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room-surprise · 3 months

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Addendum to Dungeon Meshi Age Calculations, and Thistle's age estimate...

This is sort of a sequel to two posts of mine, How to Calculate Comparative Ages of DM Characters and How Old Is Thistle?

I've seen some people claim that the age scale between elves and tall-men where elves age 5 times slower than tall-men can't be used accurately for elves that are very young or very old. I've also seen people claim that the half-foot age modifier is wrong.

I'm not a mathematician, but so far I have not seen any actual evidence that the 5:1 scale doesn't work, and a good amount of proof that it does, and I think the confusion about half-foot aging is a translation issue.

Please keep in mind, information about Marcille's age does not apply to any of this, because [SPOILERS].

WHAT ABOUT VERY YOUNG ELVES?

Here's something we know about the babies from the different races, which comes from Ryoko Kui's blog:

1 year old elven, dwarven and gnomish babies can only lay on their backs. Tall-man and half-foot 1 year olds can both stand, though the tall-man is not as good at it as the half-foot.

This lines up with real-world development milestones, human children can usually stand on their own somewhere between 9 to 12 months. Half-foots age faster than tall-men, so it makes sense that the half-foot would look more balanced and steady while standing.

A 2 year old elven baby has just gained the ability to sit up, while the babies of other races are walking or running. Normal human babies can sit up with help at around 5 months.

2 divided by 5 equals 0.4, that's 40%, and 40% of one year equals 4.8666666 months. That's 5 months.

I think it's very likely Kui herself is using the 5:1 ratio in order to calculate her elven ages in order to get this very specific 5 month developmental milestone to line up this way. So we can confirm that any elf over the age of 2 years old should have an age that is calculable with the 5:1 ratio. I also think it's not crazy to assume Kui may be using the numbers I calculated in my age post to work out other character's ages as well, since she's clearly doing it for the elves.

LET'S TEST IT WITH HALF-FOOTS

Human children learn to run between 18 and 24 months, so around 2 years old, like the chart shows us. 2 years divided by the half-foot age ratio (1.1428571429) equals 175% because they grow faster than tall-men.

175% of 2 years is 1277.5 days... Which is 3.5 years. So a 2 year old half-foot has the maturity of a 3.5 years old human child. 3 years old is when human children are expected to run and jump easily, and climb stairs without help.

That sounds about right to me, since the half-foot child in the drawing looks like they can confidently run around without balance issues. One foot is off the ground, and their arms are pulled in closer to the body than the tall-man child's arms.

Meanwhile the tall-man child is more unsteady, both feet firmly planted, standing with their arms held out as far as they can go to help with balance.

DOESN'T 29=50 FOR HALF-FOOTS?

Kui says that Chilchuck would be about 50 if he were a modern day human (which he isn't, he's a medieval half-foot), and then she says that half-foots in the time of Dungeon Meshi only live to be about 50 years old on average.

I'm pretty sure she's telling us that if Chilchuck were a human in our world, he'd be past middle-aged, and then for contrast, she tells us that most half-foots in Chilchuck's world die by age 50. Not that Chilchuck's 29 years is equivalent to a 50 year old modern human.

Chilchuck is 29 years old, and he had his first child at age 13. The average age of death for half-foots is 50, then that means middle-aged for a half-foot is 25.

Chilchuck is 4 years older than that, which makes Chilchuck past middle-aged. It does not make him developmentally the same as a 50 year old modern human though.

Using the numbers I've worked out, a half-foot would be developmentally 50 years old when they're 44.

Kui says that although Chilchuck wants to retire from going into the dungeons, if he did, it would be premature... Just like it would be premature for a 33 year old to retire.

In the real world retirement ages are connected to the average age of death. As that number goes up, so does retirement age. Because modern humans live until around 72, as a global average, retirement age is somewhere in their 60s.

So since half-foots average lifespan is 50, a normal age for Chilchuck to retire would be in his 40s.

WHAT ABOUT OLD ELVES?

The average age of death for tall-men is 60, however we know that tall-men can live into their 80s because Marcille's father did.

The average age of death for elves is 400, but they can live up to 500 years.

There's no reason to think that DM tall-men aren't like real world humans, and can't live into their 100's if they are lucky and wealthy enough. Even in the real medieval period, some people lived into their early 100's.

The thing that makes average death ages low in real life is usually issues like high infant mortality, starvation, war, lack of medical care, and lack of sanitation.

In the real medieval period, the average age of death was 30 not because people dropped dead at 30, but because SO MANY children died young that it pulled down the average. In medieval times, if you managed to live to 25, you had an average of 23 more years of life ahead of you, which is 48 years old.

I think Kui raised the average death age to 60 for tall-men to account for the fact that even tall-men have access to more advanced medicine and healing magic in DM, so infant mortality isn't as high and the adults live more than a decade longer.

The elves naturally have a longer lifespan since they live 5 times slower than tall-men. However they also probably have a far more advanced society than any of the other races in Dungeon Meshi. Fleki calls the Eastern Continent a "primitive land", and it's mostly populated by dwarves, gnomes and tall-men.

If elven culture was developmentally the same as tall-man culture, I bet elves would only live to about 300, which would be 60 for them, maturity wise.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

80x5 is 400. That seems correct to me, a 400 year old elf would be considered elderly and getting close to the end of their life. An 80 year old tall-man would be considered VERY old, having lived past average expectations... But those expectations, as I said before, are based on poor living conditions, not biological certainty. 100x5 is 500, so the two maximum ages (100 and 500) also line up when you use the 5:1 ratio.

POSSIBLE MAXIMUM AGES FOR OTHER RACES

Using the same math, if gnomes and dwarves had the same culture as tall-men, they'd only live to be 150-ish instead of 240/200...

This is only a theory, but dwarvish and gnomish maximum possible ages should probably be around 250, if you multiply their age modifier (2.5) x100 like I did with the elves.

The current difference between their average age of death is probably attributable to lifestyle and cultural differences (gnomes use a lot more magic, and so they live longer).

Then, just to do the rest of the races:

Half-foots and orcs theoretical maximum age is 88. Ogres theoretical maximum age is 94. Kobold theoretical maximum age is 81.

Keep in mind, these numbers are based on the idea that "around 100 years old" is the oldest a human being can get. The oldest human to ever live survived until they were 122 years old... But obviously that is rare, and happened in the modern era.

Point is, there's wiggle room at the top end of the age limit, for some of the races that may be a matter of extra days or months, for others it could be an extra decade or two. But I'm using 100 for simplicity's sake.

Sorry for the long post! I hope this answers people's questions, and if I messed something up let me know!

#dungeon meshi #delicious in dungeon #dunmeshi #theories #dungeon meshi and aging part 2 #chilchuck #chilchuck tims

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dungeon-meshi-tournament · 6 months

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You guys had a ton of funny things to say in response to the polls in the Best Chapter Cover in the Manga Tournament. So much so, that my initial list of funny comments was three full pages long. But after a lot of revising, and some delays for personal reasons, here's the post with the funniest comments of the last tournament, sorted by the poll they were commented on:

Chapter 2 vs Chapter 3 (2ound 1 part 1) slugfest between the allure of seeing a characters full pack and belongings laid out neatly versus Laios, Doomed, Eats Sandwich

Chapter 4 vs Chapter 5 (round 1 part 1) i love the go white boy go image, but yuri is always the answer

Chapter 21 vs Chapter 22 (round 1 part 1) whats his name again. chester? CHESTER SWEEP

Chapter 57 vs Chapter 58 (round 1 part 3) we are all simple. we see funny catgirl, we click the button Sorry Marcille I'm giving it to Ominous Catgirl 😔

Chapter 72 vs Chapter 73 (round 1 part 3) Chapter 73 aka future finalist for "Horniest Chapter Cover" tournament i hauve covid ryoko kui horny is the best kind of horny

Chapter 8 vs Chapter 10 (round 2 part 1) these early round Close-Ish ones are really fascinating to me. What will win: dynamic group shot, or Senshi Wear Hat

Chapter 47 vs Chapter 49 (round 2 part 2) i don't know this series or the significance of these images but one of these has a massive hairy man being slutty so i felt qualified to judge this one senshi thighs sweep HOT SENSHI HOT SENSHI HOT SENSHI

Chapter 50 vs Chapter 51 (round 2 part 3) chilchuck being one raceswap away from a five o'clock shadow is important to me

Chapter 56 vs Chapter 58 (round 2 part 3) chilchuk forever haunted by the looming ever-present spector of romance. please show him your support in these trying times Look me in the eyes and tell me you wouldn't click to pet her!! divorced dad AND potential bi king???

Chapter 68 vs Chapter 69 (round 2 part 3) THISTLE VS THISTLE WHO WILL WIN

Chapter 71 vs Chapter 3 (round 2 part 3) justice for dragon dinner but I Understand i dont go here i just need to support my bestie vore and cannibalism. ESPECIALLY vore and cannibalism sexualised. CHAPER 73 SWEEP!!!!!!!!! CUT THAT TONGUE OFF

Chapter 46 vs Chapter 47 (round 3 part 1) the senshi fanservice chapter cover is just dungeon meshi heritage

Chapter 68 vs Chapter 73 (round 3 part 2) Thistle giving head to the Winged Lion >>>>>>>>>

Chapter 80 vs Chapter 85 (round 3 part 2) my brain neuron activate when i see her eyes bags

Chapter 88 vs Chapter 89 (round 3 part 2) EAT THIS MOTHERFUCKING LION. EAT HIM. EAT HIM. EAT HIM.

Chapter 14 vs Chapter 21 (round 4) GO GIRL GO, BEAT CHESTER!! SLAY THAT OLD MAN TO THE GROUND MARCILLE

Chapter 76 vs Chapter 85 (round 4) sorry kabru but i have to support womens wrongs im sorry pepe silvia kabru but marcile looks hot in her tired renaisance faire goth era

Chapter 28 vs Chapter 47 (quarter finals) everyone LOOK AWAY im abt to do some cocomelon shit to that man ryoko kui's unstoppable lust for her own character has spread to the audience

Chapter 85 vs Chapter 97 (quarter finals) prev is right but unfortunately i saw a woman so beautiful i blacked out and voted for her before i could muster any logic 😵‍💫

Chapter 47 vs Chapter 97 (semi-finals) i read dungeon meshi for the food sorry naked senshi

Chapter 47 vs Chapter 73 (finale) battle of the horny covers THE S IN SENSHI STANDS FOR SWEEP VOTE CANNIBALISM PLEASEEEEEE senshi IS sexé but is he as sexy as laios getting his tongue [REDACTED]

#dungeon meshi #delicious in dungeon #best chapter cover in the manga tournament #funny comments

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detroit-grand-prix · 8 months

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thistle and weeds - susie wolff x oc

iii. your strife strikes at you in your sleep

Summary: Maree's solution to her current dilemma isn't practical or wise, and she can't get away with it forever, but it's all she's got until it comes to a head during the Barcelona F1 academy round.

Tags/warnings: almost one-night stands, alcohol use

Author’s note: This one didn't come quite as easily to me as chapters 1 and 2 did, but, it is a bit longer and more in-depth as a consolation! I felt like I could have maybe limited most of this to a summary, but I didn't really want to cut Maree's character development off at the knees like that, so the bulk of this chapter is strictly about Maree. I hope you like it anyway!

By the time the Barcelona round arrived in mid-May, Susie was a regular feature in Maree’s dreams, and Maree had decided that the only way to deal with it was to start avoiding talking to Susie as much as possible.

Out of sight, out of mind, Maree thought. It was a reasonable line of logic, but she hadn’t expected the act of avoiding Susie to cause Maree to think about her even more than she did before.

Getting through the Valencia race weekend without running into Susie was easy enough, as Susie wasn’t there. She had traveled to Miami, in the United States, for the Miami Grand Prix weekend. She was slated to speak at an F1-sponsored business summit where she would be announcing the partnership of F1 Academy and Hello Sunshine, and the media production company that Reese Witherspoon had founded. Maree was proud of the fact that she had a significant hand in facilitating the deal, and that they would be making a docuseries about the first F1 Academy season to capitalize on some of the “Drive to Survive” buzz.

Even aside from missing the Valencia round, Susie had a fairly demanding travel schedule and didn’t work out of the London office much of the time. She worked mostly from her home in Monaco, or on the road when she went to F1 races with Toto, but she was in regular contact with Maree via email and WhatsApp, but their conversations had started becoming more social, sometimes about things that weren’t strictly related to F1 Academy business.

For instance, while she was in Miami, Susie sent Maree a picture of the view of the beach from the balcony of her and Toto’s room at the Four Seasons, right on the Gulf of Mexico. She also sent a picture she’d taken of herself standing on the balcony of her suite, showing off the blue-and-white striped button down she was wearing. Maree limited her response to something about how the weather looked lovely. The pictures she’d sent Maree were very different from the photos she’d posted on Instagram, one of which was a photo of herself reflected in the glass sliding door of her suite. Maree did her best to keep her responses to Susie’s more social messages simple, and did her best to avoid scrolling back through their WhatsApp chat to look at the pictures Susie sent her pictures too much in hopes of not focusing on the details, like the way the Miami sunlight made her hair look like actual spun gold, or the way the sea breeze was gently ruffling it, or the way that she could see the skin just above Susie’s bra line because she’d left the topmost buttons of her shirt undone. She definitely tried to avoid imagining herself walking hand-in-hand with Susie down the long stretch of beach, enjoying the glow of the sunset and the roar of the tides as they kissed.

On the days that Susie was in the office, Maree hunkered down behind the locked door of her own office. She declined Susie’s usual lunch invitations, preferring to say that she already had lunch plans or that she had to run an errand. She spoke to Susie in meetings, but dashed back into her office as soon as they ended. She tried to artificially block off her schedule with check-ins with various colleagues, but the plan fell apart when her colleagues reasonably never had any updates for her.

By the time the Barcelona round started, Maree hardly had the nerve to even look Susie directly in the eye any more, and had resorted to very ungracefully turning around and walking the other way whenever she saw her approaching, loudly announcing that there was something she’d forgotten about in the other direction. She resolutely tried to ignore the confusion writ plainly on Susie’s face and tried to tell herself that there wasn’t also a touch of sadness or confusion with it, too.

The hammer came down on Saturday, just after the medal ceremony for the third and final round. Susie was taking photos with the girls that had made the weekend’s final podium. Maree was on her way back to the pit lane, chatting with one of the engineers for PREMA racing, Camilla, who had come to watch her driver, Marta García accept her third place trophy, when she heard someone call her name from behind her.

She turned around to see Delphine half-jogging toward her from the direction of the podium.

“Susie was looking for you earlier,” Delphine said as she caught up. “I don’t know if you talked to her already, but she just said she wanted to check in on a few things before she left.”

Maree swallowed against the lump that formed in her throat. She supposed she couldn’t reasonably evade her boss forever, but she was hoping in vain that she could make it a bit longer.

“Oh, thanks!” Maree said, trying to feign gratitude at the heads-up. “I’ll wait until she’s done.” She nodded a farewell to Camilla and walked back in the direction of the podium, trying to ignore the sudden onset of the desire to vomit.

Susie caught Maree’s eye as she finished up taking photos with the drivers and moved to descend the stairs.

“Hey,” Susie said. She didn’t sound upset, or like she was about to reprimand Maree for her absenteeism during the weekend.

“Delphine said you were looking for me?” Maree asked, trying to keep her voice from cracking.

“Oh, yes. I’ll be in the office on Tuesday, I was just hoping you and I could check in. You’ve been a difficult woman to keep track of lately,” Susie said, giving Maree a pat on the shoulder. She leaned in a bit closer, and Maree swore she could feel the air around her getting thinner. “I just wanted to make sure everything is okay. Let’s say right at nine. If you have any other meetings scheduled then, go ahead and move them.”

Her voice was as kind and even as ever, but Maree could read very clearly what Susie was telling her between the lines, or at least what she was imagining. “Something is going on with you, and I want to know why you’ve been ignoring me. You’re going to tell me why.”

It was a miserable weekend, and Maree spent all of it, including her flight from Barcelona to London, ruminating on what she would say, and for the first time, why she was having these dreams in the first place.

It wasn’t like she hadn’t had professional relationships with other women previously, but Susie was different. Maree had noticed that gravitational pull she had with the people around her, sure, but there was something else.

Somewhere in the air over France, she allowed herself to finally admit it: more than likely, she really was gay.

Maree had long wrestled with her sexuality. Even in secondary school, actually, she suspected that something was different. While most girls her age had boyfriends, she had no interest in dating at all. The first time she did kiss a boy, one of her classmates named Greg that she convinced herself she fancied, felt like she was a toddler at a Christmas party being forced to give an elderly relative a kiss against her will - more like something to be endured than something enjoyable.

Rowan threw a wrench in the works, giving her the thrill of an honest-to-god crush on a man for the first time, making her throw every conclusion she’d come to about herself in doubt. She even experienced the sort of intense, white-hot jealousy that they write pop songs about when Rowan briefly had a fling with another girl at the end of their first year at King’s, but it ended quickly.

After he and the other girl called things off, Rowan came to visit her in Glasgow at a summer music course for children where she was working as a trumpet lesson tutor. She remembered the thrill of sneaking him into her room in the dorm, and the way she felt when he kissed her goodbye in the car park before he left to head back to London, like she was finally experiencing what she had been missing all along.

Eventually, though, the shine wore off for Maree. Their relationship was completely devoid of any intimacy at all by the end of their marriage, and any physical contact with Rowan gave her that feeling once again of being a toddler receiving unwanted affection from a relative. She braced herself any time they kissed, and couldn’t help but notice how unpleasant it was, like the romantic equivalent of a limp handshake. Maree found herself being jealous of her lesbian friends, wondering what it would be like to date women. She was thrilled when one of her closest friends from uni, who had been out as long as Maree had known her, started dating the woman she would eventually marry, but felt a pang of jealousy when she saw how effortless their affection with one another was. She wanted that for herself, and had trouble picturing a man - Rowan or not - treating her with such tenderness.

There were other little moments in Maree’s life that made more sense in this new framing, like the time a woman with a stocky build and a boyish haircut from Maree’s Greek Literature class, sat down with her at the dining hall in Bush House, eager to discuss “the literary history of our people” after they’d listened to their professor’s lecture about Sappho.

“Our people?” Maree asked, confused. She wasn’t English, the other woman wasn’t Scottish, and she wasn’t sure what the poetry of Sappho had to do with the history of the British Isles as a whole.

“You know, lesbians. You’re lesbian, right?”

Maree remembered panicking and denying it without a second thought, and she didn’t remember ever talking to that woman again.

The other moment that bore reconsideration came just before her and Rowan decided to go forward with the legal separation. They had a lot of serious discussions about their relationship in the months leading up to it, but a particular question Rowan asked stuck in Maree’s mind.

“If we had never gotten together and you were single right now, would you ever start a relationship with someone that, well, looks like me?”

Maree assured him that yes, she still found him attractive, as she still had a vested interest in avoiding divorce at the time, that interest being that the prospect of having to up-end her life was terrifying. As she reflected on it two years post-divorce, she knew she would have answered differently.

As Maree got ready for bed on Monday night, hours away from her meeting with Susie, she comforted herself with the thought that her dreams were just years of denial boiling off under all of the pressure. It was just chickens coming home to roost.

She felt eerily calm the next morning as she walked into Susie’s office and shut the door behind her. It had helped that she couldn’t remember what she dreamed about the night before, but she was nervous as she sat down and saw the expression on Susie’s face. She looked rather cross as Maree sat down in the chair in front of her desk.

“I just wanted to chat about something.” Susie said, folding her hands together on the surface of her desk. She was looking directly into Maree’s eyes, which Maree found a bit unnerving. “We have an issue that we need to discuss if we’re going to continue to work together successfully. I am trying not to assume negative intent here, but you are giving me the impression that you no longer wish to work on this team, and I was just trying to get some insight on what I can do to improve the situation.”

Maree blanched. “N-no, that’s not it at all. You’re a great boss, and I love working on this project with you.” She felt the serenity she felt when she sat down dissipating, leaving anxiety in its place.

“Okay. I’m glad to hear that, but I’m just… confused. I thought you and I were getting on quite well together. As I said, I’m not one to assume the worst, but it seems like you’re going out of your way to avoid me.”

“It’s not that, I -”

“Did I say or do something to upset you?” Susie went on, an edge in her voice that made Maree feel like she was being scolded. “If it’s something you’re more comfortable discussing with HR, feel free to do so, but I’d hate to think that I’ve done something to make you upset.”

The worry and guilt on Susie’s face twisted something in the pit of Maree’s stomach.

“No, it’s nothing you’ve done, I just -”

Maree paused in thought. She obviously couldn’t tell Susie the truth. She couldn’t tell her boss that she had inspired Maree to spiral into a crisis of questioning a large segment of her sense of self. She couldn’t tell her boss - her married, heterosexual boss - that she was the opposite in the romantic movies that Maree’s mind was forcing her to watch every time she went to sleep, and that those movies definitely could not be played on television until after 10pm. There was no way. She would sooner go lay down in traffic.

Still, Maree couldn’t say that everything was fine when Susie obviously had noticed that things were very much not.

She could lie, but what would she even say? As she thought about it, her mind flashed to something she’d read in a spy novel she liked, where the main character was reflecting on his past and how he had used parts of it to construct a convincing cover identity. Half-truths make the best lies.

“It’s not you, I promise. It’s something I’ve been trying to deal with outside of work. I’m just going through something sort of…” Maree sat back in her chair and shifted uncomfortably. Now, it felt like she was talking to her therapist.

“You know how people go through midlife crises?”

Susie nodded, and Maree continued.

“It’s something like that. It’s something that’s been on my mind a lot, and I’m sorry if it’s made me seem distant or distracted. I guess I hadn’t realized that it was having a noticeable effect on my work. I’m sorry about that.”

Susie’s expression turned from curious to sympathetic.

“Oh, it’s no trouble. I was just a bit concerned. You’ve been doing a fine job still. It’s just that our team is so small it’s easy to tell if something is amiss with someone. You certainly don’t have to get into the details of it if you don’t want to. If you do, I’m happy to listen, and do anything I can to help, but you certainly don’t have to. Whatever you tell me is in complete confidence, of course.”

“I -” Maree stuttered, biting her lip for a moment. She certainly wouldn’t have ever talked to any of her bosses in the Premier League about this, or even James, her last boss, as kind as he was. But, she felt like she could trust Susie with this. She couldn’t not tell her at this point; the look of pure earnestness and care that she was giving Maree from across the expanse of her desk almost unlocked a desire to tell her almost anything. Giving up a half-truth was her only defense against telling Susie the whole truth.

She was at the edge of a precipice, like she was staring down a cliff into the roil of the ocean against the rocks.

“Fuck it.” Maree thought. “Maybe I’ll feel better if I say something out loud.”

“This is going to sound immature, like the sort of thing most people have figured out by the time they leave university at the latest, but I never thought about it until after the divorce.”

Maree took a deep breath.

“I guess it started when I got divorced, but I’ve been questioning a lot of things about myself lately, including my sexuality, and I… I think I’m a lesbian.”

Maree watched as Susie raised her eyebrows momentarily, and dread curled around her heart. For a moment, she thought she had misjudged both the situation and Susie’s character horribly, until Susie’s expression softened again nearly immediately, and she gave Maree a gentle smile. Maree couldn’t help but notice the way Susie’s entire posture seemed to relax, as she crossed one leg over the other and leaned back in her chair a bit.

“Well, that is a rather significant development,” she said. “I can see why you’ve been stressed out. I, erm, have known people, you know, friends of mine, that have gone through that process. I know it’s hard, especially because they’ve talked about not knowing who will be supportive and who won’t be. But, I will say that I will be here for you if you ever need to discuss anything. And, of course, it won’t leave this room until you want it to.”

Maree felt her entire body relax like every muscle was being tensed and that she let go of a breath that she wasn’t even aware that she was holding.

“I… appreciate that, thank you,” Maree murmured. She took a moment to glance around. This was the first time Maree had been in Susie’s office since it had been redecorated and set up as her permanent workspace. The entire space, including the furniture, was very minimalist.. She had the room done mostly in shades of cream, but had a few carefully selected objets d’art in a matching teal blue that reminded Maree of the shopping bags from Fortnum and Mason, an incredibly upscale department store in London. She and her flatmate from university once put on their nicest dresses to go to the tea salon for high tea, just for a laugh, but Maree secretly had a wonderful time, and didn’t really want the day to end. Maree held onto the elegant paper shopping bag and the miniature tea tins that came in it for years, until she moved in with Rowan.

As Maree spoke, she couldn’t bear to meet Susie’s gaze again. The sincerity on Susie’s face was almost overwhelming, so she focused her attention on something sitting on Susie’s desk; one of the only things on the surface other than Susie’s laptop, a small cup that had the remnants of Susie’s usual morning espresso, and a lamp with a glassy teal base. The prism was likely just a paperweight, some sort of six-sided glass prism in a shape Maree couldn’t name, but she caught herself wondering briefly if the light was ever just right in the office for it to project rainbows onto the walls.

“And…” Susie chuckled, making Maree look back up at her. “If you want some of my unsolicited advice, don’t worry about timelines with these sorts of things, or when you think you should have done something. I know it’s probably your project manager brain, but your sense of self and feeling comfortable in your own skin not a deliverable.”

She ignored Maree’s incredulous expression and continued on.

“Growing up, and into adulthood, I never wanted to become a wife and mother. I met Toto, fell in love, and got married, but I didn’t really want children, because I couldn’t focus on my racing career and putting myself in danger with someone at home depending on me, and Toto had two children of his own already that were almost teenagers when we started dating. But, once I retired from motorsport, I realized that I wanted to have a family with Toto. I was 35 when I had Jack, and most women my age that I knew already had kids in primary school. But, the good thing is, you have an opportunity for some self-discovery, you know? Change is good, even if it’s not always comfortable, but it will give you what you need to grow. “

It was with Susie’s advice in mind that Maree found herself at a lesbian bar in Soho, appropriately named “She”, a few days later, at the suggestion of her friend Evelyn. Evelyn, or Evie, as Maree called her, was her friend that she had been jealous of when she started dating a woman, desiring the effortless affection that Evie and her wife showed each other.

Maree reasoned that being conservative with taking risks and insisting on sticking to the familiar was what had gotten her into a job and marriage that made her miserable, so there was no reason not to go all in. So she called Evie and asked if she knew of any gay bars frequented by women, and after dealing with Evie’s excited line of questioning over the phone, Maree found herself waiting to meet Evie and Ada, her wife, at the start of the bar’s weekly Wednesday karaoke night.

The bar was not large, but it was loud, likely owing to the fact that it was built out of what looked like the remnants of an old RAF Nissen hut, given the ceiling and walls were made of a single piece of cylindrical corrugated metal.

Maree sat at one of the uncomfortable metal yellow cafe tables that were arranged around the place, nervously glancing between her phone, the door to the bar, and the girl on the small stage singing above an instrumental track of Katy Perry’s “I Kissed A Girl'' to an audience that didn’t look particularly interested. She was desperately wondering where Evie and Ada were, and nothing remained of her Moscow Mule other than some half-melted ice pooled at the bottom of its copper mug, a damp napkin, and the spent peel of the lime garnish.

“Come on, Evie…” she murmured to herself, staring at the WhatsApp message window on her phone, desperately waiting for the checkmark in the corner of her last message to turn blue.

“I’ve never seen you here before,” Maree heard someone say. She whipped her head around to see a petite woman sidle up to her table and sit down in the other chair. “You new in town? Just visiting?” They practically had to yell over the noise of the small crowd and the karaoke music.

The woman was very smartly dressed, wearing a pinstripe business suit, but the fact that the shirt - well, more like a bralette - she was wearing underneath was made of black lace and left her midriff exposed made Maree think she definitely had not come straight from work like Maree had.

“Uh… n-no, I live here… well, not in Soho, but, you know… London.”

The woman smiled. “So you’re just new to this bar, then? Good to know. What’s your name, gorgeous?”

“M-Maree.”

“That’s a pretty name. I’m Tara. Can I buy you another drink - Moscow Mule, looks like?”

Tara barely waited for her to nod before getting up and walking toward the bar. Maree thought that having a man come on so strongly would be an unnerving experience that would have probably had her sprinting for the exit door, but something about this - the novelty of it, maybe, had Maree wanting to stay and see what might happen.

It didn’t take more than a minute before Tara returned. She sat down and moved her chair a bit closer to Maree’s, putting a copper mug down with a new drink for Maree. Maree glanced at Tara’s drink - she couldn’t tell what it was, but it was in a rocks glass, garnished with a cherry and a slice of lemon.

“So, Maree, what brings you here? I’m guessing it’s your first time?”

Maree nodded, setting down the copper mug after taking a generous sip.

“Yes. A friend of mine from uni and her wife were supposed to meet me but, I don’t think they’re coming.”

“That’s a shame,” Tara said, with a bit of a smirk. She shot a very intense gaze directly into Maree’s eyes, a look that made her feel a blush starting at her chest and rising to her cheeks. “Hopefully you find my company acceptable.”

Tara was gorgeous, Maree thought. She was trying to remain circumspect and examine whether or not it was honest-to-god attraction, but being one and a half Moscow Mules in already was making it a bit of a task. She was petite, with a delicate frame. Her eyes were a shade of green that likely looked more intense and vibrant than usual, thanks to the flawless eyeliner and eyeshadow she was wearing. She had a delicate nose with a shiny stud piercing, and was wearing silver stud earrings that seemed to match it. She had a choppy blonde haircut that grazed the bottom of her chin. Her hair had dark roots that indicated that her hair color likely wasn’t natural, but it still reminded her of someone. She’d just finished her second Mule, but still had the wherewithal to not allow herself to complete that thought.

Maree loosened up as the two of them talked, doing their best to talk over the goings-on of their surroundings. She found out that Tara was some sort of musician, not enough of a following to be particularly well-known yet, but, according to her, “big enough to pay her bills after one of her songs got some traction on TikTok”. She had the sort of crisp, polished public school accent that made Maree think that she likely didn’t have many of her own bills to worry about in the first place, but she shoved that thought away. It wasn’t as if she often used her real accent, after all.

Maree preferred to keep details of her life spare, only telling Tara that she was in programme management for a sports management company, and not which particular sports management company. Tara did not press for details, even when she returned with another round of drinks.

By the end of Maree’s third Mule, Tara… Maree thought that was her name, at least, as it was getting hard to remember - had gotten quite touchy, stroking the exposed skin on Maree’s arms and shoulders occasionally, and Maree couldn’t find it in herself to mind the attention one bit. At one point, Tara had reached out to tuck a lock of Maree’s dark hair behind her ear, and Maree couldn’t help but involuntarily giggle, before wondering the last time she’d made a noise even remotely similar. She felt a pleasant full-body tingle, her limbs becoming increasingly fluid and pliable, her nerves and apprehension at the beginning of the night a distant memory She wasn’t drunk, not quite, but pleasantly buzzed enough to know that she likely would’ve found this situation horribly embarrassing if she were still sober.

The fatal blow to Maree’s will to resist… what was her name again? Clara, maybe? Clara’s charms, though, came when the woman delicately grasped one of Maree’s hands, holding it gently in place for a moment. The fourth Moscow Mule, along with the shot of Fireball they’d done, certainly wasn’t hurting either.

“You have nice hands, you know.”

For reasons she wasn’t aware of, Maree felt her entire body blush, while trying to think of something to say in response.

“I, uh… thank you? I think?”

She didn’t think there was anything exceptional about them. She preferred to keep her nails short; a holdover from taking piano lessons, and thought that most colors of lacquer would just make her fingers look short and stubby. She preferred neutral or nude shades when she wore nail polish. Her nails were currently a light, almost-invisible pink.

Clara laughed, but didn’t deign to explain further before abruptly changing the subject.

“Come on,” she said, standing up, practically dragging Maree with her. “There’s an open spot on the roster, let’s go do a song.”

Maree did not object, even as they scrolled through the selection on the console. She let Sara pick the song, one that Maree remembered getting heavy radio play not long after she’d graduated from uni. It was one of those top 40 radio pop-driven dance tunes that Maree couldn’t think of the name of or which artist made it, but she somehow knew all of the words to.

“I crashed my car into the bridge, I watched, I let it burn, I threw your shit into a bag and pushed it down the stairs, I crashed my car into the bridge”, they yelled in unison into the singular karaoke microphone that… uh, was it Clara, or Sara? It was definitely Sara, Maree thought, was holding. Thankfully, the crowd was a bit more lively than when earlier on in the night, and were yelling along and dancing along with the bass-boosted karaoke instrumental track booming over the club’s speakers. It did a lot to make Maree feel

“I don’t care! I love it!”

The intensity seemed to ramp up as the song went on, and by the time the song was over, Sara… or was it like, Sierra? was practically in Maree’s arms, not an inch between them as she clung to her shoulders. The expression on her face was one of delight, her eyes were huge, sweat forming on her forehead. Maree could feel it too, her breath coming in sudden sharp pants, her heartbeat thundering against her ribcage.

“Let’s go take a little break,” Mara said, her breathing just as quick. Somehow, Maree knew exactly what she meant.

They stumbled into the ladies’ room, which was thankfully empty, giggling as they practically dove into an open stall. Maree could barely throw the bolt on the door before Mara… or maybe it was something like Teri? Maree was really having a hard time remembering, but she didn’t think it really mattered at this point, focusing more on the feeling of whoever-she-was pressing her against the stall door, grasping at her hips to hold her in place.

“Wait,” Maree said, pushing Clara’s shoulders back a bit, putting the slightest bit of distance between their mouths. “I have to tell you something… I’ve never done this before.”

“Done what?” Teri said, still panting.

“I’ve never kissed a girl before,” Maree said, dropping her voice to a whisper. “I’m still not sure… well, you know, if I like it.”

Sierra laughed a little, but it sounded light and friendly, not the sort of teasing, cruel laugh that Maree was half-expecting.

“That’s okay,” she said, whispering too. “Just follow my lead.”

Sara brought her hands - which were wonderfully warm and soft, Maree thought - to the sides of Maree’s face. She’d adjusted her pace from something fevered and frenzied to something gentler, probing Maree’s mouth with her tongue as her thumbs stroked gently against her cheeks. Maree caught the taste of whiskey sour, she thought, as she closed her eyes and let her lips slide open, just like she did in her dream, when Susie…

Remembering her dreams about Susie made her eyes snap open, catching sight of the blonde of Sara’s hair. She was unable to resist combing her fingers through it, trying to imagine that it was Susie’s. Maree felt a pang of momentary guilt, but between the bass thumping against the walls of the bathroom stall and their shared frantic breathing, she let it go and closed her eyes and allowed herself the fantasy that it was Susie kissing her. She wasn’t exactly in a position to tell herself not to.

The adrenaline fizzed and sparked deliciously under Maree’s skin as she imagined that it was who was kissing her so passionately. Each of them let hands each start to wander, and she grasped at Maree’s ass as Maree let her thumbs travel over the exposed skin on Tara’s abdomen, inching ever upward to the lacy bralette she was wearing.

“You’re doing so well for your first time,” Mara whispered, pulling her lips away from Maree’s for a moment. Imagination was a powerful thing, and it caused Maree to keen as she could’ve sworn that what’s-her-name even started sounding like Susie, her voice having taken on the same warm, almost-maternal affect that Susie used with her. “I wouldn’t have ever guessed if you hadn't told me. I imagine that answers your question.”

Maree giggled. “I guess it does.”

After a few minutes, Maree started feeling more adventurous, moving away from Teri’s mouth and kissing along the delicate skin of her neck, and let her thumbs venture under the hem of her bralette. Maree grazed the underside of Mara’s breasts with her thumb, and she giggled, rewarding Maree by shoving her thigh between the junction of Maree’s legs. Maree canted her hips a little, grinding lightly into her knee as her excitement started reaching a delirious fever pitch. She was wondering how far they would go until the exterior door to the ladies’ room burst open, and a group of what sounded like four other women, all of them drunk and enormously loud, spilled in. Both Maree and… shit, who is she again? jumped, startled, and stumbled out of the stall together to a round of boisterous, supportive peanut-gallery commentary - it was incredibly obvious what they were doing in there, and according to the blonde girl, they weren’t the first ones to do so, nor would they be the last.

As the girl with the name Maree couldn’t remember settled her bar tab, Maree perched on the barstool next to her, and felt like she was in a different world. She wasn’t sure if it was the alcohol or the adolescent thrill of making it to second base with someone even at her age, but everything seemed softer and warmer, the colors of the tinted spotlights and the pulse of the music all blending into one mass of pleasant sensation. She barely paid attention as the blonde woman slipped her the bar receipt with her phone number and her Instagram handle on it.

They sat at the bar and talked for a few minutes as Maree knocked back a water or two and bid farewell to the blonde woman, telling her that she had to be up for work the next morning. They kissed in the stairwell of the bar as Maree left, whispering a promise to message her later on.

By the time she had regained her senses enough to walk down to the Lebanese joint down the street for some a shawarma and some chips to chase the Moscow Mules with and ordered a Bolt back home, the bar receipt was crumpled and forgotten about at the bottom of her purse with the receipt for the falafel shop and the other detritus that tended to gather there.

Maree woke up early the next morning - well before she had to get ready for work, thankfully - feeling nauseous and greasy, and like her head was stuffed with cotton balls but somehow weighed twenty kilos by itself. She had managed to remove her pants before falling into bed, but not her bra or her blouse, both of which had left angry red indents in her skin. Her mouth tasted like the sour remnants of the garlic sauce that was on her shawarma, and she had a message from Evie explaining that she had fallen asleep and that Ada didn’t want to wake her, and that she was sorry and that she had hoped Maree had a good time regardless.

She popped a paracetamol and downed a glass of water before getting in the shower. As she stood under the hot spray, hoping that it would be enough to revive her before she had to leave for work, she tried to piece together the previous night. She remembered getting to the bar and waiting on Evie and Ada to show up, and she remembered that song she did karaoke to, but most of the details were like dust to the wind. All that she could recall with clarity and certainty was the girl with the blonde hair pressing her against the bathroom stall, the way her hands felt as they cradled her face, and the way her lips felt against hers, and the way she closed her eyes and let herself believe that it as Susie kissing her.

It was really too bad she couldn’t remember the girl’s name.

#susie wolff x oc #f1 fic #my fanfic #my fanfic writing #formula 1 fanfic #f1 x oc #formula 1 x oc #formula 1 academy #series: thistle and weeds

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roydeezed · 1 year

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Dungeon Meshi Thoughts 05

I think this will be the last of these Dungeon Meshi posts before I catch up because I’m finding it very hard to put down. Judging by the names of the next few chapters I’m on the edge of the fight with Thistle The Mad Sorcerer so I thought I’d stop off here and leave my thoughts before continuing. So this post is going to cover chapters 51-67. My spoiler filled thoughts down below past the “Keep reading”.

Last we left off, our intrepid heroes had just learnt of Senshi’s backstory and helped him overcome a great trauma in his life, the belief that he might have eaten his comrades in order to survive. Now, having been changed into different races because of the changeling mushrooms, the group talks about the differences in the ages of the races, which in hindsight after learning of Marcille’s desire, makes me realize how important this conversation was. It also makes me wonder how old Marcille really is. The story at multiple times obfuscated attempts at learning about her age. Has she somehow already learnt the way to increase her own lifespan as her worries about people dying on her due to age seem a little too real to be just worries for the future. And her traveling around picking up random bits of knowledge while also landing on forbidden magic screams someone who’s lived so long all they can do now is gather knowledge. Marcille’s backstory, for being supposedly so old, is still so vague.

Getting back to the story, the main draw of the cooking in a fantasy setting has been the fact that they get to try all these sorts of wild creatures that would never exist in our world. But leveling that up and creating a whole new method of cooking, through changing things with the changeling mushrooms is such a great evolution of the lore of this world and classic fantasy staples.

We also learn quite a bit about Laois and Falin’s backstory over the course of these chapters. The key motivation of Laios leaving his hometown was that he was sick of the people there, namely his parents with how much he didn’t want to look like his dad. His main regret was leaving Falin, which is why he’s trying so hard to get her back. His motivation, of wanting a world of harmony speaks to more of a desire of adventurers, to see a world that they haven’t seen before through Laios’s kindhearted view.

It’s a much vaguer wish, with an emphasis on discovery than someone like Marcilles wish, which, while grand, is very concrete. Maybe that’s why the Lion chose him, as such a vague wish is easy to manipulate. One other thing that stood out to me was that both Laios and Falin were engaged before it fell through. In between the cracks of what we know they have a whole set of lives and personalities. I want to know what Laios in love looks like so bad. The little scene of little Falin eating alone is so precious and heartbreaking. I just want the best for these siblings.

Sharing food as a form of love, for both of the siblings, shows how much they both care about the party. Two small moments that followed this revelation that I loved were Marcille crying because she realized how much Falin loved her and Izutsumi acting literally like a cat as she comforted Marcille.

Izutsumi should be the blueprint for all catgirls going forward, the authour really hit a homerun when they made her.

The group also comes to the conclusion that they can eat her to fix her, calling upon the help of all their allies so far. With where I’m at now, with the characters as divided as they are and the Lion manipulating Laios, I can only say this was an overly hopeful dream.

We then go over to what I now consider to be the manga’s secondary protagonist, Kabru. Who once again, I dearly love. I love all of the characters but Kabru is just great in so many ways. And we see his determination in not letting a repeat of Utaya, his hometown, happen again. We see how the dungeon has corrupted others and in an effort to drive out campers and get Thistle to come to them, the canaries incite desire in people by flashing money. Originally they seemed outright evil, but I should’ve known better as it’s never that straightforward with Dungeon Meshi. The Canaries are either royals or criminals who’ve meddled with dark magic, signified by clipped ears. This makes me wonder if Marcille has any relation with the Canaries because is she somehow authorized to learn forbidden magic? The Canaries seem like a lifetime membership though.

Misurn and Kabru manage to get one over on Thistle and just as Misurn is about to end Thistle, Kabru realizes that he needs answers. A bad faith take of this situation, upon learning of the demons and the dungeon mechanics, as well as Kabru’s later desire to stop Laios, would be to say this was just extending the story through a plot convenience. And it really very easily could have been. But this goes back to the systemic issue of the older races, dwarves and elves, not trusting the younger races. Seeing them as naive and impulsive. Kabru forcing this information out is one of the reasons I love him so much.

While I think some naivety is needed, Kabru looks forward to a world like the one Laios and Marcille look forward to but in a much more realistic sense. He understands the first thing that needs to happen, even before a magical resetting of the race’s ages, is that they need to trust each other. And that’s something we see happen on a smaller scale with our party.

Next, we learn Chilchuck’s backstory. He turns out to be a father and a husband, and through Marcilles incredibly empathetic prediction, we learn most of how the separation with his wife went. After Senshi, Chilchuck comes in as the second most known about party member, though we still don’t know why or how he got into adventuring. While filling out the role of the rogue in the party, he is also the most wholesome, having raised his daughters and loved his wife.

Next we learn about Marcille’s backstory. And even though we learn quite a lot about her, by the simple virtue of being an elf, there’s still a whole lot more we don’t know about her. This also drives home Marcille’s desire to eliminate the differences between races. With Chilchuck and Senshi, them belonging to a younger race and being younger respectively, we’re able to learn their backstories quite fast. Marcille, being an elf, has that much more of a distance between her and her companions as she has so much more ground to cover on formative memories and motivations. Also on a personal note, finding out that Marcille got into dungeon crawling because she’s basically that world’s equivalent of a flatliner is the dorkiest, stupidest, and funniest thing about her. She’s such a loser(affectionate), I love her so much. Her being into a dorky prince like person as her one true love comes second to that. But going back to it, Marcille is so intrinsically tied to the siblings that it’s just as much her story as it is theirs.

The next little bit has a few fun moments I want to mention. One is that the Dullhan looks like such a cool monster that I hope we see it again. Another is that I love how the story of the succubui helps Izutsumi come to terms with her animal nature so organically. It’s such a brilliant use of monsters to help realize the protagonists character arcs, you know I’m writing this down for future TTRPG use. Also Chilchuck’s wife is blonde, that’s so wholesome, he’s such a good husband. Them losing to the succubi because of Marcille’s lame taste is also so on brand. Though I would’ve thought Marcille would’ve seen Falin with how much they seem to care for her. I thought the story was alluding to a romantic relationship between the two of them but I guess I’m wrong as it sets it up that Laios sees Marcille as his type. Also Izutsumi is god tier ace rep.

We then meet the lion, who looks adorable by the way, and we learn that it wants to help Laios become the new lord of the dungeon and that Thistle is keeping it trapped. From what we learn later, it looks like Thistle was able to keep the dungeon safe for so long because he locked up the lion, preventing it from feeding on his desire more. The lion also probably manipulated the people of the kingdom to make them aid Laios in such a specific way. As we later learn from Kabru's perspective, Demons are beings from a dimension of infinite energy that grow strong by feeding on people's desires.

Here's where I think Dungeon Meshi delivers another masterstroke of storytelling. All throughout so far, we've been very clearly watching the world through our characters' eyes, learning what they want to learn about, being curious about what they want to be curious about, and more specifically learning about the characters themselves from little moments of dialogue to big chunks of backstory. And this has gotten us invested in the characters without much thought to the world. But now the world is developed in such a major way through the Canaries and The Demons and especially our characters' relationships with these two, specifically the Demons, that we can't help but care about the world as well. The main crux of the demon's powers being gained through desire lets the story function through the wants and needs of our main characters, making us, the audience, at the very least, understand, if not root for their desires. Desires that could very well destroy their world. It puts us at odds with the story as much as our characters are. It's genius.

Going back to the story once again, we follow Kabru as they tail Laios along his journey and we once again see that Kabru makes a quick and impulsive decision to follow Laios so he can speak with him one more time. Kabru is always quick to come to conclusions; we saw as much from his first interaction with Laios, where he chooses not to blame him for his party's death and gets a read on him instantly. It's one of his greatest strengths, but also could become one of his greatest weaknesses. Thankfully, up until now, it's worked out, but going forward, it could very well backfire as Kabru doesn't second guess himself enough to fully consider his assumptions.

Finally, on to the last stretch of events before I put it down to write this, our heroes come across Thistles cabin and partially free the winged lion after eating some phoenix.

The birth of the lion from the book as well as the whole sequence with Misurn and the goat are incredibly horrific.

As a horror fan, my love for this manga increased tenfold with the recent developments. The lion also looks like a biblical angel after it’s birth.

The imagery is absolutely breathtaking here.

Also I really like Misurn as both a character and a plot device. He’s so single minded about revenge but he also has a lot of personality even if that comes from having his desires taken away.

I also love how Kabru as a human matches wits with these supposed mature races. He meets them equally and I couldn’t be prouder of my boy.

Our heroes also attempt to kill some rabbits for Falin and things go horribly wrong with Marcille being the only one left to fend for herself in one of the funniest moments in the series where she has a ghoulish dance troupe with dead rabbits and her fellow party members.

Speaking of the rabbits, if anyones watched Re:Zero they reminded me a lot of the snow rabbits but like a 100% more messed up.

But here we get another moment that makes me wonder what Marcille has actually gone through.

She talks about how it would make her feel if everyone died like she has some experience.

I’m still mad that the story skipped over her age. Is she like a thousand years old or something? What’s your deal girl? How’d you get so adorkable? But really. Marscille’s actions make me feel like she’s not that old but hints to her backstory suggest she is. It’s so weird. Going into this next part, Kabru is still my favourite but with how much of a loser she is Marcille is a really close second. And the fact that she’s such a capable wizard makes it a hundred times funnier. We love emotionally unstable dorks here.

Also, I absolutely love the crying faces in Dungeon Meshi, they pack so much gentle emotion into them.

Anyways, they feed Falin and take her out before getting ready to fight Thistle. That’s where I stopped reading and right after posting this I am going to go back, I’ve been away from this for way too many days. With Kabru also converging on this point I don’t think this fight will turn out like a typical fight. There are way too many factors involved to accurately predict anything. Though it would be wild if Laios becomes the lord of the dungeon. Knowing how subversive and nuanced this story gets I wouldn’t put it past it. Our heroes have suffered so much, I just want a win for them at this point. With being on what I feel like is the precipice of a major plot point, I can’t really speculate much or analyze much as it all feels like it leads to the immediate next part. Like all the build up has been for a very specific set of circumstances that I probably won’t be able to predict. See ya next time when I've caught up! Unless something happens where I need to stop and gather thoughts.

#dunmeshi #dungeon meshi #delicious in dungeon #manga recap #manga discussion

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picnokinesis · 1 year

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Tag Game - First 10 Lines

Rules: share the first lines of ten of your most recent fanfics and tag ten people. If you have written less than ten, don’t be shy and share anyway.

Got tagged by the wonderful @wykart - thank you!!! :D I’m actually gonna include the first lines of wips I’m working on that aren’t posted yet because I think that’ll be more interesting to show haha. Gonna try and put them roughly in the order I wrote/posted them in. They’re all Doctor Who, of course.

1. Taken from a canon-based oneshot that I might not finish, currently called ‘i’m what’s left when children go to war’

“What do you mean you can’t get her out?” Yaz is saying, clearly trying for stern and authoritative, but not quite managing to hide the raw fear that’s bleeding out through the cracks in her voice.

2. Taken from ‘The Trestle at Kasterborous Creek’, which is a spydoc canon-based multichapter involving matrix nonsense and references to an obscure play that I love a lot. Alas, it’s actually the second line of the fic that’s one of my favourites

The room is choked with shadows.

3. Taken from Campervan AU part 6

On a scale of one to ten, Ryan thinks to himself, how embarrassing is it to hide in the kitchen at your own party?

4. Taken from ‘fletching’ - yet another canon-based oneshot that I’ll probably never finish

The snow is crisp under her boots, each step a soft crunch underfoot as she traipses through the frozen forest, coat wrapped tightly around her.

5. Taken from your ex-lover remains dead (i'll kill who you hate), my post-TPOTD spydoc oneshot

She really should not be doing this.

6. Taken from ‘haunted house’, which is a Ryan-centric post-TPOTD oneshot that I never finished

“I’m just saying that it doesn’t make sense, is all!” Yaz is saying, the video stuttering on Ryan’s phone screen as his shaky internet connection tries its best to carry the call.

7. Taken from and you will go to mykonos - a thoschei-ish prison ficlet

“This isn’t real,” the Master comments as the wind plays with the tails of his coat.

8. Taken from FUTURE DUST (blood and rust) - zombie au!

The survivor camp is built around a hospital in what’s left of Liverpool, and it’s busy.

9. Taken from ‘the rockrose and the thistle’ - yet another unfinished spydoc oneshot

The sudden spike of pain sends her back into consciousness with a gasp, harsh against the darkness.

10. Taken from the wild grass overlapping the front porch, a dhawan!master pov drabble that I wrote as part of the drabble bingo challenge!

It turns out that escaping death particles, frankensteining an army out of the corpses of his own people, and letting an AI share his brain eventually takes its toll.

There we go! Now everyone knows how much I’ve been floundering with wips in the last few months hahah. I’m hoping I get out of the rut I’ve hit with campervan au soon, but said rut is definitely making me more distractable. Trestle was going very well until I realised that it was much bigger than I anticipated (I was at almost 40k and realised I wasn’t even halfway through rip) and then hit a rut with that too, and now my brain isn’t letting me write rip. So I’m just taking a break now, and hopefully I’ll get back on the wagon sooooon.

Tagging some wonderful writers (but no pressure, ofc, feel free to ignore) - @taardisblue, @sunshinedaysforever, @gabeorelse, @novantinuum, @fictionpenned, @koschgay, @emptyofdust, @echo84, @krebkrebkreb

#taka gets tagged #tag game #taka writes #I mean I suppose it could be worse #at least SOME of them are posted and done #i would genuinely LOVE to finish trestle some day #i love it so much #it's so weird haha

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skippyv20 · 1 year

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Notes on a rainy day...

Hi Skippy & Friends-Pilgrim checking in on this holiday Monday. ** The new statue in Boston leaves much to be desired. This is supposed to be about an inspiring love story, celebrating a major international award! The joy of the moment is missing IMHO. 10 million invested, when Boston has so many other big bills to pay with a brand new Govenor taking over just this week...on top of all the "immigrants" that arrive in the dark of night, flown or bussed in that will now be automatically given an official MA driver's liscense and freebie$$? NYC is totally overwhelmed too with "immigrants" along with untold small towns being quietly invaded. The public is not encouraged to mention it because we are told these unvetted people are not really illegal...sooo...does that mean the King in the olde fable WAS wearing clothes???

** How refreshing to see the Duke of Wales speak English correctly. His younger brother seems to think it is proper to say over and over, his pronoun first..."me and my wife" showing how poorly educated many Americans are.

** The portrait drawings of ERII are fantastic. It's hard to believe only 5 months have passed-especially for her family carrying on!!! Barely time to catch ones breath with the powerful images of her funeral; joyful celebrations of her last Jubilee AND the ugly war of the Harkles. ** From the story about her fabulous, sweet PJ brooch...perhaps they will make one with fine crystals in silvertone for those of us who can't afford the real deal. Otherwise I will look for something similar, circle with Lily of the Valley and Thistles. A long time ago I was introduced to collectible costume jewelry which was a major industry right here in New England, mainly Providence, RI. From 1930-60's popular brands signed their jewelry lines which became really collectible due to their fine workmanship, high end crystals, plating and priced for the average lady. In the 80's a couple of Italian collectors published a fabulous "coffee table" book featuring some of their best finds. That began an international collector craze which I joyfully joined by accident. I was lucky to find many beautiful "book pieces" still affordable over the years. Anyhoo, this brooch reminded me of those good times hunting at flea markets and antique malls in cities across the country. Every year I wear a favorite Christmas brooch on my coat. Yesterday I decided to keep this up changing them out for fun, even if brooches aren't in fashion. If ERII thought they were a good thing to wear then why not keep up the tradition in our own little way? If you visit a Canadian site called N & N Vintage Costume Jewelry, Masterpiece section, I think you will find lots to study for inspiration! There are many beautiful books now about who the top designers were and their best pieces.

** With so many difficult things happening around us it is mind blowing to try to take it all in. I admire Princess Anne and Sir Tim Lawrence as they quietly handle massive responsibilities supporting the public. Also, the very busy Catherine, Princess of Wales who simply said when asked about Harolds insulting claims, that she was "baffled." Boom! Right there I sensed the Harkles are toast. Yesterday's news. Tempest in a teapot as in, the ship has left the dock and the sun is sinking in the west...LOL At least one can hope...off to my easel to take care of MY mental health.

Thank you, great post❤️

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plinkcat-gif · 2 years

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one final playlist 😁😁 this one is for @butter--peanut and her fic/au kamui blues 😋

so fair warning, i don’t remember specific events from kb, only like three general plot points, so these could absolutely relate to other things in the story!! and it’s also why i didn’t name any too specific events lmfao

a lot of these are also mostly incoherent because i have a killer headache rn 🧡

Peace Be Still by The Hunts

it’s their relationship <33

Dirty Paws by Of Monsters And Men

so this one is less lyrics and far more the music in between; the uphill battle, the fight for growth, the climb of the mountain. it’s the wind whipping and pushing and the rock crumbling and continuing anyways. which to me, is a major part of kamui blues: obito’s shift in ideals and his redirection of his will to fight, both of them helping each other come to terms with themselves, pushing through the bleak times because they wanted to for each other.

Downhill by Lincoln

ough a sort of wry spin on obito’s hopelessness when kakashi’s trying to help him out of it, and perhaps a commentary on his recovery from it. mostly in the lyrics:

Because i went downhill at such steep incline

That my rearview mirror showed me only the sky,

And i laughed about it all night.

it also kind of touches on how kakashi affects him, i think. like how what he says sort of changes his perception/acceptance of himself, if only a little.

Thistle & Weeds by Mumford & Sons

obito’s nightmares of the people he’s killed, and his feelings about that. the hopelessness of it, until

But plant your hope with good seeds

Don’t cover yourself with thistle and weeds

which could be kakashi’s attempt at helping.

this song has a little darker tone to it with no real hopeful resolution imo, but i think it still fits! kind of both their trauma tbh, especially after konan’s death.

Valentina by The Hunts

ah this has post-war celebration vibes for the two of them :33 finally getting to live their happy lives together hehe

also

You taught me dear, to be courageous

YEAH!! agsjehaudhwhdja i love them

Bridges Burning by Wild Child

honestly i think this fits for both their longing for each other but the belief that they can’t possibly deserve the other; they’re too broken. but the song doesn’t sound hopeless to me, rather forgiving actually!! which they’ve gotta do to themselves before they can be with the other, and it’s what they teach the other too i think <333

Boreas by The Oh Hellos

obito’s growth, and kakashi’s role in that!! kakashi helping him realize he isn’t worthless; he has worth to kakashi, and that matters.

also outside of obkk, it’s juubi yamato sjakdhjsjd

m’Lover by Kishi Bashi

aghwhegshadhhs it’s them <3333 fuck this song fits them so well for this au :’))))))) both music and lyrics ahdajeijqd

King and Lionheart by Of Monsters And Men

And as the world comes to an end

I'll be here to hold your hand

Cause you're my king and I'm your lionheart

same vibes as Dirty Paws, but with these added lyrics…..yeah 😭😭😭

Human by The Hunts

AWWWGH ITS THEIR RELATIONSHIP 🥺🥺🥺🥺

Trying by Cavetown

SHIT THIS ONE TOO FOR THE EXACT SAME REASONS AWGWHSHAHDG it’s the acceptance 😭😭😭😭😭

Remembrance by Balmorhea

umm ok i highly recommend the amv by kenney creates on youtube because that’s where i found this song and i cry every time i see it <3333 but i think this song also captures the same sort of feelings in kamui blues. just. everything about it i think. i can’t be coherent about this song i’m sorry i just <3333?/&;$&/):1773$;!:!(

Delilah by Florence + The Machine

the war!! juubi tenzo!! the fighting and coming to life and everything!!! this song is so full of determination and hope and accomplishment!!!!!

Dear Wormwood by The Oh Hellos

I have always known you

You have always been there in my mind

But now I understand you

And I will not be part of your designs

I know who I am now

And all that you've made of me

I know who you are now

And I name you my enemy

this has always read as obito breaking free from madara’s control in any au, and it stands true here <3

Blame by Air Traffic Controller

THIS SONG. the beginning explanation and sadness into the bursting hope and joy and accomplishment….soooo obito it’s such an obito in kb song (as well as kakashi’s role in his growth)!! the lyrics all fit perfectly too of course <3

Passenger by Lisa Hannigan

also a end-of-the-journey song. they can rest easy. finally.

Frost by Coast Modern

ALSO A CONCLUSION SONG!!! idk why this song has just always read as a “take a rest. lay down. it’s over.” song <3333 maybe they have to keep going, until kakashi’s no longer hokage, but once there, it’s retirement <3333

Time Adventure by Rebecca Sugar

tbh i don’t remember why i put this in here! but i think it’s still fitting, especially when rinne rebirth

Little Lion Man by Mumford & Sons

absolutely this is reanimated rin finally meeting kakashi in the woods r u kidding. nuff said.

Finch In The Pantry by The Arcadian Wild

this is rin and obito and kakashi reuniting towards the end 😭😭 and then the following peace and progression and stuff ofc

#kamui blues #playlist madness #hhgghg the advil did not help this headache but i wanted to do this anyway

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fumifooms · 2 months

Note

do you have any character analysis posts you're working on? i'm currently mulling Daya/Dia over in my head right now. In general, I'm thinking a lot about Kabru's team because they don't show up much in the manga and won't be in the show much longer as noticeable players, but have quite a bit of outside-the-manga content to comb through. Personally, I like the idea of Rin and Dia becoming friends with Marcille post-canon, but I want to know them better first. I know Rin pretty well already. 1/2

(for example, Rin/Dia/Marcille seem to like clothes, and i want to draw them clothes shopping.) And I ask this not to put all the work on you! I want to discuss these characters with somebody, and you're one of the only ones I can think of who enjoys doing in-depth dives into the side characters of Dungeon Meshi. You, summerboletes, shisurus, and ambrosiagourmet are some other blogs i can think of that made great meta posts. You can reply to this privately if you want! 2/2 (think about it. daya has a boyfriend and marries him post-canon. marcille loves romance and loves clothes. it'd be adorable if she helped daya find a wedding dress. like kabru introduces them and dia (god i'm so used to writing 'daya') mentions her wedding and marcille immediately pounces on her with eyes sparkling in excitement. i plan to write this fic one day)

This idea is so cute! I’ll also check out those other blogs you mentioned when I have the time to hehe~ I do latch onto minor characters easily but it doesn’t mean I have much to say about everyone. Dia (agreed btw, the situation with Daya vs Dia is confusing)… I do like her, but I feel like her Adventurer’s Bible profile sums it all up quite nicely and straightforwardly honestly. You’re right though her reaction to the treasure bugs was so cute and honestly surprising considering her appearance and demeanor, she does like pretty things and jewelry I could def see her going shopping. More content of her would definitely be fun, I’d read your fic!! I do love imagining how everyone’s relationships are like in Kabru’s party, the intricacies of it… I haven’t mulled it over enough though. I’ve been thinking of Mickbell more because of recent posts though, also Rin… If you’d like, the dunmeshi discord I’m in would be a good place to brainstorm about it I think! Hmu for an invite if you want

Summing up the posts I’m working on was long so here’s a cut out of mercy

I have 78 drafts on tumblr currently oh boy… The thing about my process is that I ramble easily but then I need to compile panels to illustrate the points and that’s real tedious… Character analysis wise - I’m most hyped about a Falin one on the topic of if she’s a people pleaser, how much does she care, what’s her way of thinking etc etc, also her differences with Laios because I hate seeing people seriously say they’re the same person. - Also a Cithis one that I just need to streamline at this point. I want to analyze her demeanor, poke at her psychology and analyze her relationships, she’s fascinating. - Oh I’m so stupid I almost forgot to mention the one I’ve been working on currently about Thistle, the age shenanigans but in an in-world way where yes it’s wonky and it means something. He hauntssss me I have so many thoughts on Thistle & Falin lately. Like, offtopic for the analysis but… Falin loves nature and Thistle is named after a flower… Imagine her post-canon coming across wild thistles and feeling a rush of fondness and she doesn’t know why… Thistles have thorns but they taste sweet… Peel of his thorns and eat him pls.

I have more Chilchuck & family thoughts coming, and more Toshiro & family, but these will have more of a casual brainstorm & speculating tone to them, I also just need to streamline these… Like I am obsessed about Toshiyuki and Chilchuck’s alcoholism I’m sorry

Beyond those the topics of the character analysis become more specific, like - How much social awareness does Laios have? Not none, not a lot, but the specifics can be blurry in ways I think are interesting, he was sensitive to people’s judgements in his hometown after all, and he does worry about others’ perception of him… He does know that buzzcut guy was taking advantage of him, etc etc. - There’s an extensive one I want to make on how the winged lion reflects abusive relationships, like how he targets all his ‘meals’'s specific weaknesses and draws out the worst in each of them. A lot of Dunmeshi is about unity and overcoming prejudices & differences & flaws and forming deep and long-lasting bonds despite it all, and amongst all of it it’s like… How flawed relationships with flawed people can still be made into somehing good and healthy that make the world brighter… Except the winged lion there to represent abusive relationships which you need to fucking DITCH, lol. - And on the topic of Dunmeshi & relationships I want to talk about it and queerness, especially in the queerplatonic sense of blurring lines, and Izutsumi + Laios’ relationship to touch should feature in those.

And my crown jewel but I’m soooo hyped about the Marcille & Chilchuck’s arcs one I’m working on it’s gonna go over so much stuff I’m obsessed about, like the importance of books in Marcille’s life, what the succubi reveal about the characters in what ways, the theme that’s so prevalent in Dunmeshi of idealization, Marcille’s imagery as a dungeon lord, a shepherd a general a princess a monster a damsel a woman in mourning…

But that’s enough for heavy ones, side characters wise: doing quick posts like for the gold-stripper characters has been great, but those usually come to me on the same day that I post them. I might make some analysis posts on say Mickbell or Holm or Otta, but I don’t have the thread I want to follow yet. Flamela’s been on my brain so much too…

Mostly though there’s just a lot that I wouldn’t write analysis for, but that I’d love to explore in fanfics! For example, the hienbeni I want to write the most rn is about the surges of anger that Benichidori gets, impulsive and stressed out. I haven’t made a post on my Izutsumi & Benichidori brotp and all the interesting parallels I think I have, but I’ve written a fic on it! Same about Chilchuck’s daughters and their relationship with his alcoholism, etc. I explored the guilt and confliction he may feel about his wife in my fic Enough as well, etc etc. You can see my fics here! For Kabru’s party lately mickrin has been having a chokehold on my brain, I’d love love love to explore Rin’s and Mickbell’s characters and issues through fics for them. As I think you might have figured, I love to explore characters through the lenses of relationships they have with others (Cithis & Mithrun and Pattadol, Thistle and Falin, etc), and that’s why for example I love to make posts that pitch ship ideas, I think specific dynamics can really have a lot to say about either characters. Oh another one’s toshimari, I want to make a fic about them and their feelings of being foreigners and not being able to integrate well to The Island, through the plot of them going to a restaurant as coworkers and the food they eat there~

These are only the ones I have at the top of my head though………. Someone help me Hopefully this post wasn’t boring lol, but yeah those are my wips rn. Need to make posts on toshimari, kabushuro, cithaios, cittadela and ships like that I think have interesting potential too. Many of these I’ve mentioned here I’ve had in my drafts for like 6 months btw gdvd 😭

#Fumi updates #Rinsha fana #marcille donato #diamond of sadena #Ask #wips #I like to have a ‘narrative’ of sorts when doing analysis posts so things feel like they have an aim #which is why finding an angle or focusing on specific scenes or a dynamic is important #Like i might make a dia x holm post that details what i think their personality traits and life experiences are and how i think that could #explore their characters in interesting or fun ways but a dia or holm analysis on their own eh idk. I do think Holm’s more cryptic though #What do his spirits mean to him? How does his religion affect him? He freezes up when there’s too much going on… I love you #I’m just rambling now though save me

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carolinemillerbooks · 1 year

Text

New Post has been published on Books by Caroline Miller

New Post has been published on https://www.booksbycarolinemiller.com/musings/no-substitute-for-a-hug/

No Substitute For A Hug

The email came as a disappointment. My friend had come down with Covid. That meant a reading of his short stories, both a public and Zoom event, was canceled. For two decades, I’d encouraged his writing, so I was looking forward to the occasion. Twelve years my junior, I knew my friend’s health would rebound and that the event would be rescheduled. I also consoled myself with the knowledge that he had many years ahead to add to his body of work. Since his recent retirement, he had already won a $1000t prize for one of his pieces. If the event didn’t go forward, I could anticipate meeting him for a private session as we’d done in the past. The last time was at a coffee shop where he’d spun out an amusing story about a young protagonist who got his comeuppance at the hands of his wiley parents. Zoom is no substitute for an up-close moment like that one–the kind where I could watch my friend’s lips form a bow as he anticipated his punchline. In that pre-Covid world, I had patted his arm to indicate I understood the joke and the touch provoked a fresh round of laughter. Zoom doesn’t allow for serendipity, either—a chance to meet interesting strangers while taking in the sights. Years ago, I was strolling through a mall on a Saturday when my eyes fell upon a man notable for his thistle of grey hair. He was sitting alone at a table near the edge of the thoroughfare and must have been there for a while because the cream in his coffee floated like a greasy Lilly pad on the surface. He didn’t notice when I paused, curious about the frown line dividing his forehead. “Stuck?” I kibbitzed. His chin raised a notch to acknowledge me. “No. Thinking,” he laughed. We chatted long enough for me to learn he was a person of many talents. A prize-winning Science Fiction writer, he’d studied astrophysics in college before earning both a law degree and a Ph. D. in economics. At the time, he was working as a journalist. ”A keeper,” I thought. That’s why we exchanged email addresses before I allowed him to return to his thinking. Since then, he’s made several guest appearances on my YouTube book show, Just Read It. Having touted the benefits of socializing, it may surprise some that I am a hermit by inclination. The Covid lockdown flew past me with none of the withdrawal pangs that affected those rich with family. Instead, I enjoyed having more time to write. Avvy Mar, the host of the radio talk show Between the Covers picked up on my solitary habits during our interview for my upcoming memoir, Getting Lost to Find Home. Well, why wouldn’t she see through me? She has a Ph.D. in psychology. One of her questions left me aghast as if a gust had stripped away my fig leaves. She wanted to know if a loner was ever lonely. I assured her that like everyone else, I needed human contact. As proof, I went on to say that during the lockdown, I’d reached out to others with Zoom. For example, I’d contacted two prominent writers who’d agreed to be guests on Just Read It: Karl Marlantes, author of the two best sellers, Matterhorn and Deep River, and Brandon Slocum. The latter’s debut novel, The Violin Conspiracy, was making waves in all the right places. I also noted that my blog reached not only readers at home but many who lived in countries as far away as Singapore. I knew what Mar meant, of course. The encounters I’d described were shallow. I wasn’t bearing my soul to a trusted friend. Yet the fault isn’t entirely mine. As I approach 87, many of my contacts have died. Even a loner recoils at so many wounds, the kind that never heals. My friends on social media tend to be young. Many, as I’ve said, reside in faraway places like Kenya and India. Youth has muscular ambition. Inexperienced in life’s vagaries, they throw themselves into the oncoming tide, determined to achieve their dreams. Inexperience blinds them. Hard work may not be enough. Success is truest when it travels with luck, and luck answers to no dream. The long view of success is more sustainable. Take joy in the doing. A friend of mine has run out of luck. Alzheimer’s is eating away at her memory. Yet even in darkness, there are pinpricks of light. How else could there be stars? At the time of her diagnosis, my friend’s caregiver said her patient dreaded visitors. She was embarrassed by her disease as if, somehow, she’d been careless. But as the months have fallen away, she no longer mourns her condition. She fails to realize she has one. I’m making plans to pay her a visit. She won’t know me when I enter the room. Gone will be the memories of birthday celebrations or strolls through art galleries together. No longer will we talk about her latest design in molded glass. Safe to say, if I reminded her of one cherished gift that sits upon my coffee table—a blue-black bowl inscribed with Chinese symbols for the word friendship— she’d frown or ask If it was time for dinner. “Hello, my dear,” I’ll say when I bend to her, anchoring my arms around her thin shoulders as if to prevent a breeze from carrying her off. My embrace will be a long one, I promise you, knowing it will have to last a lifetime…knowing as a hermit does that a hug can pierce the delirium of approaching death. ——– June will reveal the cover for Getting Lost to Find Home. Here’s a teaser.

#Just Read It #Alzheimer's disease #Avvy Mar #Between the Covers #Brandon Slocum #Covid lockdown #Deep River #Getting Lost to Find Home #importance of touch #Karl Marlantes #serendipty #Singapore #Th Violin Conspiracy #Zoom

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abybweisse · 2 years

Note

Hello! I would love to hear your take on a theory I’ve heard, maybe you’ve already done something about it but —

The theory that the phantomhives are actually of Irish/Scottish/Celtic decent and that’s part of the reason Victoria (supposedly) wiped them out. Also kind of explains the “Windsor incident” and the “sour faces” of relatives at the mention of the twins names (I realize Ciel is French—I believe? But still!)

I just wanna sing ancient Celtic tunes to OCiel 😭 hits home for me because my lineage is extremely Irish and German, and I know how horribly they treated anyone Irish or Scottish at that time, even in America. So sad to think this might be the case, albeit with a supernatural twist

Celtic roots?

There has been discussion of that possibility within the fandom, and I've had a few posts and reblogs that talk about it.

For one thing, some in the fandom think our earl (who only pretends to be Ciel) might have named Finny after himself. A specific book has been shown on two separate occasions in the manga: Fenian Cycle: Celtic Mythology.

In ch100, it's shown several times, as our earl explains to Finny why he's chosen that name for him.

And it's shown again on the cover of ch132.

Now, our earl selects the name for Finny because of his blond hair and his strength. And years later, when our earl joins the circus, he calls himself Finnian. Some people think this is a clue that it's his real given name, and perhaps he has never liked it because it doesn't fit: he doesn't have blond hair, and he's not all that physically fast, strong, or healthy. Canonically, Rachel is the one to name the boys, and I personally cannot see her choosing a name like that for our earl. He didn't show signs of asthma until he was 5 or so, but he obviously doesn't have blond hair, and I expect Rachel to choose a more fitting name for him. Preferably one that works well with "Ciel" (like Claus and Lucas, mirror twin brothers in Mother3, having anagram names). That's one of the reasons why I like the name Elic. (I also like that it means "protection", much like Alex.) However, the idea that our earl is really Finnian (or some spelling variant) persists within the fandom.

I think it's more likely that our earl just fondly remembers Vincent reading the book to him, but it's interesting that the book is shown again on a cover page, with Vincent reading to the boys, and the tag line is "Gazing at the promised future". The chapter includes Vincent showing the boys around the estate and their earldom, but that cover also happens to show the boys "gazing" at the book. This could be a hint that the family is indeed of Celtic origins, or at least partly, despite the fact the image looks more like "gazing at the fabled past".

Then Yana-san revealed the cover art for Artworks 3, and wow. That's a lot of tartans and thistles. She mixes so many different tartan patterns that we cannot really say the family must be from one particular clan or another. But it's really interesting for her to choose all these tartans and pair them with a bunch of thistle, Scotland's national flower. There are even thistles on his boots.

Here and here are a couple old posts about it, including the symbolic meaning of thistles (includes some Japanese flower language meanings, too). Notice thistles are often associated with "protection". (Makes me like the name Elic even more.)

If the twins have some Celtic roots, it might not actually be on the Phantomhive side so much as Rachel's side. Her sister and father have that red hair, after all, and so-called "Gingers" have suffered discrimination for a very long time, particularly in England. Vincent might have wanted to teach his boys to appreciate and take pride in their partly Celtic heritage.

If Rachel has a strong Celtic background, then Vincent's choice to marry her might have ruffled some feathers. Perhaps family and people in the peerage didn't think it was a good idea; maybe this made Queen Victoria angry. Keeping all this in mind (and making a point of it), the decidedly strong-willed Rachel might have selected names that reflect each side of the family. Something French for the firstborn... and something Celtic for the unexpected twin? (Idk exactly where Elic comes from, but it looks/sounds Celtic, doesn't it? Oh, hey. Look. CELTIC. 😆)

Every time I look up "Elic name meaning" online, I get different results for both the meaning and origin, but when I looked a moment ago, this was from one of the top websites (Names.com):

Another website says it's Greek in origin and means "defender of mankind", a variation of Alec. Older website entries used to give a similar meaning (protection/protector of man) but claim it's Hungarian or something. So, nothing conclusive, of course, but gosh I hope our earl ends up being Elic. I really do. It's one of the major Mother3 predictions, so of course I'm fond of it. 😅

Speaking of lineage, mine is English, German, Irish, Scottish, French, and Dutch. My first name, Arran, is after the Isle of Arran (Scottish). My last name, Walker, is supposedly from the MacGregor clan, while my Allison ancestors (married into the Walkers about six generations ago) came from the MacAlister clan, straight from Somerled himself! Then again, being a descendent of Somerled is somewhat common. Roughly 500,000 people today are. Only Genghis Khan is documented as having more -- about 16 million. Big oof 😅.

BONUS:

Another person to mix with the Phantomhives could prove to be of Celtic decent.

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scotianostra · 2 years

Video

youtube

Happy Birthday the very funny and multi talented Karen Dunbar was born on April 1st 1971 in Glasgow.

Karen was born in Glasgow and moved to Ayr, when still a bairn. She started school at Russel street primary, where she admits to being a bit mischievous.

“At school, I was a nuisance to the teachers,” she said. “I was disruptive but not in a bad or malevolent way. If the teachers said something that made me think of a funny comment, I couldn’t keep my mouth shut.

She first came to the attention of mainstream audiences in the BBC Scotland comedy series Chewin’ the Fat and subsequently was given her own show by the network - The Karen Dunbar Show.

Before achieving her success, Karen, was well known on the Scottish gay scene at one time being the regular host of Sunday night karaoke deejay at CC Blooms in Edinburgh.

As well as her comedy work she has also been known for her straight work, most notably to date her performance in the poetic monologue A Drunk Woman Looks at the Thistle adapted by Denise Mina from Hugh MacDiarmid’s poem, A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle.

One of her best-known characters from Chewin’ The Fat was Auld Betty, a lewd pensioner who recounts tales from her younger days punctuated with a string of sex-themed wartime anecdotes.

As with my last post she was also involved with Glasgow’s Commonwealth Games opening ceremony as a compere, as well as taking to the stage in London in Henry IV at the Donmar.

I love this clip of Karen, when asked what he wants, the cheeky chap jokingly replies: "A swatch of yer fanny." For those in the USA the fanny is not their bottom!

Speaking about the sketch and how some censorship nowadays is merited, of this sketch she says;

"I remember reading this sketch thinking what? What is it I've to do?

"When we were filming it, I said to the director, you need to shout 'cut' really, really loudly as soon as.

"Where has it to go to, in like actual measurements [the skirt]. The paranoia I had, partly for my own dignity, but mainly for the boys."

However, even in the early 2000s, one line of the script was deemed too controversial for the thicker-skinned audience of two decades ago., in the first version of the sketch Karen was to ask 'Do you want a flake in that'?

It comes after Chewin' The Fat sketches which mocked Japanese and blind people have been banned by the BBC.

Karen recently appeared in her own documentary #CancelKarenDunbar, where she considers how a comedian navigates taste and offence in the current cancel culture climate. The show is on BBC iPlayer

Karen will be hosting her Big Night Out at Òran Mór in Glasgow in Jube, when she goes back to her DJ roots with 4 decades of chart hits and floor fillers (and a few surprises too). Tickets are on sale for £13.50 at the link below https://oran-mor.co.uk/whats-on/event/karen-dunbar/

#Scotland #scottish #dj #funny women #actress #comedian #happy birhtday

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crystalessenceswrites · 3 years

Text

Shadows- Chapter Five

Shadows

A modern monster AU Pairings: Din Djarin x fem!reader Rating: T (at the moment- subject to change) Warnings: Swearing Summary: Crypto- concealed; secret. You have always lived your life in the shadows; after all, you’re one of the creatures who go bump in the night. He has sworn his life to a creed that aims to protect the world from monsters like you.

[Masterlist] [Chapter Four] [Chapter Five] [Chapter Six] Cross-posted to AO3

Din’s head is spinning and he’s certain it’s not from the blow Qin landed earlier. Half-bloods? Cryptos? Slayers who hunt them? How had his people not stumbled upon this before now? Generations of Mandalorian warriors had fought and given their lives to protect humans from the monsters lurking in dark corners, yet there was a whole system they had missed. A whole kind of people they had not known were possible.

That would explain why he had such trouble determining what (Y/N) was. If she was a half-blood it would make sense she appeared more human than the typical monster masquerading as such. That did not make her human though. She was still one of them. Din could not let himself forget that.

Silently he watches her finish up with the burning body. It seems routine to her. She’s also well prepared, the thistles and the gas, not to mention armed to the teeth. Following their previous encounters, the last thing Din was expecting her to be carrying was a firearm. Yet she’d managed to stun a vampire with one shot. She knew what she was doing. If there were more slayers half as skilled as her how had they gone under the radar all this time?

And why hadn’t she tried to kill him?

It kept playing over and over again in his mind. That night at the dive bar her companion was more than hostile. She had sounded more than willing to get rid of him. But (Y/N) defused it. Both opportunities she’d had to kill him, she’d ignored. Instead, she had explained herself, given him insight into what she was. She wanted him to understand her. More than once she had compared what they both did- claimed they were both protecting humans. Could he believe that? Could he believe her? Believe someone who wasn’t human?

She looks up at him, eyes soft despite the fact she has a vampire’s body burning to ash at her feet. Deadly and yet she looks so normal in that moment. “Do you…uh, need any of him to take back?”

The confusion must be plain as day on his face as the corner of her lips quirk up.

“We have to bring something back as proof of death,” she explains, “I take it you guys don’t need that?”

“No.”

That explains all her supplies then. It also goes to show how organized this group is, tracking their kills, bounties, and all under the radar of his people. Din tries to ignore how impressed he is by it all.

The innate weakness vampires hold to fire means their bodies breakdown to ash considerably quicker and at lower temperature than a human body. It’s not long till Qin is just a pile of dust on the warehouse floor. He watches in mild curiosity as the slayer collects some of the ashes into a spare jar before scattering the rest with her boot. The bloodsucker would not be bothering anyone again.

(Y/N) shifts from foot to foot, watching him closely. “So…all good?”

They shouldn’t be. He should not be letting her leave a third time- it went against every bit of training they’d drilled into him- but she stepped in to help him. He couldn’t kill her after she’d done that. Or after all she had told him. That would make him just as much a monster.

Her shoulders relax as he nods. For a moment it looks like there’s another question hanging on the tip of her tongue, but she decides against it. She shoots him a small smile as she walks away, disappearing back into the darkness of the warehouse.

Din wonders what the fuck he’s doing as he lets her go.

Even after a quick stop at the covert infirmary on his way back Din still finds himself plagued by the events of the day. He kicks himself for letting her walk away, but the thought of killing her is almost revolting. Was it because he knew that some part, no matter how small, of her was human? Because she had helped him? Or because it was her?

Excited squeals pull him from his spiraling thoughts the moment he opens the front door. In seconds the wide-eyed ball of four-year-old energy has barreled up to him, chubby hands clinging to his pant leg for dear life.

“Hey, kid. Good to see you too.”

Din gets a toothy smile in return before he runs back off again to return to what looks like coloring at the dining table with Kuiil.

“He has grown very attached to you, these last few months.”

Din cannot disagree with Kuiil, the kid was quick to latch onto him when he returned home from his hunts and often would not go to bed at night unless he was there to say goodnight.

“Will you take him as your foundling?” The old man has been asking him that since the day he brought the young child back to the covert.

“We’re still looking for his family. There must be people out there who miss him.”

Kuiil continues to watch the child, a soft hum falling from underneath his thick beard. Din can see the wheels turning in the old man’s mind. He always had an air of wisdom about him, an air that led one to believe that deep down Kuiil did hold all the answers, if only he could uncover them. Even Armorer came to the man for advice. While he was not a Mandalorian, he was a friend of the covert and had been with them for several years now. He often helped look after the kid when Din was out hunting, and he wasn’t in class in the other foundlings.

“Maybe so, but he is here now, in your care. You have a choice to make, now or in the future. But you still must make one.”

Din agrees with a sigh, collapsing into the seat next to the kid, watching his grubby hands drag crayons across his coloring book.

“How was the hunt?”

“It was a success.”

“But?” Not only wise, but he was a perceptive old man.

“The slayer appeared again.”

“And I take it she left this encounter alive again?”

Din nods, his face solemn as Kuiil continues to help the child with his coloring.

“Did you learn anything new?”

He had almost learned more than he wanted to. “She claims to be a half-blood.”

“Half-human? Is that why you could not harm her?”

“I…I don’t know.”

“She has shaken you- you don’t know what to do with this new information.” The old man speaks as if it is an already known fact. Din would be remiss to say he was wrong. Knowing this now, he sees her both as a monster and a human, both someone he is sworn to destroy and sworn to protect by his creed.

“You don’t seem surprised.”

“That she is half-human or that you are conflicted?”

Din scoffs, “both.”

“They have existed here as long as we have, among us in the most cases. It should not be a surprise that we have crossed paths before,” Kuiil shrugs, “the situation of her birth probably gives her advantages in her work.”

If she could blend in with both sides it would allow her to keep a lower profile. He could not even determine what species she was, that was proof enough she did not struggle to blend in with humans. She wore her mask well.

“As for your creed… that is another decision you’ll have to make for yourself.”

Kuiil’s wise words rattle around in his skull as he watches the kid totter around in the garden, arms outstretched as he chases another frog around. If their running track record meant anything he would run into her again, and he would have to make a choice. He just wished the right answer would make itself known before then.

“Ba!”

Din cannot help but smile at the proud kid as he runs up, the frog in his hold out on display. He was a quick little bugger, that was for sure. “Well look at that, little hunter in training.”

“Ya!” The little one waves his hands around happily, grin spread across his chubby cheeks.

It amazes him how quickly the kid had bounced back after everything he had been through. There were days it did not even cross Din’s mind that he’d rescued the child from the monsters who kidnapped him. He was happy, got along with all the other children in the covert and did well in his classes, even with his limited verbal skills. Well adjusted, is what the doctor had said.

“Ba!” The kid reaches up, grabby hands flailing.

“Alright, alright,” Din hoists the boy up, “should we get something to eat? Besides frogs?”

“Patu!”

“And here I thought you hated vampire jobs.”

Kannan looks almost smug as he watches you finish up exchanging paperwork for the reward on your most recent kill. Rolling your eyes, you stuff the check into your bag, “wasn’t like I had much of a choice with the lists today.”

“True.”

“So, did you need something, or did you just stick around to tease me?”

Kannan scoffs, “well I was gonna ask if you wanted to catch up over food but if that’s the attitude you’re going to take…”

“Where’s your apprentice today?” The teen was attached to Kannan’s hip these days, eager to get out in the field.

“He’s got his studies today, why?”

“Then food sounds like a great idea.” It had been sometime since you’d had a real chance to catch up with your old friend. He took his roles as Ezra’s mentor seriously, so he was rather booked up these days.

Kannan shoots you a satisfied grin, “the diner on 4th?”

Your stomach nearly growls at the thought. “Please.”

“I have to agree with Kira. You are a magnet for Mandalorians- or at least this one.”

You sigh, scrubbing a hand down your face. “I don’t know what I did to deserve this.”

Kannan chuckles, “since when has the universe needed a reason to screw us over?”

“You’ve got a point… I just can’t get over the odds. Three times in completely unrelated spots.” It was a large city and of all the people in the world you had to keep running into.

“There hasn’t been anyone else in the office who’s run into him. Are you sure he’s not tracking you?”

“This time I stumbled onto him, there’s no way he could have orchestrated that when I picked up the job this morning.” He obviously had not been planning on your arrival. You’d spooked him good.

Kannan shakes his head, “well you are simultaneously the unluckiest and luckiest person I know. You’ve gotten away three times now.”

You preferred to think it was due more to your skills and sharp tongue than luck, but the luck certainly was not hurting.

“It still worries me he knows your face. Even if he hasn’t been tracking you up till now it doesn’t mean he won’t try in the future.”

He had a point, but nothing about your interactions with Mando up till now would you lead you to believe he would. “I’m keeping my eye out for anything suspicious. If he does try, I’ll know. Hopefully, the fact that I know what he looks like deters him from trying.”

“We can hope.”

“I also think I figured out why we haven’t been able to find his local source in the community.”

Kannan’s eyebrows shoot up, “and how did you figure that out?”

“He asked me why I hadn’t killed him yet. Mentioned something about how my job was to deal with nuisances, so therefore I must have to kill him to get him out of the way,” you explain, “there’s no way he’s working with a crypto if that’s what he thinks slayers do. After the Fett debacle everyone around here knows we can’t do a damn thing about the Mandalorians.”

“That does sound like he’s either got old, secondhand information or his informant is messing with him. But I can’t imagine if he managed to get a full blood to help him, they’d yank him around like that,” Kannan strokes his goatee, face drawn together, “yet he’s been spot on with all his kills. He tracked down someone you pulled the bounty for before you’d even gotten there.”

“Could he be working with another hunter or have another Mandalorian partner? Someone who manages surveillance while he does the hunting?”

“It would seem the only other likely answer. Have you told Boss all this yet?”

You shake your head, “no, I don’t want to get ahead of myself… and I’m not sure what kind of reaction I’ll get once he knows I’ve crossed paths with the Mando again…”

“You haven’t told him?” Kannan goes wide-eyed, “Miss. By-The-Book not reporting a run in with a hunter?”

“Sue me for being worried about the perception of it all!”

“Chill, I’m not going to rat you out, (Y/N). I just want you to make sure you’re going to be okay. That you’re thinking this through.”

“I am thinking it through, Kannan. And if something important comes from it I’ll report it to Boss, but for now I’d rather keep this to myself.”

Kannan nods, “I trust your judgement. My lips are sealed.”

“Okay, enough about me and my drama! Tell me how things have been going for you and Hera lately!”

#fic: Shadows #the mandalorian x reader #the mandalorian x f!reader #din djarin x reader #din djarin x f!reader #din djarin imagine #the mandalorian imagine #din djarin #x reader #the mandalorian #the mandalorian fanfiction #the mandalorian au #modern au #enemies to lovers #monsters and monster hunters #fanfiction #chapter five #crystalessences writes

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