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out-of-this-dimension · 3 years

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Hypothetically Rewriting Assault’s Story + Some General Assault Opinions

There’s a game my husband and I like to play when we watch a movie, play a game, or read a book that has a story that we don’t really enjoy or we enjoy certain parts of but not others. We look at things we’d keep and things we’d change and we build a story from there-- sort of like an AU but we don’t really go into the writing part, we just stick to theorizing and mapping a general story.

I decided to play that game with Star Fox. Not because I think Star Fox has a bad story but because sometimes I think the stories could have been handled better. Note: for the rewrite game, I only really look at story, even for video games, I don’t really look at gameplay mechanics, but I do understand those have a lot to do with story potential so I do take it in as a factor... I just don’t bother to “rewrite” the mechanics, if that makes any sense at all. Some of my list today will include boss encounters but I wouldn’t necessarily say those are mechanic-related... more like “event-related”.

I’ve mused a bit in the past about rewriting Adventures and Command and I do have plans to do a mock up of an Adventures remake eventually. However, today I was thinking about how I would go about handling an Assault re-write in particular. Much like Command and Adventures, I don’t have any beef with the core story but I do think there’s a few things that could’ve been better about Assault’s storyline-- like they had good ideas rolling but they didn’t quite refine them.

Under the cut because SUPER long.

My basic feelings on Assault are pretty positive. I think the game is generally just fun and I like that it feels like the natural progression from SF64. I liked getting to see planets we haven’t seen since the N64 era in better graphics and I liked seeing Star Wolf return. I also just thought the aparoids were neat enemies.

Generally speaking, though, when it comes to Assault, I think it suffers from the thing it tries to push the most-- the story. I think a lot of people get caught up in thinking the story is better than it is because it’s the first game since SF64 that really follows the same Star Fox vibe without retelling the Lylat Wars. Don’t get me wrong, the overall plot is great but the execution and pacing are... wonky. Certain characterizations also take a hit in some regards but no one really talks about that when Command exists. That’s something we’ll talk about later on with this post.

That being said, Assault really does have a lot good going for it. An absolute banger of a soundtrack, some great dialogue, a neat story synopsis, the introduction of cool characters like Panther and Beltino (who existed but was always off-screen), and just good levels.

So, here’s what I would add, I suppose, if I were to somehow have the ability to rewrite Assault. Originally I had this in paragraph form, but I’ve made it into more of a list under topic segments with main points bolded for your viewing pleasure. Some of these points might be considered nitpicky and while I do understand that yes, this is a game about space animals, I do hold the developers in high enough regard to make a game with a continuity that makes sense.

The Story Changes

- Reduce Pigma’s storyline in Assault. This is the biggest one for me because a bulk of the plotline feels like a giant chase to just get at Pigma and it feels like it derails from the actual plot with the aparoids. We only go to Sargasso because of Pigma. We only go to Fichina and then back to Meteo again, because of Pigma. That’s 3 levels in a 10 level game devoted to just tracking down Pigma and chasing him. While it makes the build up to fighting Pigma kind of nice, I personally feel like the plot could be reduced to 2 levels. If Assault overall was a longer game, I could see them making it 3 levels. Overall, though, in its current state, I feel like the side plot overstays its welcome and the aparoids promptly get shoved to the side in favor of “Oh no, we gotta get to Pigma!” And I get the main motive here is to show how the aparoids affect people and because of the build up, it does a good job at showing how utterly terrifying the aparoids are. But it’s still too long given the length of Assault’s story. The only alternative to this is make Assault longer, which... honestly, it should be.

- Revise the scene with Tricky. I’m obviously not well-versed in dinosaur biology but I’m pretty sure dinos didn’t grow that fast from what studying I HAVE done. And why is he suddenly king now? Did his parents die? He seems not affected by this at all? Like it’s a funny scene with him, Fox, and Krystal, but it’s odd if you really look at it. Give us, as players, more context because I’m still not even sure what happened to make Tricky suddenly the leader and... big. As a note, you’re gonna hear me gripe a lot about the Sauria level in this post.

- The Star Wolf + Peppy sacrifice is a low effort way to raise tension/stakes and then cop out. Oldest trick in the book, imo, is to act like you’re going to kill off important characters only for them to be alive miraculously. And let’s face it, as an audience we all know they aren’t going to kill those characters because it’s Nintendo and those characters are too beloved. I would’ve forgiven them for only doing this with Peppy or Star Wolf, but when you tack them both together and throw in the fact they make it seem like you’re going to have to kill General Pepper too... yeah, it’s just a bit much of the same trope over and over again. I wanted to put a note in here about how I’m fine with the Great Fox being “sacrificed” but overall, it needed to return to the series because of it’s icon status, but I think that’s more of a gripe at Command instead of Assault.

- Keep Pigma alive. This will conflict with a point I have later on about the game consistently having characters cheat death for easy drama points but with Pigma, I would’ve kept him fully alive... but maybe with some physical damage from the aparoids. I understand he’s semi-alive in Command and tbh I don’t know where I stand on that. Why keep Pigma alive, you might ask? I feel like his character has a lot more potential than being “just the greedy guy”. Like he’s got good potential future villain material for future games and... if I’m honest? I just don’t see Nintendo wanting to keep Pigma dead so why even bother killing him off? They couldn’t even commit to him being dead in Command anyways so it seems very moot.

- Bring Bill and Katt back. Assault is acts a bit like a big reunion of all of our SF64 favorites but our two favorite side characters are suspiciously missing. Wouldn’t Bill be out on the front lines fighting against Andrew in the beginning? Or maybe back in Katina? And wouldn’t Katt inevitably show up in the midst of the invasion, maybe to pointedly check in on Falco?

- Bring Andrew back for the final fight. I think Andrew being defeated early into the game is fine overall but I think bringing him back in for a reunion final fight against the aparoids would serve to really solidify that it’s really everyone vs the invading aparoid force. It would show that not only is Star Wolf willing to put aside their differences but so is basically everyone in the Lylat System in the name of survival. Imagine the Venomians and Cornerians working together against an aparoid fleet, giving Star Fox and Star Wolf time to attack the queen? I just think it’d be neat and it’d open up the potential for some fun banter mid-mission. I do understand that quite a few people consider Andrew canonically dead after Assault but personally, I feel that his defeat left his fate questionable (I’m a staunch believer that unless there’s a body, they’re probably alive, especially for Nintendo games because, again, they never like to kill people off) so him returning in Command never really bothered me.

- In general, reconsider some of the character portrayals. Unfortunately, when a series has a different studio for each game, character portrayals will inevitably have inconsistencies. While I give Namco a lot of credit for putting in oodles and oodles of detail into the game (particularly the levels), I think they failed in their portrayal of Fox, at the least, and Wolf is a considerable offender as well. While it’s obvious that Fox in Adventures was effectively modeled off of Sabre even in terms of personality, Rareware was at least able to justify Fox’s newfound jaded attitude with the passing of many years and a distinct lack of steady income, resulting in the team being in disarray. Assault’s Fox is a stark contrast to his cynical interpretation with seemingly no explanation other than maybe “Oh, I have more money and a gf, maybe I should behave myself”. As if the sudden change in personality wasn’t random, Fox also just seems very blah, like a blank slate stereotypical shooter game protagonist dude with little to no emotion. Wolf is less obvious but gets slated into a mentor-like role midway through the game and ends up in a respectful rivalry with Fox... which there’s nothing inherently wrong with that except for it happening abruptly (and, I mean, Peppy is right there). But I take less issue with this and more of an issue with the fact that there’s an entire level establishing that Wolf now runs a crime den with effectively what seems to be an army and no one bats an eye at this. He doesn’t even call on them to help with the aparoids. Did they all die when the aparoids attacked Meteo? Are they safe somewhere else? Where do they go? How was Sargasso able to operate without the CDF being on their doorstep with warrants for arrests?

- Don’t kill all the dinosaurs. A bit of a dramatic statement but the ending screen that showed all the damage to Sauria really bothered me. While I understand that the dinosaurs had less of a chance against the aparoids than a more technology-focused society like Corneria, I was a bit disappointed that the decision was made to just state that a lot of tribes had been wiped out. I know this could easily be retconned in a future game and I feel like it should be. “But why, Amalia? Why are you disappointed by that?” 1) It’s a little too grimdark for my tastes. 2) The fact it all happened off-screen felt very hand-wavy. And 3) It brings into question the entire point of Adventures. Why did we bother to save this planet if it was going to be reduced to rubble and ash 1 year later? Where were the Krazoa in all of this? Why did they not make an appearance at all to try to stop the invasion with their alleged powers? It just raises too many weird questions and I feel like Namco didn’t think it through too much. Which I mean, sure. Family, kiddo game. I’m not asking for bigbrain plot and lore but I’m squinting at this bit because it does feel very contrary to the lore from the previous game.

- Make the aparoids more relevant. As nice as it is to have a random bad guy from another galaxy, I feel like there was more that could be done with the aparoids in terms of their origins. Tiny things, mind you, not huge revelations. Off the top of my head, they could have been tied into Krystal’s backstory to help alleviate some of the complaints that she was too random to be added to the series’ main cast. Alternatively, they could have been a product of Andross or even a weapon prototype from Corneria that fled the lab (I actually thought the game was leaning in that direction for a bit then just Nothing Happened). I get that the vagueness of their origins leaves room for people to speculate and speculation is nice but... when you leave too many things unknown, it starts to feel less like giving fans room to interpret and more like just doing random things for the sake of it. I think a lore tidbit here or there would work wonders for the aparoids instead of leaving them as just borg/zerg clones.

Level-Based Changes

- Add either Aparoid RedEye or Aparoid General Scales as a boss to Sauria. Given that this level mysteriously lacks a boss, which is just weird compared to the other levels, I think that they had the opportunity to add something cool to go along with the cinematic feel they were going for with Assault. Assault’s cutscenes do play in a movie-like fashion and it’s clear they’re trying to make the game as epic as possible. It’s a shame they had so much fodder for a great boss here but they failed to go through with it. Alternatively: Add a Krazoa-Aparoid fusion. Why? Because Star Fox is about cool epic sci-fi and that would be cool epic sci-fi incarnate.

- Add a boss to the Aparoid Homeworld Level, aka the penultimate level. Another one I felt was personally weird that there was no “final defense system” to challenge the team. Would be cool to do an aerial battle over the aparoid planet with some giant flying aparoid.

- Be kinder to Sauria. The level had some good homages but overall was incredibly small and incredibly short. It felt like a bone tossed to Adventures fans but was not entirely true to the setting built by Rareware. I’m... not even sure where the Sauria level is supposed to take place? I presume it’s Walled City but it doesn’t really have the same color scheme or aesthetic? Also where is my revised Adventures music? Why do all the other levels get it but Sauria doesn’t?

- Put some of those funky items from the multiplayer into the main campaign. I don’t know why some of these things, items especially, were omitted unless it was purely due to time constraints. I remember having missile launchers and jetpacks in the multiplayer and was a bit sad that they were not in the main campaign. Retuning the levels and adding those in would be a nice breath of fresh air for the more tedious on-foot missions.

- More levels. Self-explanatory. Still sad we didn’t get the Zoness or Titania levels in the single-player mode.

I think all of the above changes would improve the game, though I recognize all of this is being said 16 years later after lots of time to contemplate Assault’s weaker points. I’m not entirely certain how long Star Fox Assault took to develop but given that there’s obviously quite a bit scrapped from the game (an entire arcade mode was scrapped as well), I’m going to assume that the studio felt pressured to shove the game out the door and into the hands of customers. It’s a shame, really, because I think a little bit longer in the oven would have done a lot of good. Still, the product we got was good in its own right and a game that many people look back on fondly. I haven’t gotten to replay it in years but I hope to quite soon.

You might wonder why I bothered typing this all out and I guess my point was this-- Assault was great but it wasn’t perfect, and while a lot of other games fall under a crushing amount of scrutiny, Assault seems to dodge it. And don’t get me wrong-- I adore Assault. But given that not many takes exist out there about rewriting it, I decided to give it a shot. For variety’s sake.

I do want to a mock up of a revised Assault story, which I think I will get to work on after completing this while all my ideas are still fresh in mind. So stay tuned for that sometime in the near future. I will also be doing my Adventures mock up at some point but probably not for a little bit as I do wanna focus some of my free time on actual fic-writing.

Anyways, if you stuck around this long, thank you for reading! Have any changes you’d like to see to Assault if you could time machine your way back to the early 2000s? Feel free to post in the comments, I’d love to read your ideas!

#star fox assault #starfox assault #super long #queue'd

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selinakidreams · 3 years

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Ship your moots!!!

👁y’all done it now, I was WAITING for this one OO I’m gonna spoil my moots SO bad ! I love you guys 👁

this is gonna be long I’m so sorry

@keishinslove - carter,,,, I love you and I love you w me mister keishin ukai- NOT just because that’s your ✨mans✨ but because I fuckin see it with my eyes. mister man is out here smoking a cig while he waits for you to get off of work. everyone is out here looking at him like “who dat b he’s sexy” and then you walk out and he drops the smoke on the floor, steps on it, and smiles as you make eye contact. You smile too, finally allowing exhaustion take over as you slump in the welcoming hug he pulls you into. He’s like, “I know baby, let’s go home and I can make us some ramen and tea.” The rest of the night is full of terribly sung songs, heavy MAKEOUT sessions (maybe more) and feathered touches along your skin. He’ll take good care of you (in every means) and that’s all I want for you <3

@alto-march-of-death al I ship you with tsukki- now let me tell you why. I see you with someone who’s very reserved with who they show their emotions to,, now because you deal with youngsters,,,,,,,,, that’s a lot of energy put towards you all at once. Tall blond dino dude will be there for you but in ways that make you feel special and the lack of energy he shows is almost calming to you. like like I just see on a day where zoom has been a bit too much and parents were DUMb- you slink over to your couch- after class is over- to find tsukki there, watching animal planet, and bam you plop down and curl up in his side- no words needed. His eyes don’t leave the screen but a long fingered hand lands on your thigh, his thumb doing that thing that makes butterflies flutter in your rib cage. It’s peaceful. Nice.

@kmorgzz ENERGY. POSITIVITY. COMPASSION. All things you and hinata share <3 OOOOOO KAR YOURE ALWAYS THE SWEETEST AND LET ME TELL YOU !!!! YOU DESERVE THAT SAME SWEETNESS. sorry I’m yelling but hear me out !!! You guys are always doing SOMETHING. he’s restless and you take on the energy he gives off. You guys tend to do stuff that you wanna do because whatever you want, he wants !! Normally, it’s outside (cause he’s the sun and he makes you feel like you’re on cloud nine !!) ; could be walks that lead into picnics or something super sweet!! Always wants to make sure you’re smiling !!!!!! ALWAYS. oh also he’s such a big himbo that he just—— yk what I’m gonna shut my trap just,, oh MAN he just loves you SO much and will never run out of ways to show you

@introloves Jax... FR fr I ship you and bokuto SO hard. like this man is and deserves sunshine— that is exactly what you are. TWO SUNSHINE BEINGS. I just SEE it. wholly. he’s just so open to everything and anything !!! Sometimes a bit.. daft... but you definitely talk him through things and he heavily appreciates that & everything you do for him. you know what,, y’all would soak in lavender baths together. Your back against his front, your eyes closed and body relaxed in the warm water; the sent of lavender following the steam that rises from the bath. He likes to play with your soft hair and whisper about how much he loves you and how you are one of the best people in his life. How did he ever get so lucky?

@novvabeam jackieeee,,, miss ma’am.. I ship you with daichi. lemme explain. This man is like a horse- not many can ride him but for those who do, it’s a lifelong partnership. Dude is so !! Into you it’s CRAZY. He is obsessed with how soft and kind you are one minute, and the next his head is spinning by how powerful and strong you can be. Mad respect™️. First date (idea suggested by you) was at this really cute local ice cream shop where you two bonded over how absolutely different your flavors were. I see it.

@pinkoushi ellen + Suga; clear as day. soft cuddles and every day fikas. very chaotic neutral energy but constant attention and praise is given. (Me trying not to make something based off my memories in Sweden but is gonna do it anyways) like I could see him being so excited to move to Sweden for the education system lowkey- but before he started the school year, you just wanted to take him around the country and visit all the “popular places” before settling down. Lots and lots of train rides. you would be sitting across from each other- you’re semi asleep, head pressed against the window and he’s just watching as the fleeting golden light hits you, making you all glowy. he feels so warm, so content.

@chaotickatts katts ;) I hear sakusa is calling your name. loud and clear. man puts up with NO bullshit and neither do you. Your communication skills are off the charts; calm cool, collected- that’s you two. But I also think that you add a lot more fun in his life- like he loves every second with you- he shows that he appreciates it in your guys’ shared love language, more often than not. And he adds this grounding element to your relationship that makes you feel capable of anything- and you make sure to tell him every day. I hc that people call you the parents of the group. Your guys’ bathroom is very clean, well organized, and used quite often. he loves seeing you in his jersey when you’re brushing your teeth, on your way to heading to bed, makes him feel all fuzzy,, a feeling that was quite foreign to him until you came along.

@spikesbimbo valentine... is that even a question- Aran. duh. Pretty lady, both of you are CRAZY for each other except he shows you in little ways (in public) that make your heart spin. You know those pictures of Vanessa hudgens and Austin butler?? the one where she’s twirling around and he’s just smiling? that’s the vibe I get in the relationship; you’re fun, loud, and outwardly fun while he’s just happy to be in your presence!! you make him laugh... a lot. It’s really refreshing to most of his friends. You and you’re cute goofy ass are just so important to him. I see it now- you guys are shopping at an outdoor mall, drinks in your hand and he’s carrying most of your guys’ purchases in one hand while the other is being swung by you. You’ve got big doe eyes as you look at every store, until you turn around, and flash him the biggest smile. “Want some? I’m almost out!” You’d say as you thrust him the drink. He’ll smile, a flash of pearly whites greeted you as he nodded and said a small “yeah,” before wrapping his lips around the straw.

@hajimeshon-ee menace, baby. it’s obviously gonna be iwa for you. big beefy to help you fight people who are being assholes. those same beefy arms that pull you in from behind- your back against his front. LOTS OF FUCKING FOREHEAD KISSES. ESPECIALLY WHEN YOURE POUTING TO HIM. sorry I don’t make the rules. He honestly thinks you’re the cutest thing, your fire matches his and sometimes actually stumps him to where he has no retorts. He likes to help you with your work sometimes, like when he sees it’s a bit too overwhelming for you, he’ll wordlessly sit down and take some of the papers that have been scattered across the table. Later you take the time to show him how grateful you are, wether it’s through a night where he gets to choose what both of you will watch or.. other things... he’ll appreciate every single second.

@kuroosusagichan meeeellll <3 business man kuroo is summoning you on his lap, he can’t focus unless you’re with him!! Oh GOD the dynamic Between you two makes me lightheaded!! Okay so idk is this is obvious but like dude has a size kink- not just sexually though. It’s like a cute AND sexy thing for him. Dude just loves how tiny and soft you are. But don’t get it twisted, he’s not completely fooled by your innocent act- you’re a clever little minx sometimes, but most of the time youre just the sweetest person. You’re like the angel that holds him back from being an asshole. He likes himself better when you’re around. Oh but he’ll also call you chibi-chan. Period. OH YEA! loves it when you show up to his place of work- no matter how swamped he is, he’ll always make time for his little sweetheart. You like to visit when you saw he was visibly stressed in the mornings, you bring him little things taht make him smile like his favorite iced tea or your a sweet lil cookie. He’ll make you stay with him for the rest of the day, doing your own separate things but also being in each other’s company relaxes the both of you.

@scorpiomoonslutt hey bitch, you needy lil whore <3 it’s gotta be Ushijima for me. Your size kink is just.................... thrown in his face and my god he’s living. You make him realize things he didn’t even think were possible- but anything is possible with you, apparently. The way his eyes go WIDE when he hears you SNAP at people. He had no idea that someone so small.. could shut someone up that fast... especially when it’s someone almost twice her size. He actually doesn’t even know how to react when the other person leaves, there’s wayyyy too many things going on in his head. He’s proud, impressed, turned on, curious, but most of all- speechless. He kinda... wants to see you do that again.

@dymphnasprose dymphna !! kyoutani!!! It just makes sense!! big angri boy needs parts on the head from a saint, such as yourself. He knows you’re not looking to fix him- which is why he allowed himself to open up to you. You love him just the way he is and it almost drove him a lil nuts. I could see the breaking point now- just before you two would get together. He would be yelling at you, screaming things like “how could you possibly like me ?” At first he wouldn’t let you get close to him but after several steps that never budged when he neared you, he gradually let you touch his heated skin. He was breathing heavy, trying to put together how someone so wonderful could be interested in someone who was so angry. I just feel that you would cup his face and whisper, “I like you because you’re you- it doesn’t matter who I am in comparison to you. I like you, taro.” There would be no need for gushy details, that alone opened a small part of his heart to love- throughout the years, the opening continued to grow and grow. He would be someone who just!! Loves you!!! And hates the rest of the world <3 idk I just love it jdbsjnd

#fawn talks <3 #moots: shipped !#fawn’s friend (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵)#thank you anon♥︎

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oh-boy-me · 4 years

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Idk if you’ve ever talked about it before, but how does Mammon speak in Japanese? In the translation, he speaks kinda rough and casual (maybe a bit of a southern USA flair? he uses y’all once or twice iirc) Does he have a particular accent or dialect in the OG text?

Oh, Mammon might be hard to break down, but I’ll see what I can do!

So I don’t think Mammon has any particular accent, per se? I think he’s just very informal.

From what I’ve noticed, Mammon’s speech is characterized by informal phrasing and some phonetic changes. I don’t think it goes into any actual ヤンキー (”delinquent youth”) territory, but I might be wrong as I don’t have any experience with that subculture. Regardless, it’s pretty rough, and very informal.

The following example sentences all come from the phone call where he cancels your plans (I think it’s intimacy 25?), his home screen dialogue, and the current Halloween event.

And this time more than any before, Japanese is not my first language and I have never lived in Japan, so if you find anything incorrect about the content below, please let me know so I can fix it.

---Informal Phrasing---

Japanese has lot of different ways to say the same thing with varying levels of politeness. Mammon tends to use (one of) the most direct ways of saying things.

It’s important to remember though that a lot of these “direct” things are characteristic of male speech in general, and I won’t go over those. Mammon says やつ (guy, basically) to refer to others sometimes, but so does Lucifer. Likewise, it’d be weirder if he didn’t use the dictionary verb form most of the time. There might be some that I describe even though they aren’t particularly unique to Mammon, because I’m not an expert on masc-coded Japanese.

悪い！！ (warui)

(Phone call) This literally means “bad,” but in this context it’s “my bad” or “sorry.” It’s a rough way to say it, rougher than ごめん (gomen), which I know Levi says off the top of my head, and すまない (sumanai), which I know Lucifer says.

If you need to apologize in Japanese, I think it’s best to stick to すみません (sumimasen) or ごめなさい (gomenasai) to avoid accidentally coming off as too rude or too stiff.

許せ！！ (yuruse)

(Phone call) This means “forgive me,” but like. As a command. A pretty demanding one at that. An example you’ve probably heard is when a man yells やめろ (yamero) to make someone stop what they’re doing.

その時は何があっても予定を空けろよ！ (sono ji wa nani ga attemo yotei wo akero yo)

(Phone call) Here’s the imperative again. 空けろ (akero) is the command form of 空ける (akeru), which here means to clear your schedule (予定 is schedule). The よ (yo) at the end softens the command a little. The sentence means “At that time, no matter what you’ve got going on, clear your schedule!”

A softer way to say it would be 空けて (akete), and even softer would be 空けてください (akete kudasai). I’m pretty sure Mammon isn’t the only character to use the imperative like this, but he’s certainly uses it a lot.

館中の掃除を言いつけてきやがって…… (yakatachuu no souji wo ii tsuketeki yagatte)

(Phone call) You can tag やがる (yagaru) onto a verb to show your contempt for someone’s actions. You hate that they did something. Like most of these, it’s pretty harsh. The sentence means “He had the nerve to order me to clean the house,” but with the strength of やがって, “He fucking ordered me to” might be closer in attitude.

近いうちにまた誘ってやるから (chikaiuchi ni mata sasotte yaru kara)

(Phone call) If you read the Levi post, you might remember that やる (yaru) is a more colloquial way to say “to do” than する (suru). It’s also a more colloquial way to say あげる (ageru), “to give.” It used to imply that the recipient was on equal or lower standing with you, but I don’t think that’s really the case anymore except for how it’s not really a polite phrasing. Attached to a verb, both あげる and やる imply a favor is being done. This means “I’ll invite you out again soon before long, so”

---Phonetic Shift---

In general, the most common phoneme shifts in Mammon’s lines are cutting the middle and monophthongization. Cutting the middle is a term I’m making up for the sake of this post and is exactly what it sounds like: lengthening the first syllable in place of the next ones. Monophthongization is when a vowel made of two sounds (diphthong) is pronounced as one sound (monophthong). In the case of rough Japanese that we’re working with, that usually means <ai> and <oi> turning into <ee>.

そのなんつーか…… (Sono nan tsuuka......)

(Phone call) つーか (tsuuka) is short for というか (to iu ka). You can see how “to iu” assimilates to “tsuu,” especially if you say というか a few times fast. なんつーか/何というか means “How should I put it?”

だぁっ！わーったよ！！ (Da-! waatta yo)

(A Devildom Halloween, 1-3) わーった (waatta) is from わかった (wakatta), which means “I get it.”

そりゃ傑作だぜ！ (sorya kessaku daze)

(A Devildom Halloween, 2-16) そりゃ (sorya) is a shortened それは (sore wa), “that is.” Also, I’m not sure where else to put this, but ぜ (ze) is a very strong assertive particle that I don’t think many people actually use anymore irl. The line is “That’s a great joke!”

すっげースピードで鞭とんでくるんだけど！ (suggee supiido de muchi tondekurun dakedo)

(Phone call) Here we start the examples of monophthongization, which is probably the worst word you’ve had to read in a while but I promise is the easiest phonetic concept to understand here.

すっげー (suggee) comes from すっごい (suggoi), which means either amazing or terrible, depending on the context. Like I said before, <oi> often simplifies to <ee> (the second “e” is written either ー or え). The line means “The whip’s gonna come down real fast.” すっげー is emphasizing the speed.

By the way, やばい (yabai) also means amazing or terrible, based on context, and can be changed to やべー (yabee) in the same way. Mammon’s said that before too, but I don’t think it’s in my example pool.

あー…金降ってこねえかなー (Aa... kane futte konee kanaa)

(Home screen) This time, the negative こない (konai) turns into こねえ (konee), with the same <ai> --> <ee> shift. This time, it got written as ねえ instead of ねー. This is his “wish it’d rain money” line, and the translation is basically the same.

うるせぇ…… (urusee)

(A Devildom Halloween, 2-13) うるせぇ is from うるさい (urusai), which means “shut up.” This time the second え is the smaller ぇ!

おっせえよ。俺を待たすんじゃねえ (ossee yo. ore wo matasunjanee)

(Home screen) We’ve got two here, with 遅い (osoi), late, turning into おっせえ (ossee), and 待たすな (matasu na) becoming 待たすんじゃねえ (matasunjanee). Putting んじゃない where a な would normally be makes it a rough-sounding command. And then the ない turned into ねえ like tends to happen with Mammon.

The line is “You’re late. Don’t keep me waiting.”

気安くさわんな！ (kiyasuku sawanna)

(Home screen, UR+ animation) This could possibly be in the first section too, idk, but. The general way to say “don’t touch me” is 触らないで (sawaranaide), and a more casual way to say it is 触るな (sawaru na). Mammon takes it a step further, and drops the る to say さわんな (sawanna). Levi uses the 触るな style, so I assume Mammon’s style is pretty noticeably informal.

他人の為に何か買ってヤンなきゃならねぇんだ！ (tanin no tame ni nanka katte yannakya naraneenda)

(A Devildom Halloween, 2-13) やらなきゃならない (yaranakya naranai), is already a pretty casual way to say “have to.” Mammon’s version uses the same んな as the last line, turning やらなきゃ into ヤンなきゃ (yannakya). Also notice the switch from hiragana to katakana, which is often used to convey the conversational tone. And then ない once again becomes ねぇ! The line is “Why do I have to buy something for someone else?!”

And last but not least... そうだ、殿下。　言い忘れてた (souda, denka. ii wasureteta)

(A Devildom Halloween, 2-23) This line means, “that’s right, your highness. We forgot to say.” Why is this one last? Mammon says this line to Diavolo. From what I’ve seen it’s about the same level of politeness that Lucifer uses when talking to Diavolo.

It’s worth noting though that Lucifer and Mammon both speak casually to Diavolo.

So this isn’t organized at all, but I hope this gave you an idea of how Mammon’s idiolect ended up giving him a distinct one in the localization!

This is always a hot topic with Mammon’s portrayal as a POC character, so I need to say that I don’t know enough about Japanese subculture and language codes to say anything for sure about whether this makes him sound “uneducated.” Impolite, definitely, but “uneducated,” I don’t know. Regardless, the connotation definitely exists in how he’s written in English. And with that I’d like to remind everyone that your idiolect says nothing about your intelligence. Don’t judge a person’s worth by how many big words they use.

#obey me #obey me translation #obey me mammon

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victorscribbles · 4 years

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Tagging 10 accounts (peeps) who i support and love and all those good vibes~

Okay so i have seen this appreciation post going around and sweethearts tagging me in them but im always to afraid that im annoying people with reblog chains so her we go ( with appropriate memes for everyone cause i suck at the art of the writing language )

First @madllamamomma

who i look up to so much and who i hope can feel my appreciation radiating over seas. Honestly after 22 years finally having the courage to create something for a fandom and being welcomed with open arms by the person whoes writing and art got me into interacting with the fandom. A blessing. I love you , i love rhemi, i love your writing i love your art your personality- thank you for being my friend 💗

Okay now that im done being a simp for llamamom here are the beans i haven't had as much interaction with (because im social inept 👉😎👉) but who live in my heart rent free

@autum-the-apprentice

My dude my bean. Honesty if i see muriel it just turns in "okay but where is the complimentary autum ?" I love your drawingstyle so much. You are such a fun person. Thank you for all your love and support and im ready to give it back 200%

@mirablake-likes-cats / @artemis-flora

Also another sweetheart who has such a lovely apprentice. I had an idea for a short comic with her in my drafts. Thank you for all your love and support (and relatable memes u repost on your main. I feel)

@poetic-emptiness-fanfic

For all the support you give me. Im alway so happy when i see you like my stuff. I loved reading your fanfics and i love Hande ! Cant wait to see more of your stuff !!!

@syrisart

Your art is amazing thank you for being so supportive and strong ! I saw you got a bit sad the other day but just seeing how many peeps were ready to cheer you up just shows how such an amazing person you are that deserves all the love you get. I hope the pregnancy goes smoothly.lots of love !

@another-blue-blog

For being such a kind soul. For randomly sending wholesome memes in chat. Makes me want to reach through the screen to hug u. They really make my day.I love your oc's and how detailed they are a smootch for everyone of them !!!!

@mcarcanageek

Bruh my adoration for u , h u m o n g o u s. You are such a fun person! And also one of my biggest supporters im always so happy to see u in my notifications. You are so supportive of everyone and tari is an absolute bean i love her

@nontae

Thank you so much for all your support ! Honestly i would love to interact with you more cause you seem like such a sweet person and your apprentice is absolutely gorgeous. Im giving smootches , respectfully uwu

@softarcana

Thank you so much for being my first follower!! You are such a positive person and i adore your writing! I would love go get to know your apprentice katt better :3

And lastly we have @move-im-vesuvian-thirsty

We have had no interaction whatsoever lmaooo but i just love ur posts with a passion you fuel my inner valdemar stan ily bich i never stop loving u biiiiich

Okay sorry for the long post but if i have an opportunity to give y'all wholesome vibes i grab that chance with both hands and a foot

#bruh tumblr deleted the whole post before i could post it so sorry if some seem rushed 😭#y'all a bunch of cuties smh

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chanoyu-to-wa · 3 years

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Nampō Roku, Book 6 (13.1; 13.2): Concerning the Mukō-ro [向爐]; and Mukō-ro no Mitsu-gumi [向爐ノ三ツ組].

13.1) With respect to the mukō-ro, because everything must be placed within the confines of a half-mat, eliminating the yū-yo [有餘] from either the front or the back will result in numerous difficulties. When [we consider] the placement of the daisu, in accordance with this great law, [we see that the presence of] these yū-yo are essential to defining the extent [of the space that may be used for the arrangement of the utensils]¹. This is the most extreme example².

13.2) [Ri]kyū, in the case of this mukō-ro, placed the chaire in front of the mizusashi, and then always carried the chawan out [at the beginning of the temae], and so prepared [tea]³.

The chaire might also be placed on the tana⁴.

Nevertheless, there is also the case where three objects are grouped together, as [shown] below, in the manner indicated -- we should try to be very tolerant of [this sort of arrangement]⁵.

◎ Mukō-ro no mitsu-gumi [向爐ノ三ツ組]⁶.

[The writing (on the drawing itself) reads: mizusashi (水サシ).]

The kaki-ire [書入]:

〇 In the case of the mukō-ro, a large-sized mizusashi should be used⁷. Because it comes into contact with two yang-kane, [this situation is referred to as] kuguri-kane [クヽリカネ]⁸.

Nevertheless, when [arranging the utensils as] mitsu-gumi [三ツ組], since -- as [shown] in [the sketch] -- both the chaire and the chawan contact yang kane, there is no problem with using a small mizusashi so that the utensils contact successive kane⁹.

You should make an effort to sort out these different matters carefully¹⁰.

〇 If [the host is using] a small mizusashi, then [the mizusashi] should always contact a yang-kane on the right or the left. It should always contact both a yang- and a yin-kane¹¹.

〇 At a night gathering, because a te-shoku [手燭] will be placed between the ro and the mizusashi, it would be better if the mizusashi is moved toward the right¹².

_________________________

◎ This entry is rather long, and contains three drawings and their comments, so I decided it would be best to divide it into two posts*.

Meanwhile, this section, and the three entries that follow (which include five important sketches that illustrate the ideas of kane-wari which form the backbone of the Nampō Roku), were not included in Kumakura Isao’s Nampō Roku wo yomu [南方録を読む]. __________ *In their respective commentaries, Shibayama Fugen and Tanaka Senshō opted to divide this material into an even larger number of entries -- to prevent the ideas presented in one section from confusing the arguments associated with the subsequent parts (since they are often irrelevant -- indeed, several of the kaki-ire have no connection with the sketch to which they were appended).

¹Daisu no oki-kata, taihō wo motte kono yū-yo wo kiwamerare-shi koto [臺子ノ置方、大法ヲ以テコノ有餘ヲキハメラレシコト].

Taihō [大法], which means a great rule or law, refers to the rule that was enunciated in the first sentence -- to wit, that the arrangement (including the temae-za) should be entirely confined to the space of a half mat.

Kiwamerare-suru [極められする] means to reach a limit or extreme. In other words, the daisu set the limits on how much space is needed for the arrangement; and, since this all fits within a half-mat, it thereby established the law that is being considered here.

When the daisu is arranged on the utensil mat, it is placed 4-sun 5-bu from the far end of that mat, as has been described before in the Nampō Roku. The ji-ita of the daisu measures 1-shaku 4-sun, as is also well known. Subtracting these from 3-shaku 1-sun 5-bu (which is the length of half of a kyōma tatami) leaves 1-shaku 3-sun, which is the diameter of the largest tray that can be used with the daisu -- the dai-marubon [大丸盆].

Historically speaking, whether it was this tray that ordained that the daisu should be placed 4-sun 5-bu from the far end of the mat, or whether the location for the daisu was fixed first (perhaps because, at that distance from the folding screen that enclosed it, a spark erupting through the rear hi-mado of the kimen-buro would not cause any damage), and thereby limited the size of any tray that would be placed in front of it to 1-shaku 3-sun, is not clear from the oldest records. (Indeed, the fact that originally trays of a size that would keep the utensils confined to the space originally defined by the shiki-shi [敷き紙] seems to lend credence to the second of these possibilities.)

²Mottomo shigoku no koto nari [尤至極ノコトナリ].

Shigoku no koto [至極のこと]: shigoku [至極] means extremely, exceedingly, most. Adding -no-koto turns it into a noun, meaning the most extreme (example).

In other words, as explained above, nothing larger than the dai-marubon can be placed in front of the daisu, so this arrangement pushes the possibilities to their limit.

³Kyū kono mukō-ro ni te ha, mizusashi no mae ni chaire oite chawan ha kanarazu hakobite taterare-shi na nari [休コノ向爐ニテハ、水サシノ前ニ茶入置テ茶碗ハカナラズ運ビテ立テラレシナ也].

Kyū [休] is, of course, the usual abbreviation of Rikyū's name.

Taterare-suru [立てられし], in the context of chanoyu, means to prepare the tea*. __________ *It literally means to stand up. In the modern tea world, it would be written with the kanji ten [点 or, in older books, 點] -- taterare-suru [点てられする]. However this latter form only appeared in the Edo period, and is anachronistic with respect to documents written in Rikyū's day (even though more than a few modern renderings of writings from his period are guilty of this interpolation).

⁴Chaire tana ni okare-shi koto mo ari [茶入棚ニ被置シコトモアリ].

This practice is described in the Tsuri-dana no densho [釣棚の傳書] that Rikyū wrote for Nambō Sōkei (c. 1582 or 1583).

⁵Shikare-domo mukō-ro no mitsu-gumi mo hidari no gotoku sadame-okaru, yoku-yoku kanben subeshi [シカレトモ向爐ノ三ツ組モ左ノゴトク定メヲカル、能〻勘辯スベシ].

Hidari [左の如く], “like what (is shown) on the left” refers to the sketch (which follows these comments). On the left, because the memorandum was written from right to left, in the usual manner.

Sadame okaru [定め置かる] means “this is how (the utensils) should be placed.” (Sadame [定め] suggests that this is illustrating a rule or law.)

Kanben subeshi [勘辯すべし] literally means “(you) should be excusing of (this).” In other words, in light of what was said about Rikyū's preferences* -- specifically, that he always brought the chawan out from the katte -- displaying the chawan on the utensil mat along with the chaire might strike the reader as being wrong. While Rikyū probably would have frowned upon this practice, it is nonetheless a fact that many people of his generation preferred doing things in this manner -- as the wabi equivalent of the way the entire set of utensils was displayed on the daisu.

Furthermore, since it was a rule that, in the wabi setting, the host should endeavor to limit his trips between the temae-za and the katte as much as possible, displaying the chawan on the utensil mat would potentially limit his trips to one (bringing out the koboshi as he made his first entrance). Thus, the question of whether to display the chawan may be seen as a sort of trade off between these two two conventions.

In Rikyū's case, the argument that finally won out seems to have been his aversion to anything even remotely suggesting of display -- as can be seen in his eventual creation of the mizuya-dōko [水屋洞庫]†, which allowed all of the utensils to be kept from view until the beginning of the temae. Because, even if these things were pieces of no worth or merit whatsoever, placing them out in the room beforehand still includes a nuance of display, no matter how strongly the host might argue against this interpretation. __________ *Rikyū did not entirely prohibit the display of the chawan in the small room. But he allowed it only when the chawan itself was extremely important (for example in the class of arrangements known as chasen-kazari [茶筅飾], which was sanctioned only when using things like one of the chawan that had belonged to Shukō). The configuration of the present arrangement suggests, however, that the chawan in question is not such a piece.

†A clear distinction between Jōō’s original dōko [洞庫], which was derived from the ji-fukuro [地袋] of the fukuro-dana [袋棚], and Rikyū’s mizuya-doko [水屋洞庫] which, as the name implies, should be regarded as being equivalent to the mizuya.

So, while it was permitted for the guests to peek into the dōko (just as it had been the rule that, at the beginning of the shoza and goza, the shōkyaku should open the ji-fukuro so that all may look inside, while the last guest should close it up again), in the case of the mizuya-dōko, everyone but the host was forbidden to open its door (just as it was a rule that, while they might go into the katte under certain circumstances, the mizuya was absolutely off limits to everyone except the host and his assistant).

⁶〽Mukō-ro no mitsu-gumi [向爐ノ三ツ組] is used as a sort of title for the illustration (and its small collection of kaki-ire [書入]).

============================================

In the system employed in the Nampō Roku -- which is based upon the machi-shū way of arranging the utensils on the ji-ita of the daisu (the mizusashi was moved backward, so that its far side was more or less in line with the shaku-tate and back of the furo), the 1-shaku 8-sun space (from the front of the 2-sun yū-yo to the front edge of the 5-bu yū-yo) is divided by five lines (corresponding to the five kane -- though in the original system promulgated by Rikyū there is no precedent for this). This group of machi-shū was the one that followed Imai Sōkyū (which is why variations on this system are found in the teachings of the Sen family schools).

The mizusashi is centered on the fourth cell from the front, as shown below (meaning it is more or less in line with the back side of the kama).

In this system, rather than being associated with the line that extends across the front of the mukō-ro, the chawan and chaire are associated with a line running 1-sun beyond that -- which results in inconsistencies regarding the yū-yo that runs in front of the ro. (Even though that yū-yo is still defined as being 2-sun wide, in this system, the actual “unused space” is 3-sun -- implying that this system was, indeed, created after the fact, and as a way to explain away things that the person who proposed this system did not understand).

In this episode we can perhaps catch a glimpse of how these kinds of secret teachings developed: there is an idea that was based on an orthodox understanding that, after an unforeseen event like Rikyū’s death, was imperfectly understood by the people into whose hand the stewardship of chanoyu passed -- in this case, the idea that the space to the right of the ro is supposed to be divided into horizontal bands, which, of course, comes from the shiki-shi. But without information regarding the details, and no recognition of the shiki-shi, and acting on the premise that the kane were an arbitrary system concocted by Rikyū (based on whatever sort of understanding that he may have gleaned from his time with Kitamuki Dōchin), the same kind of system is used to fill in the blanks, resulting in confusion that branches off on a tangent, becoming farther and farther from the truth as time goes by (in the commentaries, this kind of division of space into tiny units is not limited to the temae-za or even the utensil mat, but expanded to cover the entire room, into which several hundred years of speculation has been poured without an inkling of where or how this whole system started, or where it is going). This is a good example of the sort of explanations that appeared during the Edo period.

============================================

⁷Mukō-ro ha mizusashi ō-buri wo mochiiru-koto [向爐ハ水サシ大ブリヲ用ルコト].

Mizusashi ō-buri wo mochiiru-koto [水指大振を用いること]: ō-buri [大振] means a large mizusashi, that is, one that is 6-sun in diameter or more. According to Rikyū’s densho, during the ro season, the mizusashi should be large enough so that it will provide sufficient cold water for use throughout the day*.

Mizusashi, of the sort ordered by Jōō for use on the fukuro-dana during his middle period, measuring 6-sun in diameter, are the kind that are being considered here†. __________ *So that it will not need to be refilled later.

During the season of the ro, the ro is supposed to be set up at dawn, and hot water kept always ready until the tearoom is closed for the night. The mizusashi is, likewise, supposed to be filled at dawn, and kept in readiness until the end of the day. If it is too small, and the host is called upon to serve tea, there might not be enough water left in case he decides to serve tea again later in the day. Because the ro was, from the first, associated with the use of chanoyu as a sort of meditative training, the host must always be ready to serve tea again, even if nobody had been invited.

Each time the lid is removed, more dust can potentially fall in, contaminating the water even more. Furthermore, each time the water is transferred from one container to another, there is a risk of transferring dissolved dust along with it (since it is nearly impossible to clean any container at the end of the day so that no dust will remain -- if only as a result of the lint that comes off from the towel when the mizusashi or mizu-kame [水甕] are dried after being emptied at night). Since the mizusashi is not taken to the well, the water it contains will have already been transferred once. If it becomes empty and more water has to be added from what was saved in the mizu-kame (the large water-storage jar that is kept in the mizuya -- usually to provide water for cleaning the utensils before and after they are used in the tearoom), this may entail transferring water from the mizu-kame into a mizu-tsugi, and then pouring it from the mizu-tsugi into the mizusashi -- with the danger of adding more dust each time.

For this reason, Rikyū taught that, when the ro is being used, the mizusashi should always be as large as possible.

†Larger mizusashi had also existed since the early days (some of which were made for use on the o-chanoyu-dana [御茶湯棚], while others had been made for serving rice, or for use as washing basins, in the temples), but these will be considered later.

⁸Yō-kane futatsu kakarite kuguri-kane ni naru-yue nari [向爐ハ水サシ大ブリヲ用ルコト、陽カネ二ツニカヽリテクヽリカネニ成故ナリ].

Kuguri-kane [潜りカネ, 潜り曲尺] means that an object crosses at least two yang kane. When it does so, it (and anything associated with it) is considered to be yang -- for the purposes of kane-wari.

⁹Saredo mo mitsu-gumi ni suru-toki ha, kaku no gotoku chaire・chawan yō-kane naru-yue, mizusashi chiisaku de mo tsuzuki no kane ni naru kurushikarazu nari [サレドモ三ツ組ニスルトキハ、如此茶入・茶碗陽カネナルユヘ、水サシチイサクテモツヾキノカネニ成不苦也].

Because the distance between the kane on a kyōma tatami is 4-sun 9-bu 1-rin 6-mō [四寸九分一厘六毛]*, a mizusashi smaller than this is what is indicated. In Jōō's and Rikyū's day, a small magemono-mizusashi [曲物水指] with a lid 4-sun 9-bu in diameter was available for just this purpose†.

Tsuzuki-no-kane [續きのカネ] means that objects occupy successive kane. In this case (as shown in the above sketch) the chawan occupies the first yang-kane, the chaire occupies the end-most yang-kane, and the small mizusashi rests on the yin-kane in between these two (without touching either of the yang-kane).

Kurushikarazu nari [不苦也 = 苦しからずなり] means‡ “without difficulty;” “it is not a problem.” __________ *Yon-sun ku-bu ichi-rin roku-mō [四寸九分一厘六毛]. Mō [毛], which means a body-hair, is the smallest linear unit of measurement. 4-sun 9-bu 1-rin 6-mō [四寸九分一厘六毛] is (approximately) 14.8975 cm. The diameter of the mizusashi, therefore, must be at least slightly smaller than this.

†When an extremely small mizusashi is used -- and, depending on the number of guests, as well as the size of the kama -- if it is not necessary to add water during the temae (for fear that the kama will be in danger of running out), then the host may eschew doing so until the very end of the temae. At that time, the tiny mizusashi is opened, and two hishaku of cold water are added to the kama.

In this case, before making usucha, the host should take a full hishaku of hot water from the kama, hold it for several seconds above the mouth of the kama (so it will cool a little), and then pour the water back in -- to bring the shō-fū [松風] sound back to the kama before dipping out the hot water for the bowl of usucha.

While a magemono-mizusashi is described above, small ceramic vessels (most of which were actually made as serving bowls -- such as small kashi-bachi [菓子鉢]) -- were also used as mizusashi in this way. These tiny mizusashi usually have lacquered lids (because they were not made as mizusashi).

‡More literally, the expression kurushikarazu means “it is not a hardship;” or, “it is not painful.”

¹⁰Kayō no koto yoku-yoku bun-betsu subeshi [カヤウノコト能〻分別スベシ].

Bun-betsu [分別] means division, fractionation, differentiation, distinction, classification, segregation, and so forth.

Various and disparate points have been mentioned in this first kaki-ire, and they are not necessarily always associated with each other in the practice of chanoyu. Thus, the reader is advised to consider each of the assertions carefully, and compartmentalize them for use, if and when needed, later.

¹¹Chiisaki mizusashi naraba, sa-yū izure ni te mo yō-kane ni kakaru-yō ni shite, in to yō kakaru-yō ni subeshi [チイサキ水サシナラバ、左右イツレニテモ陽カネニカヽルヤウニシテ、陰ト陽トカヽルヤウニスベシ].

This means that if the host is using a mizusashi that is too small to touch two yang kane, then it should be arranged so that it contacts the yin kane and one of the yang kane. (In the sketch shown below, the mizusashi contacts the yang-kane on the left; in the sketch under footnote 12, it contacts the kane on the right.)

According to Shibayama Fugen, this is done when (as shown) the chaire is displayed on a tana; and the reason for the mizusashi’s being arranged in this way is so that it will count as yang.

This kaki-ire has nothing to do with mitsu-gumi, or the sketch that is part of the original entry.

¹²Yo-kai ha te-shoku wo ro to mizusashi no ma ni iri yue, hidari-za [h]e mizusashi yoru ga yoshi [夜會ハ手燭ヲ爐ト水サシノ間ニ入ユヘ、左座ヘ水サシヨルガヨシ].

A yo-kai [夜會] is a gathering hosted after dark.

Hidari-za [h]e [左座へ], “toward the left seat,” means it is moved toward the right*.

Yoru [寄る] means to approach. In other words, the mizusashi is moved a little toward the right, so as to make room for the te-shoku, as shown in the above sketch†. __________ *As has been explained before, in the Nampō Roku, the objects displayed on the far side of the temae-za are considered to be facing toward the host. Thus, the host’s right side faces the left seat.

†While I have shown a small mizusashi, the same thing can be done when using a larger mizusashi.

——————————————–———-—————————————————

◎ I had wanted to make the following point in the last post, but, with the rush that the length of that post engendered (so it would be ready for publication on time), it completely slipped my mind.

With respect to the board that is placed on the far side of the mukō-ro, the Nampō Roku states that it should be 2-sun 5-bu wide.

However, during the summer months, this board was cut into two pieces -- one 2-sun wide, and the other 5-bu wide. The smaller board was placed between the ro and the wall, while the wider one was placed in front of the ro. The reason (as has been explained previously in this blog) is that, when the mukō-ro is so close to the furosaki-mado [風爐先窓] -- the window that is opened in the wall at the end of the utensil mat -- the fumes will be exhausted directly through that window. (When the ro is moved farther away from the window, however, the fumes will be drawn across the room, to exit through the bokuseki-mado that is located in, or beside, the tokonoma.)

My reason for mentioning this board is because a certain amount of confusion exists in the modern schools, with many of them stating that this board should always be 2-sun wide, or even narrower (some argue for 1-sun 9-bu, while other schools even reduce it to 1-sun 6-bu) -- even when the board is placed on the far side of the ro.

This argument (which first arose in the early Edo period) seems to have come about when the 5-bu wide board used during the summertime was confused with the baseboard (which is also 5-bu wide) that is inserted between the edges of the mats and the wall (this board keeps the grass mats from coming into direct contact with the mud-plaster, since otherwise dampness present in the walls would communicate directly to the matting, causing them to molder). This, however, is wholly a matter of misunderstanding, because the 5-bu wide board has nothing to do with the baseboard. Nevertheless, when one of the previous generations of tea masters made a mistake (such as this), rather than correct the error, subsequent generations continue to perpetuate the error (and usually become exceedingly aggressive when it is pointed out to them).

It is unfortunate, because, ultimately, the deviations between Rikyū's teachings and what is taught and done today can, by and large, be explained in exactly this way.

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the-fixation-zone · 4 years

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Here it is! Chapter 4 of The Boys Crack Open a Cold One and It’s an Underground Crime Organization! Art, as always, by @queenspinoodle, by courageous co-writer. Like, reblogs, and comments appreciated :)

Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Three days later and Zucchini is still pissed off. How dare Sock walk away from him! Zucchini had stormed around the city for a long while after Sock had disappeared, fighting against burning the whole place to the ground. All he’d wanted was a little clarity, and Sock had flown off the handle! That’s Zucchini’s job, dammit! Now Zucchini is sitting in his tent, fuming. For the past three days, he’d been off during rehearsal, to the point that yesterday Pepper had told him to go home early.

“We’ll try again tomorrow and hopefully your head will be screwed on better,” Pepper had said with a disappointed head shake.

Zucchini hates disappointing Pepper. So now he is in his room, trying to do as asked. It’s not going well. The latest attempt finds Zucchini trying to study new runes, hoping to use them to further enhance his bending, but after an hour gives it up and tosses the book aside. His mind is still on Sock, replaying their conversation over and over.

Was he in the wrong? Did he say something out of line? He’d apologized! His uncle had always told him that the first step to forgiveness was a good apology, but maybe his hadn’t been good enough.

He sighs. Zucchini is still angry, but he thinks maybe he should look for Sock to try to talk to him again. He hates to even think it but he’s starting to miss him. He leaves his tent, determined to find Sock and work this out.

For his part, Sock is gloomily stitching up a torn decoration on his circus costume. He hasn’t bothered going inside his tent to do it, instead opting to sit outside under the cloudy sky. No one else is around to see him sew and, honestly, the weather fits his mood.

He still feels attacked by Zucchini's comments, but his anger has long faded. He’d spent the last few days being plagued by memories of the hard times, fighting to keep his overcast disposition from Katt and Baaang during rehearsals. He’s not sure how well he did. He’s found himself roaming around the circus encampment at night, ruminating. Even now, stitching up his costume, his mind is a million miles away. His hands are on autopilot, which is why before long he pricks his finger on the needle.

"Ow!" He sticks the tip of his finger in his mouth and sets his costume to the side. Firmly back in the present, Sock glares down at the needle. It’s his own fault, but it feels good to lay the blame elsewhere.

Zucchini is wandering around outside, thinking about where Sock could be, when he hears an exclamation that he’s sure belongs to Sock. Not knowing if he’s in trouble or not, Zucchini rushes over to the source of the sound.

“Sock? Sock! Are you okay?” Zucchini sees him, sitting outside his tent with his costume and a needle and thread in hand. By the time he realizes Sock isn’t being attacked it’s too late and he can’t take back his question.

Sock looks up wide-eyed, with his finger still in his mouth. He quickly pulls it out, realizing he probably looks silly.

"Uh, yeah. I'm fine." Sock grabs his stuff and moves to get up. He's sure Zucchini is still mad at him, and isn’t in the mood for another fight.

“Hey, wait! Don’t--don’t go. I, uh, was looking for you.” Zucchini looks at the ground, feeling awkward now that he’s actually in front of Sock. He kicks a stray pebble.

"...Oh. What do you need?"

“Well, I, uh, um. I wanted to. To apologize, again. I’m not sure what I said to make you so angry, but I wanted to try and make it right. If you’ll let me?” Zucchini doesn’t mean for the last part to come out like a question, but his nerves tilt his voice up anyway.

Sock sighs. "It's not your fault."

“Okay… Are we good then?” Zucchini desperately wants to know what was up, but he also doesn’t want to pry. He feels like if he asks Sock will get angry again, and he’d rather that not happen.

"Yeah, sure," Sock’s voice still lacks enthusiasm. "We're good."

Zucchini picks up on Sock’s mood but doesn’t know what to do about it. He’s never been good with...feelings, and it doesn’t seem like he’ll pick up the skill any time soon. Instead, he tries out a different skill: changing the subject. “Um...so! How’s sewing up your costume going?”

Sock flops back onto his seat and puts his head in his hands. How is sewing going? He’d stabbed himself because he can’t do anything right, that's how it's going! He definitely can’t tell Zucchini that, so he chooses to say nothing.

“Sock? You okay over there?” Zucchini suddenly realizes this may, perhaps, be a sore subject. “It looks good so far!”

"Thanks," Sock mumbles into his hands. He lifts his face enough to look at Zucchini.

“If it makes you feel any better, I don’t know shit about sewing. This is miles better than anything I could ever do.” Zucchini grins sheepishly. “The best I’ve ever done with needles is a crappy patch job on some old trousers. My sister laughed at me over it for weeks.”

"I didn't know you had a sister." Sock brings his hands back down.

“Oh, yeah. Younger sister. We’re not what you would call...close.” Zucchini makes a face.

"Ah." Sock nods. An uncomfortable silence soon falls over them. Sock taps his foot, unable to sit still with the awkward tension.

“Your sister seems nice, though! Katt, right?” Zucchini remembers her name just barely. “What’s she like?”

"She is pretty nice, at least most of the time. She does tend to think she knows better than everyone else, though. It's pretty annoying."

“Huh. She sounds...pretty normal, actually. Lucky you.” Zucchini grins, trying his damndest to break the tension.

"I'd say she's the luckier one,” Sock says promptly. Then, realizing how that sounds, quickly adds, “not that I’m saying I'm the better sibling, that's not what I'm saying! Well… I am the better sibling, but that's not the point…"

Zucchini laughs. “Uh huh, no, please, go on.” He raises his eyebrows in expectation, grin now firmly plastered across his face.

"I'm just saying that because I'm here, she doesn't have to worry about so many things while she's still young. That's all."

“Oh. That’s, uh, good.” Zucchini has no idea what he’s talking about. “I don’t think my younger sister has worried about anything, ever. She causes the worry if anything.”

Sock hums softly in response. "I hope Katt never does have to worry. I hope I can be here for her, at least until Baaang can take care of her." He stares off into the distance.

Zucchini, trying to parse through Sock’s meaning, says the first thing that pops into his head. “She can’t take care of herself?” He then realizes that maybe that’s a rude thing to say and tries to backtrack. “I mean--! Um, that’s not what I meant. I’m...not sure what I meant but I’m sure it wasn’t how that sounded.”

Sock chuckles. "I understand what you mean. Katt can take care of herself, I know that, but she should never have to."

“I...see. Fair enough, I guess. You’re really protective of her, aren’t you?”

"Of course! She's my baby sister! It’s been my job to protect and provide for her since I was 13."

Zucchini, continuing his streak of speaking without thinking, asks, “What about your parents?”

Sock looks down. "Our mother died."

“Oh. I’m...I’m sorry.” Zucchini almost doesn’t want to ask, but he’s come this far. “And...your dad?”

"...I don't know."

“You don’t know? Did he run off somewhere?”

Sock throws his hands in the air. "I don't know!"

“Got it, got it! Sorry I asked. So, you’ve been raising Katt on your own then, huh.”

"Basically."

“Wow. That must’ve been hard.”

"Yeah. It was."

Zucchini can hear the conversation taking a turn and tries to steer it somewhere better. “It...it looks like you did a good job, though, even with the tough circumstances.”

Sock smiles sadly at Zucchini. "Thanks."

Zucchini sits on the ground next to Sock, thinking about what to say next. “So, uh, you sew? I don’t think I knew that about you.”

"Oh. Yeah, I can. It’s whatever." Sock picks up his costume again, but doesn't start working on it. He’s ready for whatever Zucchini will throw at him next. If he has to get up and walk away again, he will.

“That’s really cool! I can’t do anything like that. Seems my hands are made for destruction, mostly.” Zucchini laughs a bit. “Could you...teach me? I think the circus’ seamstress is getting tired of seeing me all the time.”

Sock stares wide-eyed at Zucchini. He thinks sewing is cool AND he wants to learn? He waits a beat for the punchline but, when none comes, he scrambles to his feet, heading for his tent. "Oh, um, sure. One sec…" Sock enters his tent, emerging a few moments later with another needle and a piece of scrap fabric.

“Great, thanks.” Zucchini eyes the fabric. “So, what do I do first?”

Sock instructs Zucchini on how to thread the needle. This takes some doing, especially since it seems Zucchini’s depth perception is off. Sock tries a few methods of teaching, finally landing on something that works for Zucchini, with plenty of words of encouragement. After he gets the hang of it, Sock starts showing him how to stitch. He grabs his costume to demonstrate, sewing a neat line of stitches from one end of the other.

Zucchini isn’t very good at this. He follows along with Sock, trying to get the hang of it, but his hands fumble over the tiny needle and he sticks himself a few times. Maybe more than a few times. With quite a bit of cursing thrown in. Not to mention, by the time he finishes up his line it’s nowhere near as neat as Sock’s. “You make it look so easy!”

"Sorry?" Sock says with a laugh.

Zucchini sighs loudly. “Argh! Okay, show me how you did that again.”

Sock holds the needle carefully between his thumb and forefinger. He pushes it into the edge of his costume's neckline, pulling it through the other end. With the same precision, he takes the needle back around and pushes it in again, just next to the first stitch, doing that a few more times until a seam starts to take shape. He makes sure to keep himself calm, focusing on the needle’s path.

Zucchini tries again, attempting to mimic Sock’s demeanor. Unfortunately, calm and collected isn’t Zucchini’s style, and he stitches another crooked line through his fabric. “At least it can be recognized as a line this time…” He shakes his head. He tries again and again, his lines zigzagging across his fabric.

Sock recognizes Zucchini’s struggle and reaches out to rest a hand on his shoulder. "It takes a while. Don't force yourself to learn faster than you're able to."

“Yeah, alright.” Zucchini snorts and puts the fabric down. “It’ll take me years at this rate, I can feel it.”

"Here, let’s try this a different way." Sock disappears into his tent, coming out with another scrap of fabric. He threads the needle and brings the fabric down to where Zucchini can easily see it. He holds out the needle for Zucchini to grab hold of, but doesn’t let go.

Zucchini, blinking in surprise, puts his hand on Sock’s holding the needle. He’s not sure what Sock’s plan is but is willing to trust him.

Sock, with Zucchini’s hand on his, pushes the needle through the fabric and grabs the other side of it, waiting for Zucchini to do so as well before pulling it through. He takes his time, going slower than he normally would to make sure Zucchini doesn’t rush. Zucchini still fumbles with the small needle at first but, eventually, they find a rhythm.

Zucchini stares at the neat line of stitches they’ve made together. “Oh, you were right. This is much easier. Thanks.”

Sock smiles brightly. "You’re very welcome!"

Zucchini realizes he’s still effectively holding Sock’s hand and pulls his own back quickly. “I, uh, I think I’ll try again now.” And he grabs his fabric and starts another line, eyes very focused on his task. He tries to go as slowly as Sock had, taking deep breaths when he feels his agitation growing. While he’s doing that, Sock finishes up the seam on his costume, and neatly folds it.

Zucchini finishes his stitches and puts the fabric down. They’re not perfect, but certainly better than what he’d made before. Proud of his work, he pulls out his pocket sundial and checks the time, shooting up once he reads it.

“Oh, shit! I’m about to be late for rehearsal, Pepper’s going to kill me! Sorry Sock, gotta run, but thank you for this!” He jogs away, taking the scrap of fabric with him and heading for the practice tent.

Sock watches him run, tilting his head as his eyes follow him. "Huh. Not bad."

#the boys crack open a cold one and it's an underground crime organization #atla au #zukka au #the zukka is coming along!#zuko #sokka #prince zuko #sokka of the southern water tribe #fix writes with friends #fanfic

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madonna-of-meridian · 4 years

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30 days of WITCHversary

Day 11 - Something awesome

Okay, a big PRAISE to the German dub on this one. As some of my followers, who read all my extra long tags, already know – yes, I’m from Germany and therefore watched W.i.t.c.h. in German. And this is actually the good thing about it – non-english speaking countries (that have enough money to spend on film industry) put a LOT effort in dubbing movies and tv shows. Germany is one of those countries. As far as I know the two European countries whose film/movie dubs are know as the best are Italy and Germany and it SHOWS.

Because I am a language nerd, I often do switch languages on my DVDs for fun and tbh when it comes to the guardian’s voices in the English dub of W.i.t.c.h. I was like SO disappointed? Like, a lot of changes (Taranee speaking with Cornelia’s voice at times etc.) and also pretty lame acting? I remember Taranee having an eel in her shirt in episode 3 and the English voice actress did..not deliver at all? While Marie-Luise Schramm, who voices Taranee in the German dub, is like F*CK THERE IS SOMETHING HELP ME AHHHHHH. But actually she is like that the whole time, she has got sm Taranee spirit it’s awesome. Also, Blunk’s German voice was so funny and CUTE while the english one was simply..funny? But idk the german voice feels sm more in character same with Caleb who sounds like a 12 years old in the English sub xD. So enough bitching about the English sub who has it’s good things too (like phobos and Cedric are awsome in there!)

So, long story short – I love the German dub sm! (I also love some other dubs and maybe will do a post about other good dubs too at some point). So while I will save our two evil bad boys for a later day, I’m gonna list up the 5 guardians with their voice actresses now and tell you why they are so good (and I bet now everyone stops reading lol.)

Will: Magdalena Turba

Okay, let’s start with a voice I am nearly always annoyed of because I first noticed her as Will and she therefore stays Will to me. As I said before, I am by far no fan of show!Will and I think things would have been better if Will had a cuter voice in the German dub? But on the other hand Magdalena’s voice is very fitting: she is confident and strong and also catches Will’s bossy moments very well.

Memorable roles: She is also the German voice actress of Amanda Seyfried and I still connect my childhood with Magdalena because she voiced Cera in the A Land Before Time movies (BEST CHILDHOOD MOVIES EVER FIGHT ME).

Irma: Esra Vural

She was sm Irma it is not even healthy anymore xD I once read an interview with Esra in which she said how much she enjoyed voicing Irma and you really FEEL that when you hear her. She got all the emotions so right as if she really was the character herself.

Memorable roles: Another very Irma-like character she voices was Clawdeen Wolf from MH. She is also the German voice actress of Ashley Tisdale. (And now compare a Sharpay Evans to Irma Lair – NO similarities and still she got both characters on point!).

Taranee: Marie-Luise Schramm

Oh, my baby! She makes Taranee such a cute sweetheart. She really catches Taranee’s nervous personality in all the little scenes so well. I think I am more a fan of her acting frightened than the brainy part because the first one makes Taranee sm human if that makes sense? She has got her flaws and still keeps on fighting. And Marie-Luise catches those emotions very well imo.

Memorable roles: Toph Bei Fong from Avatar (also MY GIRL) but she does sm stuff

Cornelia: Anna Predleus

Now, while Cornelia has got a mature voice in almost EVERY dub, the German dub was like: Hell no? She’s the shopping girl? She’s blonde? She needs a high voice. But..it works? Like people complain that Cornelia was too much of a bitch in the show, agreed but she still has got a brain and is still very mature and smart? I mean being a shopping girl doesn’t automatically make you dump. I guess they made Cornelia that way in the show because she was pretty unlikeable in the comics – especially in the first issues. So in the show she might have been bitchy but at least she still was FUN lol. So that is why I like Anna’s voice as Cornelia, yes it is no deep voice but it still fits the character in a different way. I also really liked her acting when it came to Elyon’s situation.

Memorable roles: Especially from my childhood: Gemini Stone from Sabrina – The animated series and Gina Lash from Angela Anaconda xD

Hay Lin: Carmen Katt

Now, she is the only one which I only connect with Hay Lin. Her voice was pretty high and “airy” but still might seem more mature than in other dubs. She really got the weird character of Hay Lin very well and I really like how she feld inside the character if that makes sense? Like, Hay Lin always got that little side-kick quotes and Carmen wasn’t simply reading them out but putting a lot Hay Lin spirit and it - is a bit like in Irma’s case – she really WAS Hay Lin. Like, she was the whole person, all emotions all states Hay Lin went through were on point. Be it her being very enthusiastic about being a guardian, or doing her art stuff or being hopeless in s2 when Yan Lin becomes brainwashed by Nerissa. I love her sm, my little baby girl. (Yes, I LOVE HAY LIN WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT THAT).

Memorable roles: I just looked her up and was like WTF she voiced Cleo de Nile (fhjdjsjlskl) from MH and RIAS GREMORY IN HIGHSCHOOL DXD xD and also Raven Queen in Ever After High. Lol, this women has got talent.

And last but not least I want to talk about ELYON

Elyon: Julia Meynen

Omg, she was SO on POINT. I know, I said that before but Julia as Elyon OMG. I really LOVE how she got the emotions of the lost and angry Elyon in episode 01.14 Parent’s Night. Like, she can go from super friendly and cutesy to absolute terrifying mad like she is in 01.23 when confronting the guardians. She plays Elyon from the nice bf of Cornelia to the brainwashed princess and Julia played is so believable. Again, I use the word emotions here a lot, but Julia’s job as Elyon really gives me goose bumps.

Memorable roles: As for my childhood I’d put here Honoka Yukishiro from Pretty Cure and Sunburst from Barbie: Magic of the Rainbow and also Mami Tomoe from Puella Magi Madoka Magica.

Of course ALL voice actors if W.i.t.c.h. are GREAT and I will come back to this topic on day 19 xD

And now, everyone who read till here but a heart in the comments xD

#30daysofwitchversay #w.i.t.c.h.

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thefinalcinderella · 5 years

Text

Tsurune Book 2 Chapter 1-Two People, Travelling Together (Part 2)

In this chapter: A bit of Kazemai, a lot of Kirisaki, a lot of exposition.

This part was long.

Glossary here

Full list of translations here

Transation Notes

1. Tenugui Shibori=手ぬぐいしぼり (lit. hand towel squeezing). Hannen Hanjaku= 半捻半弱 (lit. half twist, half bind). This refers to the thing where the right hand twists a little inwards, and the left thumb presses into the right side of the bow as much as possible. (probably got this wrong but I can only stomach so much kyudo terminology)

2. Akahon (lit. red book) refers to a set of university entrance exam preparation workbooks published by Kyogakusha. They contain past exams and are extremely popular.

3. Four and a half tatami mats is about 2.73 m × 2.73 m.

4. A nigiri-guchi is the door to a tea hut. It looks more like a window than a door if you look at the images.

5. An andon lamp is one of those traditional paper-enclosed lanterns. See some here

6. Sen no Rikyu was a major figure in the development of the tea ceremony, particularly its simplicity.

7. A repechage is a practice in a competition that allows failed participants to have another chance to move onto the next round.

Previous | Next

The sky in the breaks of the rainy season was blue, and the chirps of little birds could be heard. The exhilaration from placing his hands on the kyudojo's door never disappeared no matter how many times he did it. A different dimension that suddenly appeared in the world of school. Minato liked that.

The Kazemai High School Kyudo Club was working hard at practicing for the regional tournament that was drawing near quickly.

Seiya changed into his hakama and took off his glasses. The hidden mole next to his right eye became exposed.

"I was surprised when you brought Shuu home with you yesterday, Minato. Did he call you after?"

"He said we should practice together once summer vacation starts. Will you come too?"

"Of course I will, but you know what he said when he saw my face? 'Why are you here?' What rudeness towards his former teammate. I'll punish him next time."

"That's because you couldn't stop talking about soccer. Shuu was really hungry, you know. He even fell asleep on the return bus. Didn't he often fall asleep on the bus on the way back from trips in middle school?"

"…He never slept even once when he sat next to me. Probably not just with me, but next to anyone."

"Was that how it was?"

"Shuu's a charismatic guy with a lot of pride. Everyone shrinks when they're in front of him, or rather, they humble themselves, so it might be that he can become plain around you."

"I just thought he was a normal guy except for being really good at kyudo."

"Your sense of normal is paralyzed."

Hearing their conversation from next to them, Ryouhei leaned on Minato as though he was about to ride on his shoulders.

"I wanna try talking to Fujiwara-kun too. He's super cool. I wanna shoot like that too."

"Ryouhei, you're too heavy. Why are all the guys with big bodies who are next to me randomly leaning on me? Alright, you come shoot with us too, Ryouhei."

"Really? Yes! Fujiwara-kun uses a yonsun-nobi bow (233cm) too, right?"

"Yeah, it's rare for a high schooler to be taller than a hundred and eighty centimeters. People with big physiques probably have their own troubles, so Shuu might be able to answer anything we don't know about."

Kaito, changing next to them, turned to them with a sharp gaze.

"You guys, don't get all friendly with the enemy. Don't relax just because Narumiya got a kaichuu at the prefectural finals."

"Even if you call him the enemy, he's still my bow friend, and even you would think that it's educational to watch a skilled person shoot, right, Onogi?"

"If you want a guy who's tall and shoots well, then don't we have a coach named Masa-san here?"

"Masa-san and Shuu shoot differently. You can't know who would suit Ryouhei better."

Kaito and Minato calling each other by their first names was for only a moment of that competition, and they had once again returned to addressing each other by their family names.

There, they heard the sound of "Merha!"

Nanao peered at Kaito's face while a big grin appeared on his face.

"Geez, Kacchan, you're so shy. Just honestly say, 'I'm also interested in Kirisaki's Fujiwara. Why don't you invite me too? Invite me, invite me!'"

"Na-na-o. Don't make stuff up."

Nanao stuck out his tongue.

The five finished preparations and began practicing in the competition format.

Kyudo was done in "close-distance" (kinteki) and "long-distance" (enteki), and what Minato and the others were doing was a close-distance competition. They were competing for the number of arrows that hit the kasumi-mato with diameters of thirty-six centimeters from a distance of twenty-eight meters. The regional tournament would have teams of five and four arrows to each person. They would be shooting a total of twenty arrows within a time limit.

"Zasha" was the case of shooting after kneeling in the kiza position at the "shooting line" (shai), then turning to the wakishoumen, and then standing and doing ashibumi. The case of shooting by doing ashibumi while still standing at the shooting line was called "rissha." The left and right hands were called the "yunde and mete" or the "oshide and katte," and the eight-step process of shooting an arrow was also named. It was called the "Shahou Hassetsu."

The Shahou Hassetsu were as followed.

First, ashibumi: Spreading the feet, and making the correct posture for shooting.

Second, douzukuri: Placing the bow on the left thigh, and placing the right hand on the right hip. At this time, "tsurushirabe" and "noshirabe" are also carried out.

Third, yugamae: Taking the bowstring with the right hand ("torikake"), arranging the left hand ("tenouchi"), and viewing the target ("monomi").

Fourth, uchiokoshi: Raising both hands holding the bow and arrows upwards. There is "shoumen uchiokoshi" and "shamen uchiokoshi."

Fifth, hikiwake: Parting the raised bow evenly to the left and right. There are three ways to do this, one of which is "daisan."

Sixth, kai: The state of completing hikiwake.

Seventh, hanare: Releasing the arrow.

Eighth, zanshin: The position after releasing the arrow.

The first archer—the oomae—Kaito spread his feet widely.

He was holding two arrows, a "hitote." He nocked one of the arrows, and held the other one with the pinky and ring finger of his right hand.

Taking the string with his right hand and arranging his left hand, he then gently raised his two fists up to the same height. He pushed his bow, drew his string, and parted his bow left and right equally, and then made his arrowhead approach the center of the target. In order to not be defeated by the restoring force of the bow, he stretched vertically by stretching his spine and stretched horizontally by tensing his left and right arms. His arrow went towards the target along with a loud tsurune. "Alright!" The girls cheered.

Following Kaito, Ryouhei, Seiya, Nanao and the very last archer, the ochi, Minato each shot an arrow in that order, and the results after finishing with twenty shots were 4:2:3:3:3, a total of fifteen hits.

Tommy-sensei and Masa-san stood before the five.

"Although you are all restless with the gap between the prefectural and regional tournaments is closing, keep this up."

"Yes, sir!"

Tommy-sensei's smile widened at Ryouhei's energetic response.

"Improving your shooting form is not about trying to not think about hitting. In order to make your arrow fly straight, it is less deviating to draw with your whole body rather than the tip of your hand. "

"Ooh, I see."

"The fundamental form of kyudo takes the form of the 'tateyoko juumonji,' which consists of a combination of the vertical axis made up of the feet, hips, backbone, and neck, and the horizontal axes made up of the shoulders, arms, elbows, and hands. I want you to think of the Shahou Hassetsu that explains the method to create the fundamental form, so to speak, as a routine for hitting turned into a law."

"By routine, do you mean like the series of movements a baseball player must always carry out in the batter's box, sir?"

"That's right. Many etiquettes and behaviors may have begun with someone's routine that others copied, made into laws and rules, and spread."

"As expected of Tommy-sensei, he knows everything."

"Oh no, I was actually only speaking irresponsibly."

"Irresponsibly? What do you mean?"

The kyudojo instantly calmed down at Ryouhei's spacey reply.

Tommy-sensei put effort into teaching Ryouhei. Kyudo's close-range competitions had a hitting system where points already gained from previous rounds counted, so a one-hit reversal could not be hoped for. There was no way of victory other than each person making sure to not miss.

Masa-san called Minato to the makiwara equipped with a mirror.

"You were sort of twisting your right elbow a lot today."

"Oh, I was just trying to imitate Shuu's shooting a little."

"'Shuu'?"

"Kirisaki High's Fujiwara Shuu, my former teammate. I met with him unexpectedly at Saionji-sensei's house the other day."

"Do you mean Saionji Kazuyoshi-sensei? Another big name appears. Do you know him well?"

"He's mine and Shuu's first kyudo teacher. Although he is elderly, he also said that if I was able to stand before the targets for club, it would be better to not have two teachers, though I was taught by him until the end of my first year of middle school."

"For five years, he's a legend who's never missed a shot in an official setting such as a competition or a ceremony. Now that you mention it, Fujiwara's shooting form might be similar to Saionji-sensei's. A skilled archer calls it a 'tenugui shibori' or 'hannen hanjaku,' where the left hand rotates clockwise, and the right hand adds a hineri contrarily to that." (1)

"I want to try doing that too. At prefecturals, I was told by a sensei from somewhere to try doing hineri a little bit."

"In your case, your right hand is stronger, and when I look at you from the side, your bow is not straight, but tilted backwards. Also, you're wearing a supporter, but does your left wrist still hurt?"

"I don't know if there's a dull pain, or if it didn't get any worse but not healing at all."

"When you draw a bow, you hurt your left wrist when you bend it. Try watching your zanshin in a mirror. Do you see? Your wrist gets folded at the moment of hanare."

"I didn't notice that at all. Why do I do that?"

"I've told you a million times. When you miss, it's generally your left hand that is weak."

"Do you mean tensing my tenouchi's little finger? I was planning on doing that, though."

"Planning on doing it is no use; you don't do it at all. Don't add more tasks for yourself. Do what I tell you to do first. If you don't fix your habit, the more you shoot, the more you will hurt your wrist."

"Got it."

"Who's your kyudo master now?"

"Huh, …Tommy-sensei and you, Masa-san."

"That's right. Don't add anything extra from anyone else except for me."

What's with that? What's with that?

You didn't have to say it like that.

Recently, Masa-san was harsh. There was a frustration that couldn't be embodied, even though he understood it in his mind. A worthlessness.

Minato rubbed his left hand.

Tap, tap. Multiple matooto resounded.

"Alright!" The reverberating cheers indicated that Kirisaki High School was a powerhouse school.

However, Senichi's heart did not clear up. That was because Manji, who was always behind him, was not there. Manji was at the makiwara more than anyone else, doing nothing but practicing to prolong his kai.

A practice match participated in by the archers was being held on this day, and Kabashima occupied the third archer's position, replacing Manji who had been out of form in the prefectural tournament. After shooting four arrows in two sets, the match ended with thirty-two hits out of a total of forty shots.

Shuu and Senichi set down their bows and sat next to each other. Shuu took off the glove, "yugake," protecting his right hand, exposing from beneath a shitagake (underglove) with a purple pattern dyed onto a white background.

"Shuu, you changed your underglove? That's a nice pattern."

"Yeah, the dragonfly is said to be a winning insect, so it's a design preferred by warriors."

"Where'd you buy it?"

"I got it as a one-month late birthday present."

"Oh?"

The underglove, used for protecting the deerskin yugake from things like sweat, was mainly made of cotton, and there were many who were picky about thickness and shape of the cloth. White was recommended for examinations and the like, but there was an abundance of colours and patterns, and it was also an unseen enjoyment for archers.

On the advisor's signal, they dispersed and it was decided that they would stretch target paper over the frames (matohari). They removed the papers that were full of holes and repapered the frames with new target papers.

The club president, Motomura, spoke.

"After peeling the paper, please clean the frame with a scrubbing brush and water, then dry it."

"Motomura-senpai, Sase-senpai. The third-years should leave already, since we will be doing it afterwards."

"Thank you, Senichi-kun. But please allow me to repaper the targets I use, at least."

"Is that so? Then, please feel free to do it."

The target frames became chipped and cracked when arrows just barely hit the target, and were completely worn down.

While they waited for the washed frames to dry, they prepared the target papers and the under-papers. They cut Kraft paper into circles that were a size bigger than the frames, then made cuts at the edges with scissors. This same treatment of edges was applied to the target papers as well.

Motomura held a brush and coated the back of the papers with glue with practiced movements, and then other people quickly stuck them on the frames. They affixed the under-papers and target papers in that order, then arranged them so that they didn't overlap in order for them to dry. There would be wrinkles on them right after they finished sticking the papers, but after they dried for a while, the papers would automatically stretch and finish as neat-looking targets. The sight of the large number of targets lined up together was quite impressive, and it felt good to look out over the renewed targets.

Senichi, separating from everyone else to wash his hands, whispered to Manji.

"It's so amazing for Motomura-senpai and the others to do matohari, even though they're third-years. And, doesn't Shuu seem kinda down today?"

"That's cuz he lost the prefecturals even though he had by far the greatest number of hits, so it's impossible for him to cheer up right away. Even I, who rarely gets depressed, still can't break free from the hayake damage yet."

"It's not that, he's calmer than usual, or rather, mellower."

"I don't think he changed that much."

"So what was that urgent business of his yesterday?"

"Who knows? He'll tell us if we ask."

"We can't ask now. Aren't you frustrated? Someone who isn't us cheered Shuu up while we were unaware of it."

"Isn't that good? I thought that I haven't heard his voice a lot lately."

"Yeah, that's it. That's what I noticed too. I thought that Shuu seems to give advice to everyone, but he actually only answers questions, and he has never given advice of his own accord. Since no one, including me, asked Shuu questions lately, he doesn't need to talk."

"I feel like Shuu isn't very interested in other people. The only person he pays attention to is Narumiya from Kazemai High…"

Senichi and Manji first knew Shuu at the individual competition of the middle school prefectural tournament.

It was shocking. That there existed a boy the same age as them who was such a skilled archer.

The two boasted of having the highest hitting rates in their club, but the moment they saw Shuu shoot, they prostrated themselves before that overwhelming strength. For that reason, they asked an unreasonable favor of their parents and chose Kirisaki High School instead of a local high school. Unless they overcame Shuu, they were no match for the national finals. They thought that they would get close to him and steal his skills.

However, that intention vanished right after they enrolled.

Shuu was the Young Noble.

Without mentioning his good-looking appearance and a robust physique that surpassed those of others, someone who also had a sharp mind, an ancient and honorable pedigree, and a personality where he didn't self-deprecate as well as act conceited, was faultless and beyond reproach. As they continued to watch Shuu shooting from nearby, they were charmed by him more and more. How could he move his body so precisely? His shots were so unparalleled in their accuracy that one could think that there wasn't even one millimetre of deviation. It was worthy of being called a superhuman feat.

However, with Shuu missing the final shot at the prefectural tournament, they became aware of the pride and the heavy pressure of those who stood at the top. He missed, and yet his face did not crumble. Even now, he couldn't forget those empty eyes in his smiling face.

How embarrassing. The him who only stood next to Shuu and praised him. He was a cheap, insignificant existence.

Shuu was the "solitary" Young Noble.

There was no one here at Kirisaki who Shuu acknowledged, who stood next to him. There were no comrades for him.

"Sen-nii, you worship Shuu too much. Leaving that aside, keep me company for my hayake prevention training."

"Yeah, okay."

Manji wasn't as engrossed in Shuu as Senichi was. The brothers always spent the same amount of vigor and fire, but the time for separation might be approaching.

The two were going on their own paths.

"Manji."

"What is it, Sen-nii?"

"I'll move on from fast-shooting too. I'll definitely turn you back into a regular."

"…Yeah."

"I'll stop worshipping Shuu too."

"Yeah, that's good."

After they finished changing, they left the kyudojo.

There were almost no students left. Senichi and Manji returned to the dorms, but Shuu headed towards the bus stop by himself.

Senichi faced Shuu.

"Shuu, do you want to eat together after?"

"Sorry, my homework is piling up."

"Then, then, we'll see you off at the bus stop."

Senichi continued to talk as he walked.

"Hey, Shuu, do you have a brother?"

"What's with this all of a sudden? I have a sister who's a lot younger than me."

"What's your favorite food?"

"Takoyaki."

"Really? That's a bit surprising."

"To be precise, I like Japanese food in general."

"What about hobbies?"

"Open fires. When I watch a swaying flame, I strangely calm down."

"Calm down…"

He realized that Manji was panicking next to him, saying, "Sen-nii, Sen-nii, what are you doing!?"

This is hopeless. This is like a mixer or a marriage interview.

Senichi pulled himself together, and then revised the content of the conversation.

"Shuu, you could tell me and Manji apart from the very beginning, right? With which part do you usually do that?"

"Which part? I could tell immediately because your colours are different."

"Colours? No way, you can see the colours of people's auras?"

"I mean the personal characteristics, the features of something. The presence that exudes from a person, like facial expressions, mannerisms, thinking, actions, and so on. Well, before colours, you two have completely different faces. Sen looks more mature."

That's right. Shuu had never lumped us together as "the twins."

Even though we're twins, he recognizes us as separate people.

When the bus approached, Shuu turned away from them.

"Shuu. Will you watch my shooting tomorrow?"

"Okay, if you don't mind me doing it."

"I'll watch your shooting too. I'll immediately know the spots where you're different from usual. I watch you shoot every day, at any rate."

"…Yes, that's true."

Shuu turned around and placed his hand on Senichi's shoulder. This was the first time Shuu touched one of his teammates himself.

Shuu, wait for us.

We won't end up as just followers.

Senichi ran to the dorms, with Manji chasing behind him.

Kirisaki High School was not a boarding school, but there were many who lived in the dorms.

The Art Deco-style building was used as a vacation home and was remodelled, becoming a structure that was quite luxurious for a building that was intended for students.

Motomura's and Sase's room was the dorm leader's room, located in a corner of the top floor. The trees and high sky could be seen from the window, and there were not only writing desks and beds in the room, but also a sofa on which one could lie down. Of course, Sase's favourite idol, Noririn, smiled neatly and cleanly from atop his desk.

When Sase returned to his room, he first sat down on the right end of the sofa. That was because there was a window right next to it, and it was the best place for sunlight to shine in during the daytime, and moonlight during the night. For Motomura as well, the figure of his roommate there was strangely comforting.

Motomura took the position of dorm leader in his first year of high school. The dorm leader was chosen each spring from the residents by a majority vote. Usually, it was the oldest third-year who took the position, and was replaced every year, but the dorm leader at the time recommended and approved Motomura on a whim, and it continued on like that without him getting replaced. It seemed to be a very unusual situation.

And, the dorm leader was able to designate their roommate. The one he had always designated was Sase.

When Motomura first entered middle school, he had felt out of place in class. To give an example, he might have felt like a Japanese exchange student at a public school. Among his classmates who had to carefully think about how to treat a boy who was already brimming with refinement at a young age, Sase was the one who talked to him proactively. Sase loved idols, but he himself had idol-like qualities and a personality that was not bashful.

A young family head and a refreshing sportsman (who was an idol otaku on the inside). This slightly strange duo both chose the kyudo club for club activities, became friends, and that was how it was to this day.

Motomura sat next to Sase. He straightened his back and opened his notebook.

"Motomura, when's Kokutai?"

"October."

"It'll be a while, then. Even though you've been doing the qualifiers since January."

"That's right."

"Will you be okay? You have your parent-teacher meeting, so give your chores to me."

"Yes, I would have asked you even if you had not told me to."

Being a third-year in high school also meant preparing for university entrance exams. Many people retired from their clubs, not just the kyudo club after the prefectural tournament in June, went into exam preparation mode. There were not many who still continued their club activities, and they feel an anxiety all the same. The Interscholastic Athletic Meet, also known as the "National Tournament (High School Generals)" was in August, and the National Athletic Meet, also known as "Kokutai," was in October. It was not easy to sustain motivation.

Motomura and Sase were no exception. The two considered public universities and well-known difficult private universities—in other words, going to Tokyo. They had to decide their future course according to their situation from now on. A strong preparedness was needed to balance studying for exams and athletic activities.

Sase was said to be strong when it mattered, and he himself also thought that, but in fact it was different. As long as he was not someone who shot a hundred hits, he would have ups and downs. Sase was able to bring along with him the highest, best positions of those waves to when it mattered, in other words, to important days. Motomura watched Sase and learned to read his own waves and assemble a schedule.

"Motomura, rub my feet."

Sase threw his feet onto the sofa. With a "good grief" look on his face, Motomura pressed his thumb to the arches of his feet.

"Ooh, I'm in heaven. While you're at it, could I have you rub my calves too? Owww, your nails are cutting into me!"

"It's good that Senichi-kun and Manji-kun are working very hard, isn't it. I want to cheer them on."

"Those two are always glued to Fujiwara's sides. The former synchro twins are now the 'symmetrical twins.'"

"Don't you think Fujiwara-kun is such a waste? There should have been an invitation to enter the Kokutai qualifiers for him as well. You can participate Kokutai boys' division from the age of fifteen. They should not have ignored him, who was the champion for the overall individual competitions."

"He's still a first-year, so he doesn't have to rush, right?"

"We don't have a lot of time left. While knowing that we were getting busier and under a lot of pressure, we took on the tournament. I do not want to do things by halves."

"Right."

Sase put his feet back on the floor and patted Motomura's knee. Upon that, it was Motomura's turn to put his feet on the sofa. Massaging each other was a daily routine for the two of them.

Motomura was thinking.

That he might be pretending to devote himself to kyudo.

He would like to delay choosing his future course after high school, and if possible, he did not want to choose. Even though he had managed to discover such a comfortable place, why couldn't it stay like this?

In reality, even though he had lost to the younger Fujiwara for the individual competition, he had felt almost no feelings of frustration. Instead, he had even felt cheerful. He just loved shooting a bow and was indifferent to winning, so the feeling of guilt of whether or not he should be participating in the High School Generals and Kokutai was always in a corner of his mind.

As though he had seen through to Motomura's feelings, Sase stopped his hands.

Beneath the crescent moon, a cat with golden eyes smiled.

"Well then, shall we invite our cute kouhais?"

"We must give them a pep talk, don't we?"

The two brought their faces together and laughed.

Some time later, Shuu was invited to eat dinner at the dorm, and after eating, he, Senichi, and Manji were invited to the room on the dorm's top floor.

Sase spread his arms wide.

"Welcome, to Daigo's & Hiroki's room!"

"Ooh, so cool—. It's got a good view. Wah, there's so much workbooks. Hieeee!"

"You'll do these Akahon when you're graduating." (2)

"No, I'll have to pass on them."

The five freely sat on the floor.

Even though it was after dinner, they arranged the drinks and sweets that they had brought with them and stuffed their mouths with them all at once. Perhaps to be polite, no one sat on the sofa, which had room for three people.

After he satisfied his appetite for a while, Manji looked around the room.

"Motomura-senpai, you said something like how this room is a bit different than the others, but there's nothing really different about it? It just has a wider layout and a sofa."

"Haven't you noticed? There is not enough of what can be said to be a characteristic of a corner room here."

"Not enough?"

Senichi and Manji examined their surroundings once more. They looked under the beds and opened the closets. They were about to put their hands on the drawers, but because it was quite possible that they were going to search the entire room, Sase told them the answer.

"The characteristic of a corner room is having a lot of windows. There are many cases where there are windows not only in one direction, but also on the side. But somehow this room only has a wall there."

"Wall…so there is a dead body buried in it after all…"

Ignoring Senichi and Manji, who were making faces, Motomura and Sase moved the sofa in front of the wall. After they had done that, a small sliding door, big enough to allow one person to go through, appeared at the bottom of the wall.

"Please come in," Sase said, indicating with his palm.

While the twins were deciding who was going to enter first, Shuu got on his knees on the floor, crawled and entered inside. Behind him, Senichi, Manji, Motomura, and Sase followed.

What Shuu saw was a tatami-matted floor, a tokonoma, and mud walls. The size of the room was only about four and a half tatami mats. (3)

"This is…could this be a tea room?"

"Yes. That door was a 'nijiri-guchi.' (4) This dorm was originally used as a vacation home by a British couple, so I think they likely built it by imitation. This tea room is probably the playful spirit and imagination of that couple. Although it was turned into a storeroom, Sase and I moved everything out and tried to restore it."

Regarding Motomura as the host, the five sat.

The flickering light of the andon lamp. (5)

Moonlight poured down from the high window.

"Today, we have something important we want to talk to everyone about, so we invited you here. This summer, I want all the members here to take part in the national tournament."

"…Huh?"

Senichi's and Manji's voices overlapped. The shadows on their faces darkened, and the tatami mats creaked.

"Motomura-senpai, what are you saying? We lost at the prefectural tournament. We lost…"

Manji grit his teeth, and even Shuu was infected by that pain.

It was unnecessary to search for a cause of defeat in kyudo.

They lost because Manji and Shuu missed.

The Kirisaki High School Kyudo Club's "summer" had already ended before they could greet summer.

"The name of the door that we went through, 'nijiri-guchi,' means the shuffling door. Just as that suggests, you cannot enter inside without bending to your knees and shuffling your feet. It is probably the embodiment of Sen no Rikyu's (6) ideology to favor neither those of high social status nor low, but for us, it is the door to another world. Only when you are on your knees and hanging your head can you see through to the other side."

Shuu clenched his hand.

What do our senpais want to say?

No way——.

Senichi, thinking of Manji's and Shuu's positions, raised his voice.

"I'm really sorry, senpais, but we have already moved on. Kirisaki High School will win the kyudo selections in the fall and next year's nationals, and we will report that to you."

"Aaah, so they don't get it."

"It seems so."

Sase and Motomura said, seemingly enjoying themselves.

"It was bad of Sensei to not explain it properly as well, but none of you seemed to have read the tournament main points properly. Kyudo selections in the fall? Next year? So you've set the goal of being national champions a long time ahead. Don't you have to win the regional tournament that's right before your eyes?"

"Of course we want to win. But, even if we win the regional tournament, we can't advance to nationals. Only the schools that won the prefectural tournaments can take part in the national tournament."

"That's true usually. However, this year's Inter-High is a once-a-decade commemoration tournament. In the year of a commemoration tournament, the number of participating schools will be increased, but the condition is 'regional tournament champion school.'"

Someone made a gulping sound.

"If we win the regional tournament, we can go to nationals?"

"——Yes, it's a repechage." (7)

Previous | Next

#tsurune #tsurune translation

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masterweaverx · 6 years

Text

Fools and Followers, Part 2

Part 1

“Holy crabapples you’ve had premarital sex?!” Ruby cried.

“And you’re daughter is an Atlas huntress?!” Weiss added.

“Wait if she’s seventeen, you’re not seventeen even if you look like it,” Yang realized. “Wow, you know what, I don’t even mind. If I look half as good as you at your age--”

“I am seventeen!” Blake insisted. “I didn’t even know I had a daughter! I think I’d have known if I was pregnant--and, and I’ve never even banged Ilia!”

“Unfortunately,” Ilia grumbled.

“Besides, we’re both girls. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, it’s just, how are two girls supposed to have a kid?”

“Actually,” Weiss mused, “recent developments in genetic research have proven it is possible to cross-fertilize egg cells with each other, although that would require having access to both sets of cells.” She gave Ilia a look. “Did you--?”

“No,” Ilia insisted firmly. “I wasn’t the one who did this. In fact I have records--you remember twelve years ago back when Doctor Drake was giving us a checkup and we fainted?”

“You fainted too? I thought I was the only one!”

“Yeah, it turns out Adam bribed him to steal our genetic material and make a clone.”

Blake blanched. “Okay, that is creepy on so many levels that I have no idea where to start.”

“I do!” Ruby interjected. “Who’s Adam?”

“The head of the Vale branch of the White Fang,” Blake replied. “Also... we might have... had a thing."

“A sexual thing,” Ilia said flatly.

“I was young and stupid.”

“Wait wait wait.” Yang held up a hand. “This guy steals your biomaterial, makes a daughter without you knowing, and starts dating you. I... sorry, what?”

“Yeah, I was really young and really stupid.” Blake shook her head. “I, uh... guy is crazy nuts. He hides it well but... well, let’s just say he’s basically the only reason I left the White Fang.”

Ilia blinked. “Really? I thought you loved him.”

“I was incredibly young and monumentally stupid.”

“Ah, the first crush,” Weiss mused softly. “I remember when Winter had hers... all the signs were obvious, but it wasn’t until she caught him in the middle of his job that she called it off.”

“What was his job?” Ruby asked.

“On-call rental sex toy.”

Yang snorted. “Oh, yeah, I think I remember the tabloids for that. I thought it was made up.”

“Only the part about the robot,” Weiss said with a sigh. “Thankfully it was so unbelievable everyone thought it was a hack job.”

“Can we get to the part where I apparently have an illegitimate daughter genetically engineered by my crazy abusive ex-boyfriend?” Blake managed.

“Right.” Ilia pulled out a set of papers. “I found this while I was rifling around in Adam’s documents, and... yeah, it details his whole plan for Neon. I didn’t believe it at first, and I don’t really know if it’s true, but if we can get a blood sample we can probably prove it.”

Ruby looked at the papers. “Wait, why were you rifling through his things?”

“Because Blake Belladonna decided to leave after a mission with him, despite staying on even after her parents left. That is incredibly suspicious. I thought there was some secret plan or something.” Ilia looked at Blake. “There is a secret plan, right? Infiltrate Beacon and...?”

“No, it really was just ‘Adam’s a crazy dick and he’s spreading his dickishness to the rest of the Fang so I’m going somewhere he won’t ever touch,’“ Blake explained awkwardly.

“...well, that just shatters so many of my illusions.”

“I’m only mortal, Ilia.”

“Anyway, back to the matter at hand.” Weiss cleared her throat. “What we need is a blood sample from Neon Katt. Fortunately, she is an Atlas Huntress, and therefore part of the Atlas military. Her medical records would be on file--all we need to do is access them. And we’ve recently made acquaintance with a young Huntress from Atlas ourselves.”

“Oh right! Penny!” Ruby beamed. “Yeah, I’m sure she’d be super happy to help!”

“So...” Blake gave her a look. “Call her up already.”

“Right! Yeah. Um. About that... I, uh...” Ruby rubbed the back of her head. “I don’t have her number.”

Part 3

#RWBY #Fanfiction #Fools and Followers #Ruby Rose #Weiss Schnee #Blake Belladonna #Yang Xiao Long #Ilia Amitola #April Tomfoolery

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kin-assistance · 6 years

Note

(I know this is in response to an anon from two days ago so please ignore time) Hey there! I'm an ex-kin who considers herself anti-kin and follows due to wanting both sides of the argument. Anyways, I noticed somebody wanted to know why former kin are like that and it's because of our own experiences. I don't necessarily believe that every kin is fake just because my own wasn't real. What I do believe however is that every kin needs to be careful. The reason for my kin was to rationalize (1/3)

and ignore abuse coming from my ex who basically raped me. And to use kin to hide from things like that is very dangerous to the people who are doing it and I don’t want people to continue to tolerate rape and abuse being performed on themselves because they don’t really realize it. So basically I’m against kin because so many times it can just be running away from something that is actually hurting them more.(2/3)

Sorry if it doesn’t make sense. It’s 3 AM here. Anyways, hope you guys have a great night(morning/afternoon). (3/3)

Well. For starters, I know it’s taken me a while to answer this. I had help on answering this and dealing with it properly, because every time I read it, I start getting angry. If you really wish to inquire as to why, or otherwise try to argue, please contact me on my kin personal blog, @/shadowfae - I do not want nor tolerate discourse and fighting here.

That being said, here is what @jeshire-katt, who has more experience with these sorts of issues than I do, says about this.

“My experiences with religious abuse like this took place entirely outside of the community, and honestly I think if I'd found otherkin and therian spaces that were tolerant of fictionkin back then, it just straight up wouldn't have happened. Just like anon, I was abused and raped irl, by an adult while I was a minor, and pretty much all of that was enabled by both other factors going on in my life at the time that would normally be very tempting to narcissistic abusers and a lack of good info at a time where my awakening was in full swing. I don't know how old this person is or when this occurred, but I'm willing to bet they didn't meet on an alterhuman forum or a moderated platform for alterhumans either.

Now, when the relationship ended, I tried really hard to distance myself from my alterhuman identity. My identity has been to some degree a lifelong thing, and in my case as fictionkin it's not exactly an option. So all it did was really hurt me and prevent me from getting better to not want to face those parts of myself that had been exploited. Only when I accepted my alterhuman identity did I actually start recovering. For other folks with involuntary identities I imagine it's pretty much the same: you can't ignore a vital part of yourself just because someone exploited it. You have to work through it like you do other trauma.To my knowledge alterhuman communities, and other/fictionkin and therian communities in particular, have a long history of being targeted by people with shitty intentions. This isn't unique to us, many religious spaces and metaphysical, witchy, and spirit working spaces face the same issues. But of these, only alterhuman communities have been pushed to use Tumblr as a primary platform in recent years for some reason - which is really really dangerous imo, because tumblr has no moderation to deal with an individual community's issues. Moreover, a lot of places on Tumblr has this culture where no matter what, everyone is valid. Which wouldn't be a problem if this didn't double as making it even harder to call out toxic and dangerous behavior.

And whether they want to believe it or not, trolls and antikin are adding to this issue. When you promote misinfo via trolling and just straight-up pulling shit out of your ass without talking to people who are actually familiar with these topics, you contribute to people being unable to find info that can help them, learn what the red flags are for religious abuse in a time where that information is our first live of defense and prevention, and even turn people away from it altogether. I was not the only victim of my abuser, and people who suffered at the same time I did found otherkin and didn't look into it because what they found was people mocking us. Both of those people are still alterhuman and have since learned that this wasn't representative of the community, and all that mocking did was prevent them from finding people to relate to.The best thing anyone can do to combat the abuse we faced is to spread awareness of warning signs, red flags, and to tell our stories. How did we end up in those situations? what you would want to have known in retrospect? what do you now see was a sign of things to come? Alterhumans aren't just going to go away, we've been here for a long time and will continue to be here. And for many of us, this community has been a vital, healing thing. The best option we have right now is to police ourselves while combating negativity from the outside and false information from bad actors.”

My stance on this is simply that you clearly had copinglinks that didn’t work out very well, and somehow came to the conclusion that your abuse is entirely the fault of the otherkin community at large, and that is not only incredibly wrong but also hugely disrespectful. Your abuser is the one you should be blaming, not entirely unrelated parties. While I am sorry you were abused, blaming it on us is not going to help you.

Personally, I suggest you think this all through and ask yourself how exactly you think we’re the problem, and what you could be doing instead that’s more productive and less damaging.

~Mod Lu

#discoursenekocat #abuse //#rape //

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cultofpokeshipping · 6 years

Note

why don't you ship klance?

Ok, let me start by saying that if any of my followers/mutuals ship k////e, that’s totally fine! It is not my intention to offend anyone/trash their ships. I’m just simply stating my opinion(s). Also, in general, I have NO problem with this ship and/or other LGBTQA+ pairings. Oh, and I have only seen the current Voltron, not the nineteen eighty something original.

Long dramatic sigh

The short and sweet answer is that the fandom ruined it for me, well, to be fair, a small section of said fandom. The people that were harassing the shows creators/voice actors, even going so far as sending DEATH THREATS to not only the aforementioned people, but to people here on tumblr/twitter/all social media outlets. Now, I’ve already expressed my disdain for bullies/bullying behavior, so I don’t think I need to repeat myself. I think I’ll make a separate post.

THE LONG ANSWER(S)

1. Lance ONLY views Keith as a rival. This point has been overstated since the very FIRST episode.

2. The creators visibly cringe. Seriously, go look it up.

3. Lance is still a minor (ok, this one is going to get me SO much HATE). Canonically, Lance is still 17, and Keith is 19, I KNOW THEY’RE LIKE TWO MONTHS APART BUT THE LAW DOESN’T CARE I KNOW THEY’RE FICTIONAL CHARACTERS IN SPACE LIGHTYEARS AWAY FROM EARTH AND ITS VARIOUS LAWS BUT IM STATING THE REASON I CHOOSE NOT TO HAVE THEM IN SEXUAL SITUATIONS!!!!!!! Also, yes, I am a pidgance shipper, so in a way, I am going to look like a fucking hypocrite, and I acknowledge that. Lance is turning 18 this year, and Pidge/Katie is 15 and turning 16 this year, so, using the same logic I have applied to k////e, I MUST apply it to pidgance, right? Yes and no. Remember, who I choose to ship is MY choice, as it is yours.

3. Not everyone HAS to have a relationship. PUT THE GUN DOWN AND LISTEN!!!! Ok, I ship Kallura, Heith, Sheith, AND Katt………but, lowkey, I also headcannon Keith as being aromantic, thats still on the LGBTQA+ spectrum.

Welp, thats it from me, I’m almost positive I missed a couple things, I’m open to discuss this with anyone and everyone (as long as everyone keeps it respectful, otherwise you WILL be blocked)

To reiterate; if ANY of my mutuals/followers ship k////e, I don’t hate you!!!

#voltron #not tagging ships

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goddamnwebcomics · 7 years

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Predicting Spinnerette Arcs 26-35

Everyone except very delusional people know that Spinnerette is going downhill. With it’s current asinine plots, the fact the whole comic seemed to lose it’s serious plot-related grasp after Colonel Class arc, and it’s stupid awful artstyle drawn by a guy who keeps altering the designs of characters - let’s call him P. C. Dimbleby - and actual script calls for chibi faces, things aren’t honestly looking good for the Asylum version of Empowered. But hey, Kraw’s printing money with merch involving scantily clad protagonists and porn comics that are canon so nothing’s gonna be a problem for him!

With that said, it’s pretty easy to call what he has in his mind next, and here i will predict the plot of every issue from 26 to 35. Let’s begin.

Issue 26: The Return Of Jara

It’s revealed that before Spinny, Mecha Maid dated a man who was abusive towards her and made her become a lesbian. The said man is now working in the same science lab place as Heather, and the man titled Jara - who looks like a Biff Tannen with classic P.C. Dimbleby hooknose, by pure accident runs into her. Jara grows fondness for Spinny, thinking she is single. After several irritating catcalls, Heather wants to bring Jara to comfort HER love. Heather forgets that secret identities are a thing that must be protected, and in her futile ALS form, she comes to see Jara again. Jara calls her buzzwords which are meant to make audience angry, allowing Heather to transform into Spinny and beat the crap out of him. Mecha likes it for some reason and they get away with it, because turns out Jara had been stealing scientific tools from the lab in order to make moonshine and the cops think Spinny was beating him up for that reason. Their relationship “develops” and Kraw wants to inform you he is not like most guys and he is single ladies.

Issue 27: Colonel Glass 2: Part 1

North Korea has done some nuclear tests, which pisses off America and it’s anti-superhero and anti-fun and anti-allthingsKrawlikes president Meanie D. T. Incompetent. He teams up with prime minister of Canada, who is a topical Rob Ford parody despite the fact dude died several years ago, in order to use the “superity” from the local superheroes to recreate Cherenkov-Kirby Reactor or something which could wipe N.K. off the map. However, the superheroes know MORE THAN THAT, Benjamin Franklin returns to reveal the nuclear tests are actually massive attacks performed by Colonel Glass 2. Turns out N.K. had a bodyclone of Colonel Glass in case he would die in his trip, which he did. Benjamin also tells the heroes to watch out for government who are trying to do something with “superity”, we get exposition that the first superhero that did CK reactor basically created superheroism by using his blood to create the reactor, which gave birth to “superity”, more “superity” they have, the stronger they are and so far CK Reactor is the only one that can infect being with “superity” but governments all around the world are looking for other ways to make it. Because governments are hypocrites, says Kraw as he pats himself in the back and thinks he’s about to create the next Brave New World. Superheroes get canadian superfucks to help them because of course they do.

We cut to Colonel Glass 2 doing shit, turns out he shares the memories of Colonel Glass 1, including the memories from before he died? and develops perverse fondness for Mecha Maid, he starts flying towards America as all glass around the world go haywire. Spinny, Mecha Maid, Tiger, London, Minerva, Katt O Nine Tails and Green Gable try to sneak with their supercar when Sergeant Generic notices them, he sends Noob Saibot after them. Meanie D.T. Incompetent finds out about the escapees and proceeds to BOMB THEM AND NOT CARE ABOUT CASUALTIES because that’s how politicians in real life work. Cliffhanger.

Issue 28: Colonel Glass 2: Part 2

Spinny and rest of superheroes survive the attacks and reach the Atlantic, where they bump into a weird group of rejects with really one sided personalities, one is a character meant to point out the flaws of Netflix series Daredevil which Kraw seriously thinks he could write better, other one is a friendly zombie girl and another is a quirky scene girl who licks things and a wacky running gag is that Mecha Maid finds her creepy. They reveal they are South Korean Superheroes who were almost killed by Original Colonel Glass and set up a base in the atlantic. They were before experimented with CK Reactor and therefore have more “superity” than any other superhero on the planet besides Colonel Glass 2. Meanwhile President Incompetent decides to start a war against the entire continent of Asia, considering them all “anime-watching rice eaters who did Pearl Harbour” because Kraw never puts stereotypes in his own characters. American War Fleet flies past the superfucks, and canadians and Tiger stay in the base while the SK heroes and Spinny and Mecha Maid go after them. They all get destroyed in one hit by Colonel Glass 2. Spinny, Mecha Maid and SK heroes somehow survive the blast but turns out it was INTENTIONAL as Colonel Glass 2 finds Mecha Maid to torture her. Spinny is mad. Cliffhanger.

Issue 29: Colonel Glass 2: Part 3

President Meanie D.T. Incompetent has HAD ENOUGH and demands Sergeant Generic to call some abnormal guy to help them set up the CK Reactor Weapon properly that can wipe out CG2. Because world is small, Generic calls Dr. Universe, who agrees to let past be past in face of common threat, but also wants to manipulate them into following their objectivist goals. Mecha Maid wakes up in a dark room, where she gets fed memories and other shit, that Kraw wants you to think resembles sexual harassment geddit Kraw knows your feelings Kraw understands Kraw is a friend. Bullshit happens as Spinny’s anger manifests inside him and transforms him into a giant golden spider creature, one of the SK Superfucks say “this is like Dragon Ball Z episode” and at that point you know where this is fucking going. Spinny tears inside Glass’s base conveniently and a long climactic fight ensues, ending with Glass 2 dying by thermite again. Spinny becomes normal again and wakes up in the SK fleet, where Mecha Maid is mad at her for once again murdering someone. Mecha then cries it was her own fault and crying crying crying. Dr. Universe fools Meanie D.T. Incompetent as he calls Super MILF and Greta Gravity to sex him out of working on the weapons! Ha ha! This is a serious comic!

Issue 30: Boring Prequel

This story is a prequel to the first ever case of “Superity”, which takes place in Wild West, in yet another stupid unimaginative alternate universe twist, Buffalo Bill was a superhero, and from there it’s shown how first CK Reactor was made, but the first superhero whose name i forgot is warned of “them”, who are “they”? You’ll find out soon enough.

Issue 31: Critical Analysis

Spinny has returned home with a bad feeling, and she’s got strange aches all over her body. Turns out the Friendly Zombie Girl is there to investigate upon Spinny as she reveals to her both of them are “Stanisian”, people who are full of “superity” which is just Stanisian blood, and are unable to toggle their powers off. Spinny somehow became stanisian by CK Reactor because before stanisians were only by birth only which intrigues the zombie girl. She reveals what happened in the last arc was her exposing her “Ultra Stanisian Power” which only comes into effect over strong stress. Heather also finds out Stanisians never die, as SK zombie girl was the first child of Genghis Khan. Stanisians have existed since humanity’s beginning, but only when CK Reactor was created, humans could get “superity” AKA Stanisian blood too. The reason most humans don’t know about them is because they’re the mortal enemy of “Enlightened”, perfect humans who have ability to manipulate people and are omnipotent but don’t have superpowers, Enlightened have controlled the world by their secret society - you guessed it - the Illuminati since the old times in order to wipe out Stanisians but they always fail.

First thing Spinny realizes after all of this is that, she can cure Mecha Maid by transforming her into Stanisian! Friendly Zombie Girl advices this is not a good idea because exposing a human to too much superity could kill them, and types like Heather are a rarity. Spinny can’t convince Mecha though, who just gets madder so Spinny asks help from Universe. Universe reveals he knew about Stanisians all along and he constructed CK Reactor so that he could in fact turn more people into them so that the Illuminati could be taken down. It’s revealed Ayn Rand was against the Illuminati and the infamy of the book is a pop culture propaganda. What. They begin working on it. Cliffhanger.

Issue 32: The Lesbian Torment

Adrastea and Sara NIcole meet on same jailcell, they fall in love because Sara Nicole hasn’t eaten her anti-gay bagels. Their relationship is meant to be “different” as in, “it’s same shit as Mecha’s and Spinny’s relationship, except they’re both more aggressive”. They fool the guards by making out and escape.

Issue 33: Critical Analysis Part 2:

Dr. Universe takes a bit of blood from Friendly Zombie Girl as she has finished the POCKET SIZED CK REACTOR. Then government rushes in with Sergeant Generic on helm and Universe as well as Spinny get arrested. They’re taken in front of Illuminati, who are ready to literally wipe them out of existence because oh cool Kraw read 1984 just now. Friendly Zombie Girl wasn’t arrested and Greta takes her to bite Mecha Maid, curing her by all of her fucking problems and she becomes Ultra Stanisian, saving Spinny and Universe. Illuminati finds out THE INFESTATION IS SPREADING. At this point it’s also revealed N.K. Government is actually propaganda’d as shitty dictator state because they refused to join the New World Order and is the only state ran by Stanisians.

Issue 34: War Of Minds

A kickstarted exclusive story focusing on SK Superheroes, with Daredevil potshotter dating the other. Boring.

Issue 35: Revenge of Revenge

Life has become harder for Spinny to keep double identities when Sara Nicole and Adrastea butt in to cause chaos. Adrastea wants to nuke science facilities while Sara Nicole wants everyone to like her. They nag like an arguing couple, isn’t that funny. It ends with Mecha Maid dying as Spinny cries, when she wakes up to find out it has all been a drug-induced dream and she remembers when she went to comfort Mecha Maid after Colonel Glass Arc, she threw Heather off the bed and beat the ever-living shit out of her, before she got a massive heart attack and passed away, with her last words being “I wish i never met you.” Heather wants to go back into these dreams when she finds out she’s been carried to hospital, where Sahira states that she’s been diagnozed with a rare variation of ALS that is contagious. Haw haw.

#spinnerette #blogpost

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