit of both. But, her character tries to be “mature”; she wants romantic love more and does this through sexual means and romantic gestures e.g. like kissing. One of my friends told me that you can’t stay friends as a boy and a girl cause eventually you catch feelings. Which I say is kinda dumb cause I have a lot of male friends, and I definitely don’t harbour those feelings, but I guess it’s a common phenomena.

I think this is what happens in this case, of Asuka and Shinji. Even after rejection of instrumentality they actually are depicted as childhood friends. But knowing how they both were before to each other, it was not good tbh. Also to mention the choking like thrice— bro if anything, this showcases a really abusive relationship and I think this outstretches the idea of their character tropes. Which I firmly stand by saying they’re superficial to each other. AsuShin were never really there for each other and are using each other in a forced situation. However, you can’t deny that they didn’t at some point catch feels, also Shinji is pretty consistent how he still cares about everyone around him. Which I really like how they add that to his character because it reminiscent of Yui, because you see a duality of both his parents personality in Shinji throughout the series—it’s a really nice touch. But bruh, if we gonna talk about that coma scene—I’m out LOL.

Thoughhhh, she is a true definition of best girl I really like her arc, fighting drive, and her skills as an Eva pilot 😭💗--but bruh she’s still a toxic and sometimes annoying tsundere trope, but still she’s 14 what can you do. So I feel like Kensuke and Asuka are actually a pretty good combo, cause he’s always been pretty mature even without parents. Also Asuka was into older guys, so I guess this is a win win?? Also Rei and Shinji, I honestly cannot get my head around it cause that’s pretty much his mom—so in a way that’s like either his half-sister or mom-ish clone?? Idk but Yui is definitely the donor LOL.

Kaworu and Shinji I felt like brought a bunch of things out of each other. I don’t know which timeline begins first, but I’d like to think the manga, the anime (plus its movies), and then to the rebuild series. Because I think that order is kind of pivotal to observing Kaworu’s character development from being a person who’s trying to understand human feelings to then the kinder person we see in the final series. You can tell how he’s changed and he knows Shinji a lot more as well as being considerate to him e.g. giving him personal space or letting him work at his own pace. Also that “we’ll meet again.” Is an obvious nod to how he’s done this before.

His literal story in every timeline is always romantic LOL, like bruh I can’t remember which game it was but basically a bad ending of Kawoshin route is that you reject Kaworu and he starts the third impact 🤡. Also I don’t know why but I started to see a weird dynamic between those two, in the manga their interactions reminded me of Asuka and Shinji—which Shinji is the tsundere Asuka here. I don’t know if this is relevant but the older character relative to the character they’re with seems to play off a mature vs a childish person trope. Asuka is younger than Shinji and Shinji is actually younger than Kaworu. Then again I could be overseeing this but istg manga Kaworu and Shinji mirror the whole Asushin dynamic. Like he’s seriously agressive against Kaworu, then after killing him he admits liking him. 🤡 I don’t know which is funnier no homo Shinji, homophobe shinji, or just closet Shinji who needs to realise sexuality is a spectrum so he could’ve idk—come out as bisexual, but whatever manga Shinji lol that timeline is over.

Anyways the development of these two is real and I think the rebuild timeline shows them at their best bringing their own personage out from each other like how they both enjoy music together--WHICH I’M SO SAD WE NEVER GET TO SEE THAT CELLO AGAIN. Then there’s those feelings of humanity, love, kindness, etc. Which yeah an angel could represent those things, but Kaworu is still his own person, self-aware of a cycle and if you think about how he initially was there to USE Shinji, but ultimately turned on that plan set by SEELE because he loved Shinji (and a bunch of other things like him showing Kaworu humanity). I also can see the argument, how “ideal” Kaworu is to Shinji, but he’s more self aware of the time he has before he KNOWS he’ll die and knows how to act for himself in that duration to make the most of it. All with Shinji. At some point, I think he fell in love with Shinji tho I don’t know where it began tbh—considering that all those alternate universes do exist. Kaworu does romantically love Shinji--so, in some universe they both reciprocate their feelings to each other.

In the last movie during that convo with Shinji. Like bREH it’s so emotionally moving because Kaworu remembers ALLLLL the timelines and how he’s been with Shinji and later Shinji himself recalls the events too. Where they show the scene from the manga and anime. Kaworu cries after being set free from the EVA cycle. Which, I definitely understood what he meant by him saying “it’ll be lonely” and how Shinji changed or that he’s actually different this time.

Either way, Shinji did right by him because it’s always Kaworu who has the purpose of “trying to save Shinji” but it always ends up the same. I thought that was really moving because Shinji tells Kaworu he’s gonna let him live a life for himself for once and he wants the same for everyone as well. Which was honestly so meaningful cause I think Kaworu’s character and like Rei too when they start to realise how to “live” like a person and not another puppet it’s truly liberating. Another thing I forgot, bruh Kaworu calls Gendo his father and ngl I feel like this is kind of a weird lore situation because I for sure don’t think he’s the donor. I think he calls him that as an insult because he knows Gendo’s whole doing and relative to Shinji—I kind of see it as a joke LOL. Like it’s equivalent to saying, “daddy chill”, or “hey look it’s daddy and his plans to end the world” also I kind of like to think of it as a father in law thing cause you know, Kawoshin *winks amirite*

The ending, I’m honestly hoping is just an open ending because it gives everything an actual start of their adult lives not being dictated by extraterrestrial forces. Though, I’m kind of wondering if the world doesn’t have EVAs does that still mean everyone else still has the same backstory, and do they remember? Maybe Mari really is just a coworker lmfao, and there’s still a chance for Kaworu and Shinji cause ngl, they did have a convo (presumably from the spoilers) about still remaining close afterwards and that stare at the ending seems very hopeful.

I call bs from Anno saying, “oh Shinji is based off him and Mari off of his wife”, like honestly any OCs made theres always some part of yourself made into that character. Which is probably why a lot of people relate to the characters in EVA because they’re based off real things (e.g. those war machines characters are named after and people around them). I think why Kaworu and Rei are together at the end, is bc they’re very much the same. They’re mass produced dolls—which oddly enough that’s the case for all the children except they don’t recall the loop. Kind of funny also how both Kaworu and Rei became farmers lmfao so ig it runs in the family (yes that’s right I like the idea that they’re siblings it was always noted that they’re like “the same”).

Another thing, i think why the rebuild really did well for Kawoshin and in my opinion canonised it—the convo with elder Ryoji Kaji (Misato’s baby daddy) that there was a time he felt incredibly lonely and depressed thinking Misato didn’t love him and so he started looking out for himself. So self love and found himself a hobby in farming which he suggests to Kaworu—basically saying he might feel like Shinji doesn’t love him but he’s gotta remember to take care of himself. if I go thru a breakup ill feel like it’s the end of the world but Kaji says y’a gotta self love broe and take care yo self gad dam fam 😭 💗.

Though, that look at the end from Shinji to Kaworu—I’d like to believe there is still hope that one day when they’re a bit stable in their adult lives, they’ll run into each other.

#Kaworu Nagisa #shinji ikari #neon genesis evangelion #rei ayanami #mari illustrious makinami #asuka shikinami #discussion #kawoshin #nge kaworu #nge shinji #nge

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stvpidinlove · 3 years

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[ OLIVIA HOLT, SHE/HER, CIS WOMAN ] — [ REGAN MORGAN ] is a child of [ MORPHEUS ] with the power of [ PRECOGNITIVE DREAMING ] . they were born in [ 1995 ] and have been in nemean lion since [ 2019 ] . with the change, they [ ARE TRAINING IN ] the [ AMBASSADOR ] role which makes sense since they’re usually [ SCROLLING HER CURSED TIKTOK FYP & CONFUSING HER FOLLOWERS ON TWITTER ] . if you’d like to meet them try the [ MOON ] building .

tl;dr she’s a deranged menace to society

BASICS

hometown: milford, pennsylvania

eye color: brown

hair color: blonde

height: 5′3

sexuality: bisexual

birthday: january 19, 1995 ( capricorn )

BIO

regan’s mother was never the type to settle down. before meeting morpheus, her longest relationship had been three months. so when the guy seemed commitment-phobic, that was perfect for her. until, of course, she found out she was pregnant. she didn’t want to get married but she was at an age where the idea of motherhood...didn’t repulse her. so she wanted to keep the baby, at which point the father of her child didn’t get down on one knee, he started to explain the kinds of responsibilities she’d face as the mother of his child.

having the child of a god in her womb inflated her ego, which was pretty impressive considering how big it already was. see, regan’s mother was a southern belle without any of the class or manners. she’d breezed through the pageant circuit as a teen, winning a number of titles with minimal effort. her talent was essentially crying on demand and looking pretty while doing it. knowing she’d slept with a god, like an honest to...god felt sort of fitting. like, duh, who else would she have her first child with?

this also led to a brief but intense fixation with shakespeare, who name dropped gods like it was his job, which led to her choosing the name regan from king lear.

she moved to pennsylvania with regan when her daughter was only four years old, because some guy practically begged her to let him take care of her, and she had nowhere better to go. until, eventually, she did, thanks to the world of avon. her mother started selling out of boredom but then it turned out she was good at it, so good that she could easily buy a place once she got bored of her rich boyfriend, and move out with regan.

thankfully, her mother got out of the pyramid scheme before she got in too deep. she was hired by an actual, reputable cosmetics company and given a desk job to work in sales, which she was still a natural at. because she had a full time job now, regan spent a lot of time with nannies...and that’s nannies plural because regan was one of those kids who drove her caretakers to quit on a regular basis.

but not because she was a handful. she was pretty self-sufficient, actually, and totally well-behaved, she was just kind of...weird. she’d leave her room for dinner with all of her clothes suddenly on backwards and say nothing as if it was normal and act confused when her nanny asked about it. she’d stare at the tv when it was off, she’d spend one day only speaking in whispers, she’d write vaguely threatening messages on the mirror with her mother’s red lipstick.

all of this was because regan knew it was scary to adults, which made it fun for her. she wasn’t, like, actually disturbed. well, aside from the dreams she had sometimes. she’d have a dream about a baby bird falling from a nest, she’d watch its chest move for minutes before it died, then she’d wake up the next day and find a dead bird outside the sliding glass doors to the backyard.

for a while she thought they were coincidences. then she thought she was making things happen in her sleep, and that it was her job to stop bad things from happening, to save every baby bird that asked for help in her dreams. it took her a few years to accept that just because she sometimes saw the future didn’t mean she had any power to change it. she was warned so she could prepare herself, which only made her feel more powerless.

but being regan, she chose to cope with this aspect of her life with avoidance and humor. she doesn’t want to pick and choose what she worries about and what she doesn’t, so she decided a long time ago not to take anything seriously.

for reasons unknown, regan’s mother actually decided to have another child after regan. but she was unconventional, too, hence regan being...the way she is, so she never actually married the father of regan’s half-brother, but they have been together for the past 15 years, so.

her brother is eleven years younger than she is, so in regan’s mind, a baby. whenever left with the task of babysitting him while the two were growing up, it would be regan who suggested ice cream for breakfast and sock sliding around the living room at dangerous speeds.

RANDOM FACTS

i want to v*mit saying this but.....she’s kind of like........the female version of stevesuptic. except for she’s cute <3

her entire twitch account is kind of satirical, like it’s very hard to gauge what her actual personality is. i don’t think her viewers bully her the way they bully steve bc she would bully them back LMAO but they ask her a lot of random ass super weird sometimes borderline disturbing questions and she answers them like it’s normal

she def has weird/creepy drawings whenever playing gartic phone tho /:

ig you could say her channel is like shit posting but make it a streamer. she has a really nice set up and she always looks made up in her streams but then the content is her playing like a cat dating sim for four hours

she’s actually pretty shit at most games that require any level of skill and her following comes entirely from her personality and her Brand ig, she’s just entertaining to watch bc she says and does the most ??? things. like she’s not a gamer girl and doesn’t say she is she just has a twitch and plays games for the attention

also she has a cat named muffintop (best part of the muffin, not the offensive term for a woman’s stomach, though she will say that’s what it means if someone asks) who she regularly posts memes of and like most of her twitch emotes are her cat. you can find examples on her pinterest board lmao

i think it’s pretty hard to get an actual vision out of regan? she mostly keeps those to herself and just lies about her dreams. she’ll just be like, “yeah actually i had a dream you were gonna choke on some oatmeal so stay safe out there.” she’s also only partially sure when a dream is actually about the future.

her like <3 symbol that represents her is butterflies, she has a ton of butterfly shit

POSSIBLE CONNECTIONS

idk if i am requesting a roommate for once, idk if i wanna subject anyone to that

someone naive who believes her any time she says something is Going To Happen, no matter how stupid it is and no matter how many times things simply do not happen??

a bestie because...............................i just feel like she wormed her way into someone’s inner circle and they’re just stuck with her now

#idek how to describe her so this is not helpful actually #nlintro #𝙵𝙸𝙻𝙴𝙳 𝚄𝙽𝙳𝙴𝚁 ( 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒐 ) * regan #this is such a fever dream

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what-breaks-my-heart · 3 years

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Here are some brief thoughts on kdrama that started airing in 2020 that I've watched. I said brief, but those who have been following me would appreciate that this is indeed, brief.

The list is in alphabetical order.

1. 365: Repeat the Year (MBC)

Disclosure: I am a HUGE Lee Joon Hyuk stan. He is second only to Hyun Bin on my list. The fact that this drama is on the top of this list is a happy coincidence 🥰🥰

I was soooooooo excited when I knew Lee Joon Hyuk was to star in a new drama. MBC made the announcement of the drama late last year, and I was literally walking to the office when I saw the announcement on ig.

The premise of the drama was pretty straightforward. 10 people were given the chance to travel back in time exactly one year prior. Mysterious things kept happening to the people who took the trip, so our Detective Ji “Fluffy-Hair” Hyung Joo and webtoon writer Shin “Self-Hater” Ga Hyun joined hands to figure out what exactly happened.

Once they finally figured out what caused the mysterious cases, they faced a great dilemma on what to do, with our Fluffy Hair detective running as a fugitive.

The ending was really sad, and I really wished it ended differently, but the main character of the story was our Fluffy Hair detective, and him having to live on and reset the whole thing from the new past was a nice touch to the ending.

This drama was full of surprises, twist and turn, and it is certainly a drama I would consider rewatching in the future.

2. Do You Like Brahms? (SBS)

Many people criticised the second half of this drama. Apparently the year 2020 is the year when kdramaland keeps being a disappointment, and many people are quick to include this drama in the list of disappointing drama, despite having a good beginning.

I beg to differ though. To me this drama feels more of a healing drama, wherein the characters are forced to deal with their issues. And anyone who has had to go through any form of therapy knows how hard healing process is.

TL;DR: The main leads are both people who have been mentally abused by the people around them, except for Cha Young In, because she was the only reason I did not throw my remote control at my 50-inch TV.

Park Joon Young is your classic example of a ‘gifted kid’ struggle. He was seen as a young, talented pianist who had a bright future ahead of him. But people started to treat him more like a trophy than a human being, so he decided to take a sabbatical, much to the criticism of people in the music industry. Park Joon Young realised that his passion in playing the piano has faded away, no thanks to his abusive piano professor who belittled him again and again, and practically brainwashed him into being a people pleaser. You could see how Park Joon Young was not himself in the beginning of the drama once you finish the drama.

Chae Song Ah took interest in violin at a later age (much later than professional musicians) and decided to pursue her dream by enrolling into a music programme. Her classmates were all younger than her, and it didn’t help that they all learnt music since much younger. I love how Song Ah did not give up on her dream easily and gave it her all, before she finally decided to let go of her dream to become a musician. The metaphor of her love for violin and Joon Young hurting her again and again and she just endured it though.. I cried like a mess well I am a mess but that’s a separate issue

Special shout out to Cha Young In who was there for both of them.

3. Flower of Evil (tvN)

If thriller is your thing, consider this drama. If you are one of those people who like to see your characters being tortured (physically and mentally), this drama is a MUST WATCH. And if you enjoy watching Lee Joon Ki playing a character who is put at a great distress because he is trying to run from his past, go watch this drama.

More importantly, if you enjoy a drama where your ML is sexy, attends to house chores and takes care of his bright young daughter while his wife goes crazy for solving violent crimes, a devoted husband who is attentive and a tender person but also a freak in the sheets, you are wasting every single of your breath not watching this drama.

I mean look at this man teasing his wife about his stamina.

Flower of Evil did not feel draggy at all. Everything that happened within the first 6 episodes could have been an entire drama if this was written by someone else. Seriously, this drama kept me at the edge of my couch!

The dynamic of HS and JW screams POWER COUPLE but at the same time it broke my heart how they were pushed into corners too many times by the people around them I do hope they had some sexy times while they were in the corners though

The focus on their wedding rings throughout the drama symbolised their unbreakable bond. The wedding rings were literally the very last thing that kept them together when JW stumbled upon evidences that pointed against HS.

JW, whose compass was only trusting what she saw, and not what she heard, tried to break the stigma of women being at a disadvantage in the police force. Heck, she was better than her entire team when it came to solving cases, her being the only woman in the team. Who said women cannot make good cops?

The plot twist though.. And the climax.. To this day, I still listen to this soundtrack from the drama and cry just thinking of the climax.

4. Into the Ring (also known as Memorials) (KBS2)

I didn’t even plan on watching this drama. I was channel surfing and saw Park Sung Hoon looking all depressed in the first episode and ran into Koo Se Ra. Girl was UNHINGED and determined to fight for her way.

Her motivation was initially on getting a stable pay check from being a district representative (it was only 60 million won which is like USD55k so it’s not that much) but she eventually became the district representative who fought for the benefit of the people and did not care for the political warfare that took place.

Came along Seo Gong Myung, a government officer in the local government office who was demoted from planning unit of the accounting department or something to be a secretariat to the district assembly. Seo Gong Myung sticks to his principle no matter what, which surprise surprise, is HATED by everyone in the district government.

Turns out our main leads were friends when they were kids so Se Ra kept teasing him and dragging him into her scheme of fighting for the people, which Gong Myung agreed to, not so much because he was a community-loving person, but because he was afraid Se Ra would get into trouble since she was as straight as a ruler.

Long story short, our leads fell for each other, and their relationship was HILAIROUS to watch. I think I speak for everyone who watched the drama that we had no reason to believe Se Ra did not peg Gong Myung for fun 😝😝

They were so cute together awwww

5. Kairos (MBC)

This is another drama that I stumbled into. Only this time, I saw Nam Gyu Ri and I remember seeing her ig post on a new drama so I decided to give it a go. She wrecked my heart in 49 Days so I decided to check this out for funsies. Hooo boy was I in for a major surprise.

The first two episodes got me hooketh!! I still cannot believe how the drama managed to keep me on my edge especially during the last 5 minutes of every episode. The pacing is even faster than Flower of Evil, and since this drama went back and forth between past and future, it keeps me guessing whether their efforts would bear fruit.

Will Kim “Sexy Brain” Seo Jin and Han “I-Know-No-Fear” Ae Ri succeed in fighting the evil, who at this point in time remains unknown? I know Chairman Yoo Seo Il is currently being hinted as the culprit behind everything but I know better that he is just a puppet who sold his soul to the real devil who most likely is in the higher ranks in politics. I mean he even hinted at his remorse for what happened with Taejung Town 19 years prior. My suspicion is he is trying to cover up whatever happened because otherwise his own family would be at risk, so his only option is to redeem himself by doing something about the Taejung Town. I could be wrong, but regardless of who turns out to be the real villain in the story, I can say I am so satisfied by how the story has progressed so far.

The time paradox still hurts my brain, but I am choosing that this drama does not assume that time is linear.

There is still not enough people watching this drama and I’m begging you all to go and catch up before it ends in two weeks time.

6. More than Friends (JTBC)

A little trivia: I reblog most of the posts from @kdramastuff even if I am not watching the show at the point of reblogging the posts. I had been following her posts on this drama for 3 weeks, and I finally decided to marathon all 6 episodes and joined the watching party.

More than Friends was another drama that many people called a disappointment but I had a different opinion on it. Yes, I used to be the nerd who had different opinions on many things in high school sue me

The drama is premised on Kyung Woo Yeon who is said to have a crush on her high school friend, Lee Soo for 10 years. Lee Soo is nowhere near to be the perfect boyfriend material. He is selfish, does not care about other people’s feelings, and was always a lone ranger.

BUUUUUUT, Lee Soo seemed to show signs of care and affection (even though it was not at all for a normal person’s standard) for Woo Yeon. Surprisingly, he seemed to only do it for Woo Yeon and gave attention to Woo Yeon alone, even though he could practically pick and choose anyone he liked from the swarm of girls who were chasing him.

One day, he told Woo Yeon that he had to leave to the US to study, which made our girl sad. She decided to confess at the airport, but he outright turned her down, saying he only wanted to be friends with her. Over the time, they kept running into each other by coincidence (note: her name Woo Yeon is a wordplay on coincidence in Korean). Later, it was revealed that he wanted her to always be by his side, but he has built a wall as tall as the Great Wall of China before the idea of love so he didn’t realise what his true feeling for Woo Yeon was all along.

Woo Yeon, who felt sick of the ten-year crush, decided to end the “curse” and kissed him by the beach, thinking of getting a closure on her crush.

Long story short, Lee Soo finally realised his feeling for her and decided to confess, but by that time, a young, handsome, rich CEO of a conglomerate has entered into the picture. Cue the game of cat and mouse between Lee Soo and Woo Yeon about resentment, regret and relationship.

This drama was promoted as a romcom, but it feels more like a slice-of-life drama with a mix of melo and romcom in there. Seriously, I cried buckets watching this drama, not something you’d expect from a romcom. The dialogues were well-written, with each episode revolving around a specific theme. This was such a good drama coming from a rookie writer.

This drama did not have that many viewers to begin with, and many of those few people dropped it along the way, including the one who was responsible in getting me hooked into this drama :p By the end of it, there were so few people talking about this drama in the tag (shout out to @dohyunsoo @have-yet-to-decide @starfire-s @thbn-anything for keeping me company to the very end of this drama)

This drama broke my record of screenshots per episode and total screenshots for any show. Until now, I have yet to finish posting them. I should probably upload more screenshots later tonight.

This drama had some AMAZING shots in the first half, with beautiful sceneries mostly in Seoul. It’s like what they said, “a daily occurrence for you, a trip for me”.

7. Oh My Baby (tvN)

I did not even remember watching this drama!! It was only after scrolling through my gallery that I saw I had shared some posts on my ig story about the drama.

It was in the middle of a lockdown when this drama aired and many of my memories from back then feel so distant to me.

The plot was not THAT good, but this drama is something you may consider if you like torturing yourself about the struggle of wanting to have a baby.

8. Once Again (KBS2)

Arguably one of the weekend family drama KBS2 in a while that kept me waiting for new episodes in front of my TV. Some people are turned off by weekend family drama because they tend to have slow pacing which makes viewers feel like they are being dragged to one of those boring corporate events that you would rather miss and wish you could be literally anywhere else.

Because this drama had more pairing than the typical weekend family drama, the story did take some time before it was on full momentum. It did feel like the drama could have been better with even one less sibling to worry about, but it was a fun watch in the middle of lockdown.

Will I watch it again? I’d rather rewatch House of Bluebird (starring Lee Joon Hyuk and Lee Sang Yeob as friends to enemies to friends again) because that drama spoke to me in a way that was more relatable. No hate to Once Again though. I just prefer House of Bluebird better.

Note: Justice for Song Ga Hee and her lovely son, Kim Ji Hoon. He had to grow up so much because of what happened to his mother, that it broke Ga Hee’s heart. And mine of course

9. Secret Forest 2 (tvN)

I watched Secret Forest once it has finished and I fell in love with the drama! Imagine my excitement when they announced Secret Forest 2 with my three main characters reprising their roles. No hate to Yoon Se Ah, I love her, but her screen time in Secret Forest was not enough to make me excited about her return. But I was pleased with her role in Secret Forest 2 and I hope if there is a third season, her character gets the redemption arc that she yearns for.

Secret Forest 2 was not as intense as the brilliant original, but I understood that it had to do with the overall theme of the season, and the theme required the script to be as such. Some people may argue me on this, but I still think what they pulled off was brilliant.

Too bad there was a severe lack of Lee Joon Hyuk on my screen though.

10. Tale of the Nine-Tailed (tvN)

Well. This drama went far beyond my expectation. The OTP was to die for. No such thing as miscommunication trope. This drama did not waste time on unnecessary drama. The pacing was incredibly fast, even faster than Kairos. Although to be fair, Kairos had to play with two different timelines and required time to establish the setting.

I’m sad about what happened to Lee Rang, but he did what he did, and he would never be able to erase that much pain from his memory even if the deities decided to be lenient on him because of his roles in killing off Imoogi. A fresh start as a human seemed like a fair reset to his life, and I hope he lives well, surrounded by people who love him.

I was never a fan of Jo Bo Ah (no hate on her, I was just indifferent) but this drama opened my eyes to what an incredible actress she is. I wish her a successful career ahead.

#365 repeat the year #365: repeat the year #do you like brahms #do you like brahms?#flower of evil #into the ring #kbs memorials #mbc kairos #more than friends #oh my baby #kbs once again #secret forest 2 #tale of the nine tailed #kdrama #kdrama review #kdrama opinion #personal #annual drama recap

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thewhizzyhead · 3 years

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HELLO SOME OF YOU GUYS LIKED MISFITS AND SOME OF YOU GUYS LIKED GRADE 11 (i posted about that musical draft thingy back in march and um yea there have been a lot of changes fjxjf) AND GUESS WHAT DUDES I HAVE MORE MUSICAL CONCEPT SHITS TO RAMBLE ABOUT BECAUSE MY BRAIN IS WAY TOO HYPERACTIVE FOR MY OWN GOOD SO SIT BACK, RELAX AND ENJOY THIS CLUSTERFUCK

@ari-is-anxious have fun with this and i wish you the best of luck in trying to comprehend this-

+ Kasaysayan (which means History) - this is the 2nd musical concept thingy i made (the first one being Misfits) and yea i started thinking of this went I was 14. I kinda wanted it to tell a story of like the entirety of philippine history as narrated by students and i wanted to kinda emphasize how history has many faces and how many different factors essentially blur our perspective of what we view as the past. I also wanted to like draw parallels between what our ancestors have experienced and what we currently experience esp when it comes to sociopolitical and economic stuffs and I wanted to like correct a lot of misconceptions about ph history and provide more insight and info about ph's past (i.e how centuries of colonialism have affected our current culture and overall social mindset esp in regards to our want for validation from foreigners aka the whole #PinoyPride thing; how even though activism and revolution is like the main reason on as to why the Philippines even exists, it continues to be demonized here; the ideologies of some of our revolutionary heroes and presidents and why some of them are dicks; etc etc). Also I wanted to showcase like um PH music, art, and dance and how that has progressed and also regressed throughout the years (*shakes fist at colonizers*) and um YEA YOU CAN SEE WHY I EVENTUALLY AND RATHER QUICKLY DISCONTINUED THIS TJCJSJF THIS IS *NOT* DOABLE AT ALL THSJFHF it could work as a concept album and a one-time performance BUT NOT LIKE A LEGIT PRODUCTION SO YEA FOR NOW IT WILL STAY IN THE DRAFT FOLDER FJXNSJF but yea this idea then led to the next two ideas woo

+ Noli/Fili - started wanting to make this at the start of quarantine so like um march 2020 heck i even made a wholeass word doc for this fjdjdv so it's basically a ph-rock-rap-based musical adaptation of Jose Rizal's Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not) and El Filibusterismo (The Filibuster) (yes these two novels are like tne national novels here since rizal is our national here and yea these were originally written in Spanish) but the protagonist of El Fili (Simoun) takes charge of telling Noli's story in Act 1 while Noli's protag (Crisostomo Ibarra) takes charge of telling Fili's story in Act 2. Those two books have very different tones and those two characters have um VERY DIFFERENT world views so i thought it would be interesting to tell one's story through the eyes of someone different and yet also the same to provide a lot more insight on how the events in the novels affected these two protags (there is a Good Reason for this and um Filipinos who studied this in 9th and 10th grade know what i'm talking about fhshf if u wanna um know what i'm talking about and don't wanna read the novels (they are very long) i suggest looking up El Filibusterismo and um yea check out Simoun fjsjf). Like for example, there would be times that Noli's narrator (Simoun) (whose general demeanor is like um a lot more cunning and cynical and a lot more resentful of the events that have happened compared to Fili's narrator) would directly question the Noli protag's (Ibarra) actions while Fili's narrator (Ibarra) (he is a lot more um hopeful and peaceful compared to Simoun) often questions how Fili's protag (Simoun) turned into well um a very cynical and cunning person with a taste for revenge (I am trying my hardest to NOT spoil the novels here gjdjf) and yea because the story is set in Spanish Colonial times here, i wanna focus more on the sociopolitical aspects and problems in the novels and how those still remain relevant here, hence the ph-rock-rap-based music. Also I would like to point out that the curriculum here barely like goes into depth about the subject matter of the novels (esp the sociopolitcal parts) and how said subject matter shaped the characters here and HOW EVERY SINGLE THING IN THIS DAMN NOVEL IS STILL RELEVANT,,,so um basically the curriculum is currently missing the entire point of the novels since Rizal wrote these two with the intent to provide socioecononic and political commentary on the pure shit that many of the Filipinos experienced under Spanish colonial rule,,,SO THIS THINGY IS BASICALLY MY MIDDLE FINGER TO THE CURRICULUM AND ESSENTIALLY MY ATTEMPT TO SHOW MORE OF THE NOVELS COMPARED TO WHAT HAS BEEN TAUGHT TO US FJJSJFV this is gonna be a nightmare to write tho cause wow those novels are jampacked

+ Patron - if this ever becomes a thing, I will consider it the greatest thing i'll ever write gjcjdbc I REALLY WANT THIS TO BE A THINGY AAAA so the plot is barebones atm but it's basically about journalism and activism here in the Philippines (and how both can get you killed fjjsjf i'm not kidding these two can legit get you killed wah redtagging sucks shit and the anti terror law can suck even more shit) and how the youth are expected to be purveyors of the country's advancement and improvement despite the fact that our voices are oftentimes dismissed and even permanently silenced when what we say goes against what those in power want us to say,,,those this is basically Misfit's spiritual successor fjxjdjf both of those musicals share similar themes fjxns so yea expect me ranting about a lot of political stuff here and a lot of talking about the ideologies of past and present politics and revolutions and how those affect the masses and how the masses can shape them in return. There will also be talk on how journalism's role in shaping society and how proper dissemination of information and lack thereof can affect people's mindsets aND HOW JOURNALISM IS OFTENTIMES MANIPULATED TO MANIPULATE PEOPLE'S MINDSETS (STUDENT JOURNALIST AND ASPIRING PROFESSIONAL JOURNALIST'S RANTS GO BRRRRR YEA I HAVE A LOT TO RANT ABOUT).

Oh and also this musical is heavily inspired by both the noli and el fili novels and by spring awakening (Everything I Write Will Be Inspired By Spring Awakening dbjxd) in a sense that Act 1's active protagonist (who then becomes Act 2's passive protag) is named Elias and is based on both Elias from Rizal's novels and on Melchior Gabor (which is funny cause rizal's elias is NOTHING LIKE MELCHIOR GABOR SO UM LOOK IT'S GONNA BE HARD TO EXPLAIN JUST UM YEA IT'S MESSY) while the passive protagonist (who becomes the active protag by the end of act 1 and throughout the entire 2nd act) is named Cris Ibarra and is based on Moritz Stiefel and Rizal's Ibarra (more specifically um Rizal's Ibarra's growth into a very different character throughout the events of the two novels).

ALSOOO there is this one concept that made me really REAALLY want to make Patron an actual thingy and that is the existence of um Shadows in the show. Inspired by the voices in Deaf West Speing Awakening, these Shadows can always be found lurking on stage alongside their respective characters like um if Elias is in a scene, his shadow can also be found on stage somewhere. I kinda want them to like represent the characters' innermost thoughts and the other parts of themselves the characters' would like to hide through how the Shadows act on stage and um yea choreography gjsjf Patron is porbably gonna be very dance heavy so um yea it's a bit hard to explain so i'll just point to Alex Boniello and Daniel Durant's Moritz fjxjjf i kinda want it to be like that. The Shadows would be part of the show's ensemble and um yea lots of dancing and prop moving woo also at times they would be singing for the character they are assigned to like um while Elias would be in the middle of doing something on stage, his Shadow would be the one singing in his stead and when his Shadow sings, that's when the character becomes the most vulnerable to the audience because the Shadows often expose their characters' thoughts and worries to the audience that the characters themselves wouldn't really express. So like um the Shadows address the audience a lot gjxjsjd except for one aka Ibarra's Shadow. Instead of addressing the audience, Ibarra's shadow addresses IBARRA directly, often questioning Ibarra's actions (especially their hesitance in Act 1). ig ibarra's shadow is rather representative of what Ibarra would turn into in Act 2 when they take over as the Active protag. But um Ibarra's shadow still questions Ibarra frequently esp in regards to their risky actions so um yea Ibarra's shadow is kinda like the Fates the hadestown wherein they serve to sow doubt but over here Ibarra's shadow is meant to symbolize how insecure they feel in regards to their decisions which well, as the protag, make and break the show. Also um yea the rest of the characters' shadows also start addressing their characters more while the characters themselves start addressing the audience more so woo switcheroo! Also the dynamic that the characters have with each other is similar to the dynamics between the kids in Spring Awakening wherein they are just kids (well in this cause young adults aged 18-20) trying to figure out life in general and all that so woo

(also I would like to note that I really want Ibarra's role to be open to all genders in order to like make a statement that anyone can grow into the character Ibarra becomes throughout Patron but rn hmm i'm still thinking about how that will play out especially given that I kinda wanted Patron's Ibarra to have two love interests here aka Elias and Clara (kiiiiinda based on Maria Clara aka Ibarra's actual love interest from Rizal's novels but um YEA THERE ARE A LOT OF DEVIATIONS GJXSF) but tbh i'm still figuring out a way to make Clara have a much larger role here in terms of pushing the plot cause rn the Elias and Ibarra dynamic have an advantage since um active-passive protagonist switcheroo so I'm kinda thinking of a way to make Clara a secret 3rd protag that is both an active and a passive one? I dunno fjsjd honestly i'm still trying to figure out what Maria Clara represents in the novels cause I know for certain that Rizal did not write her to be a mere demure love interest so um yea WORK IN PROGRESS AND UM ALL IN ALL IBARRA CAN BE PLAYED BY ANY AND ALL GENDERS AND IBARRA IS PANSEXUAL BECAUSE I FUCKING WANT THEM TO BE GJSJJF)

+ Grade 12 - OKI SO LIKE I'VE POSTED ABOUT THIS BEFORE BACK IN MARCH BUT UM I'VE CHANGED SOME STUFF GJXJJD so anyways Grade 12 is well um designed to be a campy-please-don't-take-this-seriously-this-is-just-for-laughs-and-gags musical about 12th graders (i changed the grade to raise the stakes) that makes fun of Filipino TV tropes esp when related to teenagers while also providing a lit more insight on ad to what teenagers go through on a daily basis in terms of trying to grow into the person they want themselves to be while also trying to change to adapt to a world that more often that not goes against them. So yea it's not as heavy as the other musicals, heck I designed this after Preston Max Allen's Carrie 2 musical (dude check it out it has jenny rose baker and it's gold) so woo funsies but i also like this to mean something. Oh and also this is basically me ranting about Everything Wrong In The Philippine Education System (how it more often than not is really detrimental to the students' personal wellbeings through constant overwork and disregard of physical, mental and emotional health issues, its accessibility issues esp the issues experiences by those of the poorer sectors, the um very outdated info at times, how the system perpetuates classism and a shit ton of very detrimental social hierarchy bullshits esp through the implementation of the star sections (speaking as someone who's been in the "lower" sections and has also been in the star sections, I HAVE A LOT TO RANT ABOUT THIS ONE OH BOY FUN FACT I WANTED TO MAKE AN ACADEMIC PAPER ON THIS BUT MY 10TH GRADE TEACHER WOULDN'T LET ME) etc etc) plot is mainly barebones atm but um yea here are some of the updates to the characters: Kyla (formerly named Kate), Noel and Ella haven't changed that much but um I've decided to give the Halos Lagi Nalang number to Kyla and Max (nonbinary student that serves as a foil to Kyla in which Max is constantly being denied opportunities that they want while Kyla constantly refuses opportunities that Max wants; also yea i'll be talking about stories that trans and nonbinary students have experienced in both of my high schools through Max cause i really wanna bring attention to how the trans and nonbinary community is really being shat on despite the um sliiight improvement in the way schools treat the (cisgender) members of the lgbtq+ community; also they are just as ambitious as Ella (i envision her to be like um Draft Eva + Riley jfhdf) um yea major plot pusher woo I'd compare them to Draft Eva + Reese but um I Sincerely And Solemnly Promise To Not Screw Them Over In Act 2 fjjxfj) instead because they will be the ones with queerness being a much bigger factor to their individual plotlines compared to Noel and Ella.

The other main characters are um Marco (typical jock dude who's actually one of the more philosophical and introspective characters in the show; i want to like um highlight the whole sports scholarships debacle, how stereotypes can affect how people are treated in real life and also touch on the machismo culture that's um really being enforced here esp with him being an athlete and all; also he's really good friends with Max and through that friendship he learns that him slightly questioning his sexuality is a good thing so yea), Ruben & Lexi (i don't have that much planned for them atm because woo barebones plot but i do imagine them to be initially framed as the more antagonistic characters and have that like stereotype be taken apart as the show goes on esp considering that both are in the "lower sections" and are um more prone to stereotyping) aND A NARRATOR CHARACTER HMMM WHERE HAVE WE SEEN THIS BEFORE GJXJD oki but this Narrator (can be played by any gender as long as the actor IS VERY FUNNY LIKE COMEDIC TIMING IS A *MUST*) is based on the Narrator in PMA's Carrie 2 but I also want the narrator to be like um more crucial to the plot as the story progresses esp as they interact with both the audience and the characters a lot more so like um it's a bit hard to describe their exact role here because um BAREBONES PLOT FJXJD but altho they can't directly affect the story they are telling (cause so far my plan for them is like um they were a former classmate of 7/8 of the characters here but unfortunately they died due to a car accident), they can and do indeed influence the characters in it and all of the characters (except Kyla) know who they are (especially Ruben) so um yea. Also the solo I have planned for them is called Live On (which is um yea a spin off of Move On fjxjd) and through them, I plan to explore the tragedy of unexpected deaths and what happens to those left behind (this will be based on observations and accounts from many of my former schoolmates) and how many have yet to move on and how they choose to live on despite of that because they know that's what their former classmate, schoolmate, and loved on would've wanted.

SO OBVIOUSLY I OWE GRADE 12 TO SIR PRESTON MAX ALLEN GJXJFJD THANK YOU PMA FOR ONCE AGAIN INFLUENCING MY WORK WOO

+ Concepts - oki so this is the only musical so far that i wanna write solely in English nfjsj so this is inspired by Fun Home in which there are like versions of characters in different ages right? Over here there are 2 versions of 6 characters: the 17-18 year old ones, and the 27-28 year old ones. Through them, this musical will explore two main things: (1) the sad and depressing reality of having to give up one's artistic dreams and passions for the sake of practicality and (2) choosing to take a leap of faith and try to grasp on to whatever chances one may have left to live a life that means more than just making ends meet. Act 1 has the teenagers focus on Point 2 while the adults focus on Point 1; Act 2 has the teenagers focus on Point 1 while the adults end up focusing on Act 2. Once again, um barebones plot with even more barebones characters (heck i dont even have NAMES for them gnxnd) but i think it'll be pretty cool to elaborate upon the shitty circumstances here in the ph when it comes to artistic pursuits and how most of the kids I know are terrified of growing up because they don't want to give up dreaming even though that they know that they have to wake up. I also think it'll be cool to point out thay even though that yea situations like these suck, it'll never ever be too late to pick up the pieces and try again cause at the end of the day, life only ends when you say it will end: there will always be chances, you just need to be gutsy enough to grasp them. Also um yea I originally planned to post like a shit ton of poems this month that would basically be the lyrics of the songs that would go into this musical bUT I'M LAZY SO I'M THROWING AWAY THE POSTING SCHEDULE FJXJSJD anyways here r 2 of the poems/songs that i wanna make for this:

+ In 10 Years - a duet between one of the teenagers and their adult counterpart which is um basically the teen singing their optimistic yet really in-depth and mature perspective on chasing Point 2 while the adult sings about Point 1, wishing that they could tell their teen self about how disappointed they will be; i imagine this to be um kinda like the first version of Dear Theodosia but um more intense maybe fjdjf

+ Run - a duet between two teens who are best friends where one girl tries to convince the other to run and play with her in the nearby playground AND YES THIS DUET IS VERY FUCKING GAY JDJSJDF this was um originally part of Grade 12 tbh and it was supposed to be sung by Lexi and it was supposed to be about a 9th grade event that i personally was a part of where um 9th grade student researchers at a research seminar at a different freaking university took over the elementary students' playground when the seminar finished (I SHALL TREASURE THAT MEMORY FOREVER) and um yea it was basically about holding on to your childhood while you still can...aND THEN I UNINTENTIONALLY MADE IT GAY JFJSJSF Lexi is still getting that song about the research seminar event tho but um it won't be Run cause Run basically turned into a song that's not only about holding on to what's left of your childhood but also to the people you treasure that you know you have to leave behind sooner or later and um yea the girl that the one girl tries to convince to go to the playground agrees to that and then boom go duet stylized after 21 and Alone Now + I Don't Care by freaking preston max allen once again woo (i promise that this won't be plagiarism gndnd) (also altho the two girls have to go their separate ways by their graduation, they eventually meet again at the end of act 2 so woo hopeful ending for the sapphics

OKI THAT'S ALL FOR TODAY FHXHSHD THIS IS WAY TOO FUCKING LONG OF A RAMBLE GOOD GOD AAAAA SO UM IF ANYONE ELSE MADE IT TO THE END, I ONCE AGAIN WILL SEND YOU A SHIT TON OF CARBONARA-

#ari i'm so sorry but this is like...so unbelievably long and convoluted tjxjs GOODLUCK #AND I HOPE YOU ENJOY THIS TJXJSF #so moral of the story is: my brain is too hyperactive for my own good #God help me #also God help those who are gonna try to read this fjxjs #so woo more musical concept rambles aaa #move on tw #move on #ask to tag #izzy's rambles and shit

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earthingoddity · 4 years

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so you know how y’all are constantly like: “what’s there to like about season five???”. i decided to make a list *-*

1. the discussion of disability in a teenage show. how many teenage shows can you name featuring disabled characters? and how many of those feature a character becoming disabled in the course of the show and having to adapt to that? i was very surprised when i realized this was the route they were going to take this season and i think it was very well done.

so let’s break that down:

1.1 they actually made sure to talk about other disabilities. i know some people will say they were just doing the bare minimum, but i disagree. that is such a complex theme, they could’ve easily said representing other disabilities respectfully would be a lot of work for only ten episodes, but they did their best with the limited amount of time they had.

1.2 the representation of the deaf community wasn’t limited to their disability. it actually pisses me off hearing people say “wow, for a while there, i even forgot arthur was deaf!” as if he *has* to let you know everytime he’s on screen. disabled people are more than their disabilities, thank you very much.

1.3 overall, it was a positive representation. they could’ve spent so much time going through all the things that would be too hard for arthur, but they actually had an entire episode where arthur was completely deaf - he took his hearing aids off - and it was a very happy and positive episode. he was having fun, clubbing, dancing, laughing with others, and i think we took a lot of that for granted in the midst of everything that was going on, but that was a really positive representation that didn’t limit itself to stereotypes around deaf/disabled people. i actually expected that they’d drag a lot longer the feeling of loneliness and discomfort of the first couple of episodes, but they quickly changed that rhythm, so that instead of focusing on what arthur was “losing”, they focused on everything that arthur was gaining - new friends, a new love interest and a new way to see the world. also, in relation to the whole implants thing, they delivered very in depth opposite perspectives on the matter and never felt like they were shaming one group or the other.

2. SyMbOLisM! skam france is very good at it and they nailed this aspect in season three. but there was a lot of it in season five as well. like the 7am clips in episode 2, that were used to show the lack of progression in arthur’s hearing and his growing frustration and how those clips were incredibly dark, to match his mood. episode 7 also had such an interesting meaning. with arthur taking the chance to explore the world without his hearing aids, he got to explore a whole *new* world, and not a lacking one, which ties very well with what i just said about being a positive rep, but also shows that the entire episode wasn’t about arthur finding a new layer of himself, but rather him just uncovering one that was already there.

3. use of music/sound effects. it can be hard to represent deafness in a media like a tv show, but skam france did it so well. the use of music is always very conscious in this remake; while others really go hard in the soundtrack, skam france hardly ever has background music, unless it means something. another small thing but that i loved was whenever arthur was taking off/putting on his hearing aids, if he was to put the left one first for example, the sound on the left side of your headphone would start first. it was such a small thing but made the experience a lot more immersive imo, as well as the use of muffled sounds, pitching, etc.

4. Arthur. i am always surprised whenever i hear people say that they liked arthur better when they were not in his pov. i completely disagree, but then again, i feel like this fandom has very unhealthy expectations on their mains, as if they haven’t watched already 4 seasons of the main making mistakes over and over again, lol. i loved getting to know more of arthur - he’s loyal AF and protective of the people he loves. he struggles in letting people in, though, and never wants to be a burden or worry others. he’s perceptive and quick to notice when his friends need help. he is also short-tempered and when he gets mad, it is explosive, but he doesn’t hold grudges for long. he was a much more complexed character than i imagined and he totally made this season for me.

5. le gang. this boysquad is the best, sorry. they’ve always been the funniest and warmest, but it was really nice how s5 explored all the sides of that relationship, including the not so pretty ones. they were the relationship i wanted the most angst from, and i am so happy i got it. i loved seeing how chaotic, but supportive they were of arthur though and they brought so many laughs this season.

5.1 the lack of toxic masculinity. i think this ties well with arthur, because it is amazing to me that even though we were following a straight white boy as a main this season, we had no moments of unhealthy masculine competition; le gang could actually talk about other things rather than just porn stars and jerking off (other boysquads Wish!); and arthur would literally flirt with anyone without a care in the world, because he’s certain of his sexuality like that. it was *refreshing* for once not to be confronted with these tropes that have become so common in teenage shows.

7. alexia. i have to talk about alexia separately here, because that’s the most we’ve ever seen from a chris character (not counting eskam cris, ofc), and i loved her so much. she wants to be a videogame designer and she’s creative and adorable. she always knew how to make arthur laugh, but also knew when he needed words of affirmation and she was never shy in telling him how much she loved him. it was also amazing seeing her open up about some of her insecurities, and that her confidence is something she had to work on as well. she was such a great friend & girlfriend and just ugh the best.

7.1 the female characters are badass and unapologetic. i am aware that the love triangle was unnecessary and a mess. but i am not mad about the way both characters were represented, because they were both great characters. i liked alexia more simply because i was already attached to her from previous seasons, but noée was badass as well and teaches arthur so much, and not only about her experience as a deaf person, but about life/love in general.

8. arthur’s relationship with his mom. we LOVE and STAN parents in the skamverse. arthur and his mom had the best relationship ever; i loved how they truly became a team by the end of the season. but since the moment she showed up, it meant so much that arthur could have at least one supportive and loving parent, no matter how much he screwed up or felt lost. his mom was really trying her best and i adored her.

9. *actual* adult advice. i understand why all the adults in the skamverse are a bit cringey and weird, but i feel like this results in these characters relying on each other’s poor advice throughout an entire season before they realize what they actually should do. and the talk with the school’s nurse and his doctor by the end of the season was meaningful AF and i wish something the remakes would explore more often, because it could resolve so many of their issues just talking to someone who knows better, lol.

10. the relationships with the girlsquad. i know this is actually very intentional of skam france - to build a specific kind of dynamic between the main and all the side characters. we saw that in season 3, and i think it’s a lot more evident here, but it still made a lot of sense and warmed my heart so much. arthur and imane were the purest - she was the first one to notice that something was wrong with him and also reached out to give him advice on how medical school could still be a possibility even with his disability when she absolutely didn’t have to, but she’s just a sweetheart like that. arthur and daphné had a lot more tension, which is understandable, because both are protective of their own best friends (bas and alexia) and would defend them to the ends of the earth. i think they honestly have a lot more in common than they think. but my favorite dynamic was arthur and emma. i totally did not expect for emma to have such a part in this season, but every single one of their interactions was Gold. emma could see a lot of herself in arthur and i think that’s why she was so quick to notice that he wasn’t interested in becoming a surgeon at all. that scene when she says it would’ve been nice to have arthur as a brother was the sweetest thing Ever.

11. i’ll finish with the acting. y’all, the guy who plays arthur literally CARRIED this season and i hope his back is doing fine. he was So powerful - he made me cry, and laugh, and feel frustrated. he delivered every single emotion perfectly. i also think that the fact these actors are friends irl (i assume? lol but i think i’ve seen them in each other’s personal IG stories) really helps their chemistry on camera. le gang feels like a group of brothers/best friends and they were always so natural and effortless in their interactions. the new actors also Rocked and delivered so much emotion even if they were using a completely different language and it was awesome.

(also, this just literally applies to *me*, a lucas lallemant HOE, but it was so nice seeing lucas up close from a different perspective. the fact we could still see so many layers of him: his emotional self, his bratty self, his supportive self, even a touch on his abandonment issues and everything made me so happy. i think sometimes i forget the lucas character was real and not something i made up because he feels too good to be true, and it was really interesting seeing him from arthur’s POV).

i’m not here defending the mistakes they made in s5, i don’t think it’s a perfect season either, but tbh i have yet to find what i consider to be a perfect season in the skamverse, so here’s just some things i liked about this season that i feel like y’all should take into consideration as well. thx

#skam france #i am aware that no one cares bc judging is easier than listening #but i had this on my drafts for weeks now so i was like hm might as well post it #:)

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